Potala Palace
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Historic Ensemble Of The Potala Palace, Lhasa, 1994); National 5A Tourist Attraction · Lhasa, Tibet
The winter palace of the Dalai Lamas: a thirteen-storey fortress of whitewashed and oxblood walls climbing 100 metres up Red Hill above Lhasa, at 3,650 metres one of the highest great buildings on earth. Begun in its present form in 1645 over a 7th-century core, its Red Palace holds chapels, tombs of past Dalai Lamas and a thousand rooms of murals and gilded stupas, while the White Palace held living quarters and offices of government. A UNESCO World Heritage site and the emblem of Tibet - reachable by foreigners only within an organised, permitted tour. Visits follow a fixed one-way route on timed tickets, with a daily cap and a short time limit inside.
35 Beijing Middle Road, Chengguan District, Lhasa, Tibet, China
Daily; interior visits by timed slot, generally 9:00-16:00 with seasonal variation, capped daily and arranged through your tour agency. The square and kora are open from early morning.