If you plan to visit Labrang Monastery, in Xiahe, staying at the Overseas Tibetan Hotel is your best choice. The hotel is ideally located, just a 2-minute walk from the monastery. Hotel rooms are decorated in Tibetan style and have comfortable beds. The hotel offers western breakfast of eggs, toast, OJ and coffee, which is convenient - along with local yak milk yogurt and honey! Losong, the owner and manager of the Overseas Tibetan Hotel, speaks impeccable English and his help and insights were absolutely invaluable and essential to the success of our visit. Losang shared insights into local culture and society, gave us terrific restaurant recommendations, and offers guided tours and hikes around the area. (We contacted him in advance and he helped arrange a reliable car to meet us at Lanzhou Airport and transport us to Xiahe.) The Overseas Tibetan Hotel is on Xiahe’s main street, full of shops selling embroidered shawls, inlaid wooden bowls, prayer beads, and fantastic local breads, from spring onion rolls to rose jam pastries. Labrang Monastery, one of largest and most important monasteries outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region, is full of nomadic Tibetan pilgrims who come here to worship and walk the Kora - the perimeter of prayer wheels. This is truly an awesome glimpse into another world… The monastery, a large complex of several temples, offers English-speaking tours, and Losang can provide additional details. In Xiahe, don’t miss the local restaurants’ momo, Tibetan dumplings generously stuffed with meat, bok choy, or mushroom and cabbage, and tasty pan-fried buns stuffed with ground meat - all delicious! Restaurants offer menus with photos of dishes to help you order, regardless of language barriers. Most places don’t accept credit cards, so be prepared with RMB cash or Alipay.

We loved the friendliness of the staff, the location, the fresh made western breakfasts. The English speaking staff quickly handled our requests (picnic lunch, laundry….). Before we arrived, Losang booked us transportation to and from Lanzhou and out to Ganjia Gorge which was spectacular. Thank you. He can also arrange rail transport in China.

This hotel is clean, comfortable and excellent value but not the place for those who want the luxury of 5 star hotels.

Ideal way to get to experience Tibet in less than a day's travel from Beijing! The hotel is really just in front of the big Labrang monastery, which can easily compete with the big temples in Lhasa. However, one does not need any special permits for Labrang/Xiahe, which is much easier to get to using the high speed train from Beijing to Lanzhou, followed by a 3.5 hours car ride organized by Losang, the owner of the Overseas Tibetan Hotel. While most of the travelers in 2023 were obviously Chinese tourists, this is one of the places that will also appeal to Westerners as the owner and several of the staff speak very good English. Losang has been a travel agent for many years and can provide excellent recommendations for excursions around Xiahe and travel to other regions. The hotel has spacious rooms with private bathrooms, all with reliable services. The staff is really making an effort to accommodate any requests from their guests to allow to maximally enjoy your stay in Labrang. I would recommend to stay at least 3 nights, but one can easily stay a week. It's a pity that Western tourists have not yet found the way back to China and Tibet, traveling around individually is not a problem. A few tips for foreign travelers to China: - Make sure you book your hotels before applying for your Chinese Visa. Bring printouts to the visa application centre. - Install both WeChat and Alipay on your smartphone, and do the validation of your ID before departure. You can then link your credit card upon arrival in China and pay for virtually everything with either App. Cash is barely used anymore in China. - Make sure to book a SIM/eSIM card with unlimited mobile data, you will need internet connection everywhere in China to pay. Labrang also has perfect coverage, only in the surrounding grasslands can one loose connection at some locations. - Use trip.com for train bookings, other apps ask for a Chinese phone number.

Nothing, all way perfect!

Nice hotel, very good located. Nice decoration. Losang and his cousin Taji are very well organised and helpful owners. Good breakfast every opening with lical.products. We had a great stay. Losang and Taji organised a very nice trip with hiking to the grasslands. We can only recommend this Place!

Everything was perfect!

I can't emphasise enough how good the location is. Literally just outside Labrang monastery gate. The street facing rooms are perfect for people watching. And the lovely Tibetan decor really makes the hotel special. Loved staying there. And the owner/manager is excellent at organising transport and interesting trips

great location right next to monastery. helpful staff, can organise drivers for visits to grasslands etc. they also organised a driver to bring me from lanzhou. nice rooms, clean, good view on the main street

Right next to Labran monestary, warm, value for money

Staff not used to serve foreigners

very close to Labrang Monastery one minute walk

Location is good and very closed to Labrang Monestery

Bathroom has some smell

Very well located in a traditional tibetan decorated building in the main shopping street close to Labrang monastery.

The bed was not comfortable and the heating was extreme, waking up several times during the night to drink water, sweating, even with the windows open.