What It’s Like to Drive a Six-Cylinder Teramont to Lhasa

Let me start with a bit about myself. I’m a doctor in a small mountain city, a fifth-tier place. I run a community clinic, enjoy a comfortable life, and have a happy family. I’m quite sociable and generous with friends, and ever since I bought a six-cylinder Teramont the year before last, my buddies have been pestering me for a Lhasa road trip. We actually planned to go last year, but with the pandemic and my busy work schedule, plus not wanting to add trouble for our country, it didn’t happen. This year things are clearer, so after plenty of preparation, my three friends and I finally set off on this long-awaited Lhasa road trip. Now I’ll share my Lhasa travelogue, focusing mainly on the vehicle experience; I’ll post about the scenery another time.

We took the southern Sichuan-Tibet route, following a guide we found online. After all, none of us four had been to Tibet before, and we weren’t too sure about the conditions, so we went with a popular choice. The southern route leans more towards natural scenery, and I’m not really interested in the cultural sights of the northern route—I just wanted to see landscapes I’d never encountered. The whole loop went smoothly, with no major surprises, and it felt relatively safe. One piece of advice: go slow, definitely slow. It was our first time driving these routes, and we weren’t familiar with the road conditions. Even though we took turns driving, each of us was more cautious than usual. Also, avoid driving at night—there are more safety risks after dark, so for safety’s sake, we hardly drove at night at all. As for the six-cylinder Teramont, I was very satisfied with its overall comfort, off-road ability, safety, and so on. At least it never let us down and saved face for me in front of my friends. The roads weren’t all that bad along the way—actually, they were pretty good—but almost all the vehicles we saw were SUVs; there were a few sedans but not many. Regarding power, near Litang, at high altitude, once you got over 100 km/h it felt a bit sluggish, but that went away once we descended. I remember a small hiccup when we got to Lhasa: the aftermarket factory panoramic camera wasn’t working right, so we dropped by a VW dealership in Lhasa to get it sorted. They fixed it for free and even gave us some tips on driving at high altitudes. It’s super convenient that VW dealerships are everywhere—thumbs up for that. I’ll stop here for now and attach a few clips from the journey for you to enjoy.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll reply when I see them!