Holy Elephant Gate 2021 Complete Guide (Departing from Lhasa)

Namtso Holy Elephant Gate has been a hot spot for Tibet tourism in recent years. About one-third of Namtso belongs to Damxung, two-thirds to Baingoin. Zhaxi Peninsula is under Damxung County, Lhasa, while the Holy Elephant Gate is administered by Baingoin County, Nagqu. After browsing many stunning photos, on June 12, 2021, during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, we set off in two cars with great enthusiasm!

1. Pre-trip Preparations

(a) Booking: Advance reservation required; during peak season, usually three days in advance.

[Two booking locations] One for group tickets: inside Zangyou Tan City; one for individual tickets: Holy Elephant Gate Ticket Service Center in the parking lot west of the Potala Palace. We had 8 people, not sure if we qualified as a group or individuals, so we went directly to the one next to the Potala Palace.

At the site, we scanned a QR code and added the ticketing staff on WeChat. Through WeChat, we sent each person's ID card front photo, health code screenshot, and license plate number. If you want to be accommodated in the same tent, include the driver's name, plate number, and number of people on one booking form.

[Three types of tickets] Due to scenic area construction, road work, and epidemic prevention, visitor numbers to Holy Elephant Gate are limited year-round and reservation is required. Book in advance. Visitors can choose from three ticket types based on their needs:

1. Holy Elephant Gate admission only: 80 yuan/person (does not include the red-headed pass; when passing through the Namtso National Park gate, you need to buy a ticket for Namtso Zhaxi Peninsula at 110 yuan plus 105 yuan for sightseeing bus).

2. Scenic shuttle + admission: 180 yuan/person (mainly for self-drive visitors with sedans, low clearance, or poor off-road capability; transfer at Qinglong Township self-drive camp, round-trip 110km dirt road; shuttle bus 100 yuan/person; Holy Elephant Gate admission 80 yuan/person; includes red-headed pass. If you don't visit Namtso Zhaxi Peninsula, this pass can serve as proof to bypass the Namtso National Park gate, saving the Zhaxi Peninsula ticket and sightseeing bus fees).

3. Group ticket: 330 yuan/person (Lhasa to Holy Elephant Gate round trip is over 600 km, not recommended for a day trip. The group ticket includes admission 80 yuan/person; accommodation 150 yuan/person; two main meals and breakfast 100 yuan/person; red-headed pass, same function as above).

—We opted for the 330 yuan ticket, and here's a special warning: when booking, the tent photo they showed led us to believe we'd be staying in an eight-person tent by the lake. In reality, the camp is at the scenic area service center 56 km from Holy Elephant Gate (where the big white elephant sculpture is). The worst part that day was bouncing over two hours of washboard road to reach Holy Elephant Gate, taking photos, then searching everywhere for our camp tent, only to find out by phone that we had to bounce back 56 km. If you want lakeside accommodation, it's an RV for 2000 yuan (sleeps 4). We finally returned at 9:30 PM and were put in a large dormitory with 17 people. Honestly, we all felt we'd been 'had'. Also, the camp had too many lights; stargazing was hopeless!

Therefore, I recommend the 180 yuan ticket; you can choose alternate accommodation (details below).

Since we'd always wanted to see Namtso's starry sky and summer had arrived, we decided to stay overnight. The 330 yuan package included three meals, but we only had one; on-site staff said breakfast was no longer provided. Meals were in a common dining hall with shared utensils, and the food was acceptable. But the dormitory was far from ideal.

The hygiene was poor; we'd suspected the bedding wasn't changed often—it smelled strongly and was damp. Washing wasn't with tap water; there were communal plastic basins, and for brushing teeth you had to scoop water and find a spot outside. The toilet was about 200 meters away, a pit latrine, very cold at night. All that was bearable, but in the middle of the night there was earth-shaking snoring, several people getting up to pee, sudden switching on of lights, and someone unable to sleep watched videos all night. Luckily, our room didn't have the late-night chatting. By 6 AM we all got up, made our beds, and hit the road without washing—eager to leave.

Conditions here are harsh, and the management level and service quality are very low, hence these are the worst aspects of a Holy Elephant Gate trip. Of course, the overpriced oxygen supply is another major source of dissatisfaction with no recourse for complaints.

Here are alternative accommodation options:

1. Lakeside RVs: sleep four per vehicle, relatively clean, can be booked at the ticket office; closest accommodation to the lake. Price varies: some say 2000 yuan, others 1500.

2. Pastoral homestays: about 30 minutes' drive from the lake, there are two local guesthouses. Pity I didn't get clear photos of their phone numbers!

3. More pastoral homestays: about 45 minutes' drive from the lake, there are several local guesthouses; I only photographed a few.

4. At the scenic area service center (the big white elephant sculpture), local tent guesthouses are available—better than the dormitory, with electric blankets or stoves, four to a room, price about 100-150 yuan/person, negotiable. Distance to the lake: 56 km, 2.5-hour drive on washboard roads!

5. You can return to tents at Namtso Zhaxi Peninsula, around 100 yuan or so, and importantly, it's also a great spot for stargazing!

6. Bring your own camping gear and camp by the lake. (Note: camp as close to populated areas as possible; in remote spots, beware of wolves and other wild animals at night!)

(c) Luggage and gear

As an amateur outdoor enthusiast, when organizing a trip I bring quite a lot of stuff:

1. 5L bottled water, fruit, self-heating meals, oatmeal, snacks, bread, etc.

2. Skincare: horse oil, eye cream, sunscreen (since water is inconvenient, better not to wear makeup); toiletries, portable washbasin, sun hat with brim, face mask (for sun and wind), sunglasses, etc.

