2008 new policy of traveling to tibet

Lhasa Open To Foreign Tourists, how travel for foreigners to Lhasa
needs to be arranged:

1. Everyone must be part of a group tour.
We asked how may people makes a "group" and the TTB wasn't 100% sure,
but thought that 2 people would be enough to make a "group". This
minimum number could be changed to 3 or 4, but today we were told 2.

2. Everyone in the group must carry the same nationality passport.
This means that if you are a Canadian passport holder, everyone in
your group must also carry a Canadian passport. If you hold a Canadian
passport, you cannot meet up with a person holding a Swiss passport
and form a group to travel to Lhasa.

3. All tours to Lhasa and the TAR must be guided and arranged before
arriving in Lhasa.
A tour guide will accompany you everywhere you go during your stay.
Also, in the past you could show up in Lhasa and put together a trip
to Everest Base Camp at a travel agency. Now, all travel plans will
have to be arranged BEFORE you arrive in Lhasa.

4. All hotels must be arranged in advance.
As Chris Jones mentioned earlier, not all hotels in Lhasa have the
right permits to allow foreign travelers. All hotel reservations must
be made at hotels that officially allow foreigners. Most of the
popular hotels in Lhasa will probably be okay, but there may be some
that are not.

5. All foreigners must have all of the proper permits before departing
to Lhasa.
This is nothing new, but you can be certain that all train stations
and airports will be checking everyone's permits.

6. Travel to Lhasa must be arranged at least 10 days in advance.
We have been told that an official itinerary must be given to the TTB
10 days before the customer plans to arrive in Lhasa. The TTB will be
doing at least some sort of a background check before a permit is
issued to travel to Lhasa. Before you could get a permit in 2 or 3
days. Now it will take at least 10 days to process...maybe even
longer.

http://www.tripbus.com/TibetTravelTips/4294324.html