Lhasa train tickets

From what I read in some Chinese travel postings, the travel agency will not sell you the train tickets unless you join their tour group. And you can not buy this ticket on line either.

If you want to buy the tickets yourself, you will need to go to Beijing Railway Station (window 27 & 28) or Beijing West Railway station. They sell a small number of train tickets 10 days prior to departure.

Ticket sales start 6am every day.

If you want to buy hard sleeper, you may need to get there the night before and line up all night. Apparantely there are only 10 hard sleeper tickets for sale every day at each train station and each person can buy maximum 3 tickets. To be safe, you will need to be the first 3 people in the line. If you do not mind the hard seats, then probably go there 5am on the day would be enough, I am not sure.

You can call 95105105 (the railway station’s inquiry line) for more details if you speak Chinese. If not, can always get someone who speaks Chinese help you.

Good luck