Access Tibet » Lhasa

It’s coooooooold in here

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:39:47 +0000

Our Lhasa tour coordinator Dayang (扎央）said, “it’s coooooooold in here”, while I am sitting here, typing this at my porch in Southern California home with short sleeves, with temperature in, I’ll say, about 20 degree Celsius.

Weather forecasts show that the temperature in Tibet will range from ten degree below zero to six degree Celsius for the next few days.

A snow storm hit Beijing on Sunday. The Capital Airport was covered with heavy snow, with only one of the three runways safe for operation, causing delays of flights to/from Beijing. There is one flight daily from Beijing to Lhasa, which was delayed for one and half hours on Sunday. Flights were resumed normal on Monday.

If you are heading to Tibet, dress warmly.

New version of Train Ticket

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:30:17 +0000

It was announced earlier that the new edition of train tickets will begin to be used throughout the country as of Dec. 10. This action is presumed to be an effect to fight the counterfeit tickets. A two-dimensional anti-counterfeiting pattern will be applied to the new train tickets to replace the original one-dimensional bar codes as a result of technological progress, according to a notice from the Ministry of Railways.

However, the date of beginning the new ticket sale is being pushed back to December 31st because of the delay of converting the computer ticketing system in the Lhasa Railway Station.

Yep, the flimsy piece of paper will finally look like what it is worth. Considering the arms and legs it costs (not money-wise but effort-wise) to land a train ticket, that flimsy peice of paper really needs some facelift to make people think it is worthwhile. Let alone the temptation to run to the local copy store to print one!

Tibet International Half Marathon

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:32:23 +0000

This year’s Lhasa International Half Marathon held on August 25, 2009 was its 4th since the inauguration but there were two cancellations so technically it was only the second time that it was held. This is the only half marathon that I am aware of that requires a physical exam, adminstered by the local organizing committee. From this semi-official marathon website: http://eng.tibet.cn/Features2009/2009lsbcmls/ , we know that it has a lot to be desired to become a real “international” half marathon. Quite a few links are missing. It is understandable that for such a high altitude marathon with limited particpants, online registration will not be available. But after reading the website, I was confused about how to proceed if I were interested. This is a great example for leaving the marathon registration to contracted adventure tour operators such as us. Unfortunately at this stage, no one is authorized to apply for Lhasa Half Marathon entry on behalf of a client except the official organizer.

I think this should be improved upon. There are no better candidates like us, who are experienced Tibet tour operators and have the passion for running to spread the words of Lhasa Half Marathon. We can truly turn the high altitude marathon experience into an ”adventure meets culture” once-in-a-lifetime experience. A couple of Access Tibet associates are experienced marathon runners with world famous Boston Marathon and LA Marathon under the belt.

Someday, I would like to take some runners up to the roof of the world!