The Lhasa–Shigatse Railway

Until 2014 there were two ways between Lhasa and Shigatse, Tibet's two largest cities: the road, and the air. The bus took more than six hours, and a flight cost more than most people who lived there could pay. The Lhasa–Shigatse railway — 拉日铁路, Lārì Tiělù — opened on 16 August 2014, a 253-kilometre spur of the Qinghai–Tibet line running west up the valley of the Yarlung Tsangpo. In its first ten years it carried more than 14 million passengers.

It is not a record-breaker. The line stays between 3,600 and 4,000 metres, well below the passes on the way into Tibet, and it was built to be ordinary transport. What sets it apart is the train. Since 19 May 2025 every passenger service has been a Fuxing, making it the first line in Tibet to run nothing else, and the Fuxing in question is the CR200JS-G: a set built for the two railways out of Lhasa, with a diesel power car at one end and an electric one at the other. Only three have been built. Three trains a day each way run non-stop in about two hours, for ¥64 in second class.

A foreign visitor needs two permits for this ride, and both are arranged through a licensed agency as part of a guided tour. The Tickets section says which.

Lhasa and the junction at Xierong

The trains leave from Lhasa station, 3,641 metres up, which the Shigatse line shares with the Qinghai–Tibet Railway. The first departure, C885, goes at 08:40. Thirty-three kilometres out, at Xierong, the Lhasa–Nyingchi line turns off to the east. The overhead wires go with it: beyond Xierong the Shigatse line is not electrified, which is the reason its trains carry a diesel end.

Up the Yarlung Tsangpo

From Qüxü, 3,592 metres, the railway runs west up the valley of the Yarlung Tsangpo — the river that becomes the Brahmaputra in India — past Nyêmo at 3,731 metres and Rinbung at 3,835. In places the valley opens out into braided channels and sandbanks lined with planted trees; in others it closes in. There are 96 bridges and 29 tunnels, and together they make up 45.8 per cent of the line. The longest tunnel, Zongga No. 1, is 10,415 metres. The line is single track, built for 120 km/h, and nowhere steeper than 12.5 in 1,000.

No train calls at the stations in between. The Fuxing runs Lhasa to Shigatse without a stop.

The train

When the line opened there were two trains a day each way: coaches, with a Tibetan-decorated dining car, hauled by plateau versions of the HXN3 diesel built in Dalian. Their run through the Zongga tunnel was the longest any diesel in China had hauled a train underground. Fuxing sets joined them later, and the last of the coach trains, the Z8801 to Z8804, ran in May 2025.

The CR200JS-G that replaced them is a Fuxing built for Tibet. At one end is an HXD1D-J electric power car. At the other are two FXN3-J diesel units coupled together, one with a cab and one without, and their 12V265B engines are rated for work up to 5,100 metres. Between them are nine cars: six second class, one first, one shared by first and business, and one part second class, part dining car. The business seats are single, angled in a herringbone. Like every Fuxing on the plateau, the train carries an oxygen supply.

Shigatse

Shigatse station is at kilometre 248. The line goes on another three kilometres to a freight yard, Shigatse West. The city is about 3,860 metres up, where the Nyang river meets the Yarlung Tsangpo, and Tashilhunpo Monastery stands on a hill in the middle of it.

Three Fuxing trains run each way every day, all non-stop. Times are from 12306 for Wednesday 14 and Saturday 17 October 2026, and were the same on both days — as of October 2026.

The morning train out and the afternoon train back make a day trip with about five hours in Shigatse. When the line went all-Fuxing in May 2025 the railway also added peak-time trains, C921 to C924; none was on sale for mid-October 2026.

12306 sells only about two weeks ahead, so later dates could not be checked. Times are published by the operator: China Railway · 12306 (opens in a new tab).

The permits come first. A foreign visitor cannot travel in Tibet independently: the Tibet Travel Permit is issued only through a licensed Tibetan agency, for a guided tour, and has to be shown to board a train into Tibet. Shigatse also needs an Aliens' Travel Permit, which the guide arranges in Lhasa. Every place on the itinerary is fixed in advance, so put the train in it when you book the tour.

The fare is the same on all three trains: ¥64 second class, ¥103 first and ¥225 business, on 12306 against your passport. These are discounted fares, about 70 per cent of the published price.

No rail pass covers this line. Interrail and Eurail are European passes and do not reach China, and China Railway sells its seats one journey at a time on 12306. At ¥64 in second class there would be little for a pass to save.

Checked in October 2026.

Tashilhunpo is in Shigatse itself and Shalu a short drive south of it. Gyantse and Yamdrok Lake are on the road between Lhasa and Shigatse rather than on the railway, so a tour that drives one way and takes the train the other sees both.

The morning train gives you a day in Shigatse and the evening one brings you back, but the monastery and the town deserve a night. The hotel below is in the city centre; ask your agency for it when you book the tour.

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