3. Down jacket, sleeping bag, thick socks (to prevent cold feet at night), disposable underwear, slippers, wet wipes, tissues, garbage bags, thermos, power bank, ID card, camera, etc.

4. Oxygen bag: at 4,720m elevation, most people experience altitude sickness. We live in Lhasa so we had no reaction, but my sister from the lowlands needed a bag of oxygen to sleep at night. (If you have an oxygen bag, almost any pharmacy in Lhasa can refill it for 5-10 yuan per bag; if not, a pharmacy sells the bag for 50 yuan and fills it for you.) I saw many tips saying that buying oxygen at the scenic area is a huge rip-off!

5. Gas canister, stove burner, small aluminum kettle, outdoor flashlight (sometimes not needed, but we used them this time)

6. If you bring your own camping gear, the list gets even longer!

Fuel up fully in Damxung or Baingoin county town; the washboard roads are fuel-guzzlers!

On the way, signal is sporadic: China Telecom is better, China Unicom completely loses signal.

10:30 depart Lhasa, arrive in Damxung county town at 1 PM for lunch. (Wore a sweatshirt in Lhasa, but needed an extra jacket in Damxung.)

1:30 depart from Damxung, 2:30 reach Namtso township.

En route, when reaching the Namtso scenic area ticket office, staff will collect the red-headed pass.

Nagela Pass, elevation 5,190m, has a viewing platform and photo spots.

At the Namtso township fork: left road goes to Namtso Zhaxi Peninsula scenic area; straight ahead leads directly toward Holy Elephant Gate, with beautiful lakeside scenery of Namtso on your left all the way.

—We didn't turn into Zhaxi Peninsula, but we stopped by the lake for half an hour along the way.

3:05 left the lake, 3:40 arrived at Holy Elephant Gate scenic area service center (with a big white elephant sculpture).

After entering the white elephant gate, turn left and go to the building below to get out and register; sometimes they take temperatures. (This is where the 330 yuan package's camp and dining hall are located.)

If you arrive here late in the day, I suggest staying overnight and heading in the next morning, unless you plan to sleep inside. Because just ahead starts the washboard road, taking over two hours, with a couple of stops for photos, so you'll need more time. If you're in a sedan, it'll be even slower.

4. At 3:55 we registered and set off, soon hitting the 'washboard' road. Best to use the toilet beforehand—the bumps can shake pee right out of you!

Of course, there are vast, boundless scenery to ease the fatigue.

Driving, bumping, singing, chatting—then the deep blue lake comes into view.

You think the lake is close, but you still have to wind around a long stretch, go around the mountain to reach its shore.

Along the lake, a section of the cliff features many meditation caves. As a sacred site of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, countless eminent monks and hermits have practiced here for centuries, and it remains so to this day.

5. By 5:20 PM, the stunning scenery made us stop the car. It was so beautiful, we couldn't find words to describe it.

6. After a 25-minute stop, we departed at 5:45 and arrived at the Holy Elephant Gate ticket check at 6:20. A rope blocked the junction; the inspector tore off the ticket stub and let us through.

7. At 6:30 we reached Holy Elephant Gate. Without a road, we might never have arrived. The serene, tranquil blue slowly unfolded before us.

The sky seemed to darken, dimming the blue slightly; yet in an instant, it brightened again.

As dusk fell, the blue grew deeper.

Facing the 'sea', we sat on the ground, emptied our minds, and smilingly watched the clouds transform.

Holy Elephant Gate on Qiaduo Langka Island in the northern part of the sacred Namtso Lake.

Legend has it that in the 8th century AD, the master Padmasambhava, invited to Tibet by King Trisong Detsen to propagate the Dharma, subdued the Nyenchen Tanglha mountain and betrothed Namtso to Nyenchen Tanglha, making them a couple. A grand wedding ceremony was held on Qiaduo Langka Island. The night before the wedding, 108 supernatural beings built a stone gate in one night. The gate, shaped like a holy elephant walking from northeast to southwest, was specially made as a passage for Nyenchen Tanglha. People call this stone gate the Holy Elephant Gate.

True to its name, a naturally formed giant stone elephant stands on the vast shore of Namtso, its trunk extending into the lake as if sipping the sacred water from the snowland. Between the elephant's body and trunk is a huge gate, a sacred portal to heaven.

We'd always thought we'd be staying by the lake; only when it got dark did we realize we had to drive back over two hours on the washboard road. We were stunned. By 9:40 PM we finally got back to the big white elephant accommodation. It had started to rain, the wind was strong, so stargazing was hopeless. Down jackets were a must. Luckily, we still got dinner, and by almost midnight we were all in bed, uneasily drifting in and out of half-sleep.

At around 4 AM, I quietly got up and went outside to see if I could have a rendezvous with the starry sky. With all the camp lights, it took my eyes over ten minutes to adjust, and I could only see scattered stars, not a river of stars. The day before, my colleague had camped here and shared these phone photos of the starry sky!

Come July or August, I definitely need to come back to camp at Namtso—can't miss the splendid high-altitude night sky!

Early next morning, we drove back to the spot where we'd stopped by the lake on the first day. Boiled water, steeped oatmeal, heated up our self-heating meals—haha, a lakeside breakfast steaming in the sunrise!

Just as we finished breakfast, the rain started drizzling again. We drove straight to Yangbajing Blue Sky Hot Springs, soaked for half a day, washing away the physical fatigue, yet our hearts were full. Hot spring tickets booked on Ctrip were 195/person (including swimsuit, towel, etc.). Arrived back in Lhasa around 6 PM—perfect!