Correct. I have heard that they don't check for TTB permits or seldom check for them on the trains. Since we rode out, I don't have 1st hand experience.

Again, my point is that Lhasa is not the problem. But traveling outside of it will be.

I won't be of any help in regards to picking a mountain region - I don't climb. Nonetheless, going north from URC sounds easier to me (although I still haven't been there), the (far) southwest is partially heavily restricted military area (especially south from Kashi), difficult to access and I would strongly suggest to get in touch with a local agency to work out an itinerary when going there.

Trip summary:

So I'm going to keep this rather brief and save adding details for when others have questions. I ended up going to Tibet primarily because the best climbing targets for what criteria my friend and I wanted was in Tibet. Xinjiang has high mountains, but it was getting late in the season and some of them were a bit high for us, and Sichuan/Yunnan the peaks we wanted to climb were hard to access.

That being said, the rest of the info here is generally about Tibet and getting in:

1. You certainly need to book through a TA for sure. Make sure you do this well in advance to get your entry permit in the mail from them. They can process it in a day or two (ours did it in 2 days) but the shipping was delayed 2 days resulting in a day delayed in our trip (apparently EMS is the fastest in China) where overnight isn't guaranteed like Fed Ex.
2. Your entry permit is checked at security to get past. There is a "trick" to get past this so theoretically you could get by without the permit, but probably not worth risking it.
3. Once you get past security, to get into Lhasa is a breeze. No further checks before you takeoff, and no checks in Lhasa. From the Lhasa airport you can hire a cab to the city for about 50 RMB.
4. In the city you're free to roam around as a foreigner. To see the big sights (Potala Palace or Johkang Temple, etc) you need to hire a tour guide. You can do this once you get into Lhasa yourself which would be cheaper than going with any tour guide service but just remember you need to obtain tickets to these places 1 day in advance.
5. Since you have to use a TA in #1 above, I'd recommend that if you want to visit Tibet for something other than climbing, arrange a tour where the TA arranges activities outside of Lhasa. Then spend 3-4 days yourself in the city arranging for your own hotels, places to see, etc.

Anyway, that is my experience. We ended up spending 3 days in Lhasa, then were driven by our company to the mountain we wanted to climb, and was there for 7 days or so. Then we went back to Lhasa for a night, took the train from Lhasa to Xining (Qinghai-Tibet train), then flew from Xining back to Shanghai.

Highly recommend the train if you can make it work.

Again, this was super brief so any questions/comments please post them.

Thanks for reporting back. Your experience is exactly the same as I had for my trip in June. [Well, I didn't do any hiking.]

mnredfox - thanks for trip summary!!

How'd you like the trip?

Were you happy with the TA you used for your TTB permit and your trip outside of LXA? Who was it in each case? Where was the TA and shat city did they send your permit to?

When you say that they checked your permit at security, which airport? And are they not checking for permits at check-in?

How did they enforce 1 day advance ticket sales to sites in LXA? Does the advance purchase requirement include Sera and Drepung Monasteries? Did you get these tickets yourself? Through the TA?

Where did you stay in LXA? Where did you go to climb? Did you overnight anywhere on the way to your climbing site?

Trip was amazing. As I live in China now, the trip to Tibet was drastically different as almost everything is different. The people are different (population, culture, etc), language different, feel of life is different, quality of air different, lots. Highly recommend Tibet but I DO admit it is a hassle for foreigners, thus more expensive too. And VERY HIGHLY recommend the Qinghai-Tibet train. Was probably a highlight of the trip.

In the end, yes. The TA we used was the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA). I assume no one else does (or should have to) use them unless you want to go mountain climbing (which was our case). The CTMA prepared our entry permits prior to arrival, our ATP (after we arrived and took 1 day to get after they borrowed our PP's) and the climbing permits. CTMA was located in Lhasa. We simply emailed them scanned copies of our PP's and Visa's. Within two days they mailed off our entry permits via EMS (took 4 days from Lhasa to reach Shanghai where I live right now). The permit situation was a breeze except our delivery was delayed by EMS. Apparently EMS is the fastest in China and we had to delay our trip 1 day as it took 4 days to reach Shanghai from Lhasa.

To be honest, all TA's likely will be the same and probably good. What I would do is quote a bunch of them (which we did to get some prices, though we knew we would end up with having to use the CTMA, we just wanted to get price estimates) and then pick a lower priced TA that you are comfortable with. We quoted about 5-6 of them (through email and internet) and prices did vary quite a bit.

More info on the trip lower, but I recommend doing your own accommodations/tickets/tours in Lhasa and simply use the TA for your TTB and all travel outside of Lhasa.

We flew first from PVG-CKG (Chongqing). Then overnighted there and then flew CKG-LXA. Security was at CKG. It's the same old security that you would go through at any airport in China, where you show your BP and ID (passport for foreigners), but in Chongqing they had a special line for people going to Lhasa which they enforced pretty strictly (if not going to Lhasa, go to another line, if going to Lhasa, you have to use the line). But once you pass that security, nothing else was different. You're in the same terminal as all the other flights, and once you land there was no additional security checks. No permits were checked by the airlines at check-in or anything, just regular security checking the permits. If you have a Chinese ID, they just checked that and away you go. Our process took about 5 min as they had to call a couple of different supervisors to check our paperwork.

It was pretty strict about the 1 day advance. But I don't think it's because that was the rule, more because the tickets were going 1 day in advance and day of tickets were already gone. All the tourist agencies were telling me you need to get it in advance, but again it's more about availability than the rule.

Keep in mind, for most (I don't know which ones for sure, just Jokhang and Potala for sure) of the famous sites in Lhasa foreigners need to have a tour guide, so this is how I would do it.

1. Arrive in Lhasa. Tell your TA company you want to arrange all travel in Lhasa yourself and plan 3-4 days in town.
2. The day you arrive, go to all the sites you want to see and purchase tickets. You should be able to purchase tickets with just a passport (we confirmed this that you could). Keep in mind most locations close at 4pm so plan accordingly.
3. With ticket in hand, just find a TA in Lhasa and have them hire a tour guide for you. This should be done the day before. What I was told was guides could only be hired on a "daily basis", so no part day guides, only full day (or you could pay for a whole day and only use for part of the day). The cheapest rate we negotiated was $150RMB for a 1 day guide, not bad.

The steps above should save you some $$ if you don't mind doing some exploring, negotiating on your own. You can also have the TA do all of this for you, but likely will be more expensive and keep in mind most quotes do NOT include ticket prices.

l
We stayed at the Lhasa Gang-Gyan Hotel on East Beijing Street. Location was really idea (though cabs are cheap). Originally we wanted to go the cheap route, but in the end were happy we spent a little more (around $400 RMB/night for two people) for a private bathroom, larger room, and free breakfast (for 2). Was definitely worth the extra bit, and would recommend this place.

We climbed a mountain called Kaluxiong which is about 4 hour drive from Lhasa. We overnighted only at the mountain (base camp for 4 days and 4 days at advanced base camp).

Any other questions just ask.

When I went to Drepung Monastery in June, there were lots of constructions and renovations there, and when we got there in late afternoon, there was hardly anybody there at all.

Sera has a few visitors - mostly local families bringing their infants to be blessed by the horse-head diety - with a few foreigners going to see the debate. But it was far from being crowded.

No advance tickets necessary at either place. Or the Jokhang. Only place required is the Potala.

Thanks for all the great info! A friend left yesterday for a year RTW, starting in China and wants to go to Tibet, I'm forwarding the posts to him.
Thanks again!

Glad to help, have him post his/her experience, would be great to share and learn too.

Will do!