Visa to Tibet

i'm planning a trip to china and i want to travel in the Tibet provnice as well. Does anybody of you know how I make a visa to Tibet? I heard it is something you do once you are already in china. I will arrive in Chengdu anyway.

Thanks

If you live in the US, just check with the state department. They can probably give you the necessary info.

Well, to the Chinese, Tibet is in China, so just get to China. Just don't go around using language the challenges China's claim to the region or bad things could happen to you.

Edit: Just checked a how-to site and it's tricky to get. They say if you request Chinese visa from the consolate and mention going to Tibet they require that you have proof of a sanctioned tour group. However, problem is that tour groups require you have a Chinese visa first. They say people get around this by simply not mentioning plans to visit Tibet on Visa application (say you'll be in Beijing), then when you have your Visa use it to get a travel permit. Also, just hit up a reliable travel agency.

Yes I am aware of the political sensitivity...so I will not mention the Tibet on my Visa to china and then in Chengdu I will go to a travel agency and ask the process. I guess it costs few hundred $ and take sometime til' I actually get the Visa, right?

@Hiddai: not sure, but a few years ago I got round trip tickets to Vietnam plus the travel agency acquiring my visa for like $630 for everything, that's very reasonable and way under what I was expecting to pay, that included most my trip from LAX to South Korea on Asiana then South Korea to Vietnam on (I forget what it was), and those Korean airliners are luxurious compared to American airliners, they feed you all the time and give you access to tons of media to distract you on your flight and they don't charge you up the ass for anything like bag checks or headphones or snacks and such, the Vietnamese airliner we jumped on after was pretty crap though felt bare bones we didn't so much as get peanuts or water... anyhow, I'm guessing if you plan it right that you can pull off tickets to China cheap even from a travel agency.

Just checking Korean Air's website you can book a trip to Beijing (they don't fly to CTU) for less than $900 roundtrip on their airliner (if you go late August), Asiana has trips to Chengdu under $700 around same time (I've flown with them, they're great). As for how long a visa takes, I've no idea. Quick searching appears there are rush visa options and slower ones that can take no more than a month. If you're shopping for good flight prices then I imagine you can get your visa before a perfectly sniped flight price departs.

You planning to take the train into Tibet? I bet that'd be cool, I'd probably want to start on the other side of the country just to see the most of it.

Well I was few times in China already. This time I plan to do the southwest only. I am flying to CTU (booked already) and plan to go to a travel agency and then to Tibet. I just worry about the price of the Visa and the amount of time it will take to make one