Tibet Cycling Tips

Cycling in Tibet is becoming more and more popular among young people. When cycling in Tibet, tourists can not only enjoy the beautiful natural scenery, but also enjoy the typical Tibetan village scenery. However, compared with other bicycle tours, this is a challenging journey, because travelers will ride on such an elevation of more than 3000 meters. Therefore, before you go on a plateau bike trip, you may need to know some Tibet’s cycling tips. Because you may cycle to some high altitude places, you need to prepare the necessary things in advance. For example, when you go to different areas, you need to know what kind of travel permits you need. In addition, you also need to prepare some necessary equipment and warm clothes according to the actual weather. At the same time, you’d better know the best season of cycling in Tibet so you can plan your bike trip in advance.

Cycling Tips in Tibet

Here below are some considerations you should know.

Tibet Travel Permit

Since it is scarcely possible to travel to Tibet without Tibet Travel Permit, Tibet Travel Permit is a must for foreign tourists. You need the permit to board a flight or a train. Besides, if you want to get to some unopened areas, Alien’s travel permit is needed. Military Permit is required when visiting some military areas.

Read More

What is Tibet Travel Permit?

How to Get Tibet Travel Permit, Successful Application Tips

Riding Equipment

Whether you have an supporting car or not, you should bring something necessary. Such as, a waterproof tent, sleeping bag, first-aid kit, enough food and water, mountain sickness medicine and other necessities. At the same time, you’d better bring your necessities all the time. Because if you don’t have a supporting car, you have to take everything on your own. It’s hard to buy necessities in remote areas of Tibet, so you need to prepare ahead of time. However, you can still buy some instant noodles or plain food in the village’s small shops. Don’t cycle on alone, wait for your travel mates, in case getting lost.

High-Quality Bike

Mountain bike is a good tool for your cycling trip to Tibet. With the popularity of bicycle tour in Tibet, many bicycle shops in Lhasa sell and rent mountain bikes. Therefore, you can choose to buy or rent mountain bikes in Lhasa. Then, you can return the bike or sell it to the local people at a reasonable price. Also, if you don’t believe in mountain bikes sold or leased in Lhasa, you can bring your own bike. In any case, make sure your bike is good and reliable to support your adventure trip to Tibet. At the same time, you’d better bring some necessary tools and bicycle spare parts, just in case.

Altitude Sickness Medicine

On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, due to high altitude, intense exercise will be easy to lead to hypoxia, causing or aggravating altitude reaction. Therefore, tourists need to bring altitude sickness medicine to relieve altitude stress.

Best Time for Tibet Cycling

There is no doubt that Tibet is one of the hardest places for human beings to survive. The weather there is cool in summer, but it is bitterly cold in winter. In Lhasa, the relatively humane city of the region, while summer temperatures may exceed 29 degrees Celsius(84 degrees Fahrenheit), winter temperatures may plummet to minus 16 degrees Celsius(3 degrees Fahrenheit). The sun radiates very strongly. The sun is so strong in Lhasa that the city is called the Sunshine City. Thin air in Tibet can neither radiate nor absorb heat, resulting in extreme daytime and night temperatures. April to October is the best time to visit Tibet, avoiding the coldest months from December to February. But July and August are the rainy season in Tibet. For your safety, it is best to skip these two months if you want to do a Tibet cycling tour, because of the bad road conditions and the possibility of a landslide in the rainy season.

Warm clothes and shoes are necessary for Tibetan travel because of the high altitude and the large temperature difference between day and night. You may wear shorts during the daytime, but you need a warm jacket at night. You’d better not let yourself catch a cold. Lhasa is known as the Sunshine City. The sun radiates strongly during the daytime, you are supposed to bring sun cream, hat, sun glass and other sunscreen products.