Zhangmu Port & Zhangmu Town (Tips, Photos & Maps)

Plan your Tibet travel? If you want to visit Tibet from Nepal or visit Nepal from Tibet, Zhangmu Town, the Chinese border town between Tibet and Nepal, is the port of entry you must pass through.

Zhangmu Town is under the administration of Nyalam County of Shigatse in Tibet. Zhangmu Town is situated along a single narrow zigzag mountain road at the sea level of 2300m. It is about 120km from Kathmandu Nepal, 736km from Lhasa and 30km from Nyalam Town.

Nyalam Town – Zhangmu Town 30km

We drove from Nyalam Towm at the altitude of 3500m down to Zhangmu town at 2300m. So in the short distance of 30km, we had to descend over 1000m at the sea level. The 30km National Highway 318 driving took us one hour.

The road was very steep and zigzag. The views of the mountains on both sides of the road are amazing, tall and ancient trees, campher trees, water falls downpouring from the high mountains. It is an unforgetable road trip in our Tibet tour.

Zhangmu Town

Actually the town of Zhangmu is built on the hillsides with the single zigzag street ( aka Highway G318) . Viewed from a distance, the town looks like a fairly big mountain town.

The long, narrow and zigzag street is very busy and packed with street front houses, apartments, restaurants, stores, inns, hotels and trucks loading and downloading.

We were all shocked by the crowded trucks, mainly from Nepal for transportation service loading and downloading, and waiting for the checkpoint or customs.

The long queue makes the narrow street even much narrower. We had a little worry about the traffic since our tour group would have to pass throug the port and enter Nepal before 6:00pm.

Not soon our worry seemed unnecessary. All the drivers, taxis, trucks, tourist buses, vans, and cars have the tacit understanding on how to give way for the traffic at the highest efficiency without a traffic policeman!

Zhangmu Town – Zhangmu Port (樟木口岸）10km

Now we left the downtown of Zhangmu Town and continued to drive from Zhangmu Town to Zhangmu Port （樟木口岸）. The 10km road was a drive test for our driver who also came here for fist time. The Nepalese trucks lined up by the side the road, making the narrow road a single way! Again most of the drivers here had the skill and patience to move the traffic.

Zhangmu Port was very busy and teemed with all kinds of people, tourists, businessmen, vendors and Currency exchange scalpers.

Nepal is just a bridge away across the friendship bridge. We could clearly see the houses on the mountain side below us.

Zhangmu Travel Tips

Hassle-free Lhasa & Tibet Guided Tours

If you don’t want to go the do-it-yourself route and prefer the hassle-free escorted tours, here are some options for guided tours to Lhasa and Tibet:

Further Readings