Local arrangements in Tibet travel which are restaurants, festivals, and guides


	Restaurants
	Restaurants here mean the ones that Tibet Plus Tours International has always used. Different from the other travel agencies, we give our customers variety of choice in food. Most of our customers have had enough Chinese dishes if they come to Tibet from mainland China or enough Nepalese food or western food if they come from Kathmandu. Thereafter, we supply western food, acceptable Tibetan food with sing and dancing, Chinese food during their stay in Tibet. Also we let our customers eat not only outside the hotel but inside the hotel as well. Furthermore, western food is a la carte menus besides the buffet.

	Guides Information
	Guides Information
	A good guide could make your trip in Tibet more colorful and unforgettable while an incompetent guide usually ruins your tour. Therefore a wise choice of an excellent guide is very important. And what's more important is that you should know about guides before you choose him or her. Generally speaking there are two kinds of English Speaking guides. One kind are Tibetan English speaking guides whose English is averagingly not so understandable but faster ( not meaning fluency) Most of them speak an Indian accent English. If you listen hard, you can understand majority of their introduction to Tibet. Their feature is that they emphasis on statues of different Buddhas and repeat the same stories of these statues. If you want to know more, you could ask them for the further information. And some time they even know little about the very detailed skills of guiding. But they are local people and they could tell you some very folklore stories and customs about Tibetan. The other kind of the English speaking guides are from mainland China. They support Tibet by assignment from National Tourism Bureau of China. They could speak clear and understandable English and they usually tell you some stories about a monastery or temple, not clearly distinguishing one statue from another. And they could give you a careful and skilled guiding and service. But of course they cannot know more about Tibetan customs and folks in a short time. Of the two kinds there are surely excellent guides both from Tibetan English speak guides and from mainland. On one hand, some Tibetan English speaking guide speak a very standard and fluent American English. On the other hand, guides from mainland could also know almost as much as the locals know about monasteries and statues. This requires you to book the tour in advance, I mean while you book the tour, tell us what kind of guides you like to have. The reason why Tibet Plus Tours International grows so rapidly is that it put more emphasis on training it guides periodically and give bonus according to the evaluation from tourists. Guides are the representatives of our company and its work is the first important in supplying service to groups or FIT. Besides English speaking guides which are mostly seen for nearly all kinds of tourist groups including FIT, there are also German guides, French guides, Japanese guides for those tourists who cannot understand English.

Festivals

You may see the occasion that Tibetan sing a song while they are working. Yes, Tibetan are a brave and happy nation. They sing and dancing not only at work but you could feel that they are more happy during their festivals. The most exciting festival is Shoton Festival, and then Tibetan Lunar New Year. Relating to tourism, the festivals below are the main attractive ones to tourists.

Main Attractive Festivals

	Tibetan Lunar New Year	Shoton Festival	Nakchu Horse Racing Festival	Yurlong Culture Festival	Gyangtse Horse Racing Festival	Mt Everest Culture Festival	Saga Dawa Festival	Azaiea Tour Festival	ZhongQue Festival
Location	Lhasa	Lhasa	Nakchu	Tsedang	Gyangtse	Shigatse	Lhasa	Nyingchi	Chamdo
Year of 2004	Feb. 21	Aug. 25	Aug. 10	July 25	July 20	June 1	June 3	May to June	July 24
Year of 2005	Feb. 5	Sept. 13	Aug. 10	July 25	July 20	June 1	June 23	May to June	July 24

Introduction to some main festivals

Tibetan New Year (February or March)
It is the greatest festival in Tibet. In ancient times when the peach tree was in blossom, it was considered as the starting of a new year. Since the systematization of the Tibetan calendar in 1027 A.D., the first day of the first month became fixed as the new year . On the New Year's day, families unite " auspicious dipper" is offered and the auspicious words " tashi delek" are greeted.

Saga Dawa Festival (May or June)
It is the holiest in Tibet, there memorable occasions coincide on this day, Buddha's birth and Buddha's enlightenment. Almost every person within Lhasa join in circumambulations round the city and spend their late afternoon on picnic at " Dzongyab Lukhang" park at the foot of Potala.
Gyantse Horse Race & Archery (May or June)
Horse race and archer are generally popular in Tibet, and Gyantse enjoys prestige of being the earliest in history by starting in 1408. Contests in early times included horse race, archery, and shooting on gallop followed by a few days' entertainment or picnicking. Presently, ball games, track and field events, folk songs and dances, barter trade are in addition to the above.

Changtang Chachen Horse Race Festival (10 August)
As the most important festival in North Tibet during the golden season on the grassland, thousand of herdsmen throng to Nakchu riding fine horses, and carrying the local products. They form as city
Of tens south of Nakchu town. There will be thrilling horse race, archery and demonstrations of horsemanship. Songs and dance troupes from all part of Tibet will add to the fun.

Restaurants

Guides

Festivals