China Group Visa

The Chinese embassy in Kathmandu doesn’t issue visas to individual travelers, only to those booked on a tour and then only group visas. If you turn up with a Chinese visa in your passport, it will be canceled. A group visa is a separate sheet of paper with all the names and passport numbers of the group members. It’s important to get your own individual ‘group’ visa (a ‘group’ can be as small as one person), as otherwise, come the end of your tour in Lhasa, you will either have to exit China with your fellow group members or split from this group visa at considerable cost and hassle. Splitting from a group visa can only be done by local Lhasa travel agency that arranged your travel into Tibet. It is a real pain to be avoided at all costs.