For this most mystery and paradoxical land in China, you must hold more expectations than any other cities. After arrival at the airport, the terrain you could see as you approach your hotel is pretty special. Mountainous, but stark, any growth on these slopes has camouflaged colors of those grey or greens. Some distant peaks are snow capped and the odd turquoise lake is visible. Beautiful, but it looks to be such a hard land to live in. For the rest of day, please do not hurry to do any sightseeing at once. Instead of, you had better have a half-day rest to adjust yourselves to the altitude sickness for tomorrow's trip.

Religion is such an important element of Tibetan life that it's hardly surprising most of the attractions are monasteries, temples and palaces. The awe-inspiring Potala Palace perched high above much of Lhasa, is definitely your good choice. The palace is a complex of political and religious function, which consists of the Red Palace , the White Palace and some attached buildings.

The Red Palace contains various chapels and mausoleums for previous Dalai Lamas. The White Palace contains the living quarters of successive Dalai Lamas and their tutors. The offices of the old Tibetan government and their assembly halls are also located here. The Potala is full of elaborate artwork and frescos that tell many stories. They portray religious subjects as well as the customs and traditions of Tibet.

Although you need to climb up, it will be richly rewarded for your efforts. Words may fail you to convey the scope of gold, pearls, carvings, gems, incense, monks, rooms, stairs that are in this incredible place. It is a pity that there are no photos allowed in the palace. However you would take photos by your eyes and embed them into your minds forever.

The local Tibetan lunch is very different from the previous cities, but you will find its specialist and enjoy it. In fact, the most popular cuisine in Tibet now is Sichuan Cuisine. Moreover there are also western-style restaurants in Lhasa. You are delighted to eat what Tibetan eats in Tibet. Then you will visit the Jokhang Temple in the afternoon. According to Legend the Jokhang Temple was built on the former site of a lake. However, every time a temple was built, it would collapse later. Confused by this phenomenon, Princess Bhrikuti turned to Wen Cheng, the Princess of Tang Dynasty, for help. Being a well-educated woman, Wen Cheng told the Princess that the geography of Tibet was very much like a hag, with the lake at the heart. In order to build the temple, Wen Cheng advised they must demolish the hag by filling and leveling the lake using 1,000 sheep to carry soil from a mountain far away. When the temple was done, it was called Ra-Sa-Vphrul-Snang ('ra' meaning sheep and 'sa' meaning earth in Tibetan) to commemorate those sheep. It was built by craftsmen from Tibet, China and Nepal and thus features different architectural styles. The three-level roof of the Jokhang offers splendid views of the Bhakhor Streets across to the Potala Palace . The golden roofs are superbly crafted with many birds, beasts, bells and other intricate figures. The Tibetan people are absolutely beautiful - very warm, friendly and welcoming. There are so many impressions and interesting and bizarre things happened every day in Lhasa.

Then you will spend a whole afternoon exploring Barkhor Street. The markets in Lhasa are on a scale quite unlike anything else you have seen. You can buy anything Tibet-related, from sacks of incense, chunks of yak butter to monk outfits. When walking along the Barkhor Street , you need to follow the clockwise direction. You see many Tibetan pilgrims in town taking part in the various koras (pilgrimage circuits): the Nangkor, Barkor, Lingkor and Potala. Maybe there are even others associated with various monasteries. They are devout Buddhists who perform these koras as a part of their lives and a means of gathering merit. They are from different parts of Tibet but still have a distinctive look - heavy, colorful clothes, dark-haired, hair plaited and braided with beads. They travel in family groups with a prayer-wheel in constant motion. Among these various koras you see many prostrating themselves, some doing this repeatedly on the spot and others prostrating every 3 paces until they have circumambulated the route.

Shigatse, the second largest city of Tibet. It takes about 4.5 hours on the way from Tibet to Shigatse via Ganytse. The road condition can not be called good but the scenery on the way is really soul-stirring.

Yamdrok lake is surrounded by Mt. Kampala, Mt. Nyinchenkhasa, Mt. Chetungsu and Mt. Changsamlhamo. Befitting its mythical feminine origins, the turquoise blue lake has indescribable scenic beauty, promoting the Tibetans to compares it with the fairyland in Heaven. The lake is also called Coral Lake of the Highlands due to its shape, and on the surrounding expansive pasture, animals and birds flourish in huge numbers. The holy lake is also a pilgrimage site for Tibetans. Every summer, gangs of pilgrims trek there to pray and receive blessings. Pilgrims believe that its water can make the old young again, grant the middle-aged a longer life and make the children smarter. Being a sacred lake, the color of its water may be taken by the devout as having spiritual meaning. Then comes to Palkhor Monastery. This monastery is very different from other monasteries with its unique structure. It lies at the foot of Dzong Hill, 230km south of Lhasa and 100km east of Shigatse. The main assembly hall of Palkhor was built between the end of 14 th century and the beginning 15 th century. The ground floor of the three-story building is a Chanting Hall with 48 columns decorated with old silk ‘tangkas'. An eight-meter high bronze statuary of Maitreya is also on display and the gilded figure is made from 1.4 tons of bronze. On the second floor, ‘Bodhisattva Manjushri' and ‘Arhats' from the Ming Dynasty, were enshrined in the chapels. Its Arhat Chapel is famous throughout Tibet. On the roof, a chapel houses a collection of 15 ‘mandala' murals, which are three meters in diameter. The monastery collects about 100 robes and costumes worn in Tibetan opera, all of which were made of silk, embroidery and tapestry during the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. Palkhor also features its Kumbum in Tibet. Deemed as the symbol of the monastery, the spectacular ‘stupa' consists of hundreds of chapels in layers, housing about a hundred thousand images of various icons, in total there are about 33,000 statues.