A British couple enjoyed the trip to Tibet arranged by Easy Tour China in May, 2010

Dear Vivian,
I am pleased to tell you that we managed to get on the BA flight on Thursday for travel back to Heathrow at the end of a very interesting trip to China and Tibet.
Many thanks again for the translations of useful phrases to help us get on the train at Beijing. Fortunately, we didn't have to refer to them but it was reassuring to have them in case we ran into problems. We got to Beijing West station in plenty of time although traffic on the roads was quite heavy. At the station we found our train no. listed on the departure board and scheduled to depart as per your itinerary. Alongside the train no. was no. 3. The heading over this no. was in Chinese but we assumed it referred to the platform no. Later, having watched trains earlier than ours depart, we noticed that what we thought was the platform no. did not tally with the actual platform of departure. We eventually discovered that the 'platform no.' was in fact the no. of the lounge waiting area. Having then waited in the designated lounge for a while our train no, appeared on the screen so we went forward with other passengers to the ticket checker and he was able to tell us in English 'platform 5'. We had no difficulty then in locating our train, also the correct carriage no. as per the tickets, and our compartment. For both train journeys i.e from Beijing, and onward to Shanghai from Lhasa we realised the advantage of having the lower bunks both ways. When we got on board at Beijing two Chinese gentlemen were already occupying the upper bunks and had settled down for the night. The space for our bags underneath the beds was a bit restricting. Fortunately, the bags, although heavy, were of the soft canvas type so we were able to remove a few items from the top of the bags to enable them to slide underneath the beds.
Our two fellow travellers got off at the first stop, which I think was Xian, the following morning. From that point onwards to Lhasa we had the compartment to ourselves. Later that day a Chinese mother and her daughter asked us if it would be possible to take the upper beds as there was some mix-up with their booking - they were given hard sleepers when they should have been soft. (I think it was the fault of their agency, not the train company).We, naturally, replied that they were very welcome to share with us. However, the train staff told them that they could not change until the early hours of the following morning as the beds may already be reserved by passengers who may board further down the line. Although they were disappointed, we got to know them quite well by the time we got to Lhasa. (I suppose I was disappointed too without the prospect of having three women around me in the compartment !). They would drop by each time going to and from the dining car, sometimes (at our invitation) sitting on the lower beds with us chatting. They were living in Japan for the past fourteen years. The daughter's English was very good (her name was Tobi) and she was the spokesperson for the two, She would interpret for the mother when we spoke. Their good company helped to shorten the journey to Lhasa.
Our guide, with driver, was duly waiting for us at Lhasa station. They were both very pleasant to deal with. The guide, I think his name was Wu, was very interesting and helpful. He also had a great sense of humour, we had many a laugh together, His knowledge of Tibetan history,the Dalai Lamas, and the various temples, was amazing. We were sometimes weary of the facts and historical dates he would 'bombard' us with, but in a nice way. I have got to send him an e-mail as well to let him know how we got on after our departure from Lhasa. We could not have expected a more competent and interesting guide.
The high altitude effect was that it slowed us down a bit especially going up flights of stairs. We would stop to have a breather before continuing. It seemed to affect Teresa more than it did me. The fact that she was a heavy smoker until a few years ago had some bearing on it, but it didn't stop us from enjoying our visit to Tibet.
Our train ride to Shanghai was punctuated with the arrival and departure of a few fellow travellers in our compartment en route. One of them gave me a postcard of the Terracotta Warriors as a souvenir following a late night chat after he boarded at Xian.

...
Best regards
Tom