Self-drive with rental car overland from chengdu to lhasa via G317

Day01 Chengdu – Danba Rustic Danba,Kham,Sichuan

-Danba ( It has long been acclaimed as the Kingdom of Thousands of Ancient Blockhouses. )
-Suopo Village ( They were made of clay and block and look fine from outside with solid thick walls.)

Day02 Danba – Bamei, Kham,Sichuan

-Jiaju Village ( 10 kilometers away from the county city, is one of the rare places in China that has preserved complete Tibetan style residences. )
-Huiyuan Monastery ( once the 7th Dalai Lama, Kelzang Gyatso stayed here during his Lhasa voyage. )

Day03 Bamei – Garze Kasa Lake, Kham, Sichuan

-Chaggo Monastery
-Garze Monastery ( which are mighty and influential Gelupa tradition monasteries.)

Day04 Garze – Derge Chola Mountain, Kham, Sichuan

-Yilhun Lhatso Lake ( There are lovely rocks carved with beautiful Mani Sutras by the shore. )
-Derge Parkhang Scripture Printing House and Monastery ( the largest one of its kind in the whole Tibet and is often regarded as the “Treasure House for Tibetan Khampa Culture”. )

Day05 Derge – Chamdo Buddhist Chorten, Kham, Sichuan

-Several high passes ( Khargang La (4,352 m), Lashi La (4,450 m), Jape La (4,680 m), and Tama La (4,511 m), with clutters of prayer flags waving in the wind on the peaks and friendly nomads waving at us from the grasslands. )
-Chamdo ( Tibet’s major town and the regional capital of East Tibet by the Mekong River. )

Day06 Chamdo – Riwoche Riwoche, Tibet

-Galden Jampaling Monastery ( According to tradition there were 3000 monks with Jangsem Sherab Zangpo when establishing the monastery, and some more than 2000 at the beginning of the 19th century. It was destroyed in 1912 but the main hall (which was used as a prison) and two other buildings survived, and it was rebuilt in 1917 after the Tibetan army retook Chamdo. It now houses about 800 monks.)

Day07 Riwoche – Dengchen Dengchen, Tibet

-Riwoche Monastery ( It is at an altitude of about 3,400 metres (11, 152 ft) in a fertile valley containing the Dzi River, a tributary to the Mekong River.)
-Tsedrup Monastery ( which is considered to be Tibet’s largest Bon Monastery. )

Day08 Dengchen – Sok Black Tent, Dengchen, Northern Tibet

-Shel-La (4830m)

Day09 Sok – Nagqu Sok Tsanden Monastery, Northern Tibet

-Sok Tsanden Monastery ( founded by the Mongol leader Gushri Khan in the 17th century )
-Nagqu ( the regional capital and center in North Tibet. There is a large scale annual horse racing festival in Nagqu from Aug 10th – 17th each year. )

Day10 Nagqu – Nam Tso Qiangtang Prairie in Northern Tibet

-Qiangtang Grassland ( one of the five largest pastures in China, it is not only a paradise for wild animals and plants, but also a fertile soil land rich in cultural accumulation.)
-Nam Tso Lake ( Tibet’s largest salty lake and one of the three most sacred lakes in Tibet, the other two being the Yamdrok Lake and the Manasarovar in Central and West Tibet. )

Day11 Nam Tso – Lhasa Nam Tso Lake, Tibet

-Yangpachen ( hot springs )

Day12 Lhasa Potala Palace View from Jokhang Temple, Lhasa

-Potala Palace ( the landmark of Tibet and once served as the winter residence of the Dalai Lama. )
-Jokhang monastery ( the holiest temple in Tibet, and take a walk tour on the holy Barkhor circuit. )
-Remoche Monastery ( It was originally built to house the Jowo Sakyamuni image brought to Tibet by Princess Wencheng but sometime in the 8th century the image was swapped for an image of Akshobhya, brought to Tibet in the 7th century as part of the dowry of King Songtsen Gampo’s Nepali wife, Princess Bhrikuti.)

Day13 Lhasa Norbulingka Park,the Summer Palace,Lhasa

-Drepung monastery ( one of the “great three” Gelug university gompas (monasteries) of Tibet.)
-Norbulingka Park ( the traditional summer residence of the successive Dalai Lamas from the 1780s up until the 14th Dalai Lama’s exile in 1959. Part of the “Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace”, Norbulingka is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was added as an extension of this Historic Ensemble in 2001.)
-the Sera Monastery ( one of the “great three” Gelug university monasteries of Tibet, located 1.25 miles (2.01 km) north of Lhasa and about 5 km (3.1 mi) north of the Jokhang.)