Xining (Lots of pics)

This past weekend was a 3 day holiday. Trying to make the most of the extra day off (plus I don't work on Tuesday), I decided to make the most of the time by taking a quick vacation to Xining with Liu. Xining is the province (province=state) just south of Tibet and has many Tibetean people and Tibetean culture. We landed on Saturday morning (Liu's 30th B-day) and explored the city for a while. During this trip we ate lamb almost everyday (in chengdu and chongching it was hotpot), since this was the speciality of this region. The second day we left to head to Niao Dao, a natural preserve where thousands of birds migrating stop to have a rest. Well my trusty navigator (liu) got us to a point where there were no transportation to anywhere else Qinghai Hu. This town reminded me a lot of Los Alamos New Mexico. Not only for the geographical location, but it was also the hub of China's nuclear arms program. We were stuck for a while before we found out that we could flag down a passing bus and catch a ride to the next city. After an hour or two we finally flagged one down and headed to Gansa. Gansa was awesome. One of my favorite cities in China. It is pretty far off the beaten path, so very few western travelers make it there. It is a nomadic Tibeaten town. Everyone was wearing the colorful beautiful clothes that make the culture so visually appealing. When I was walking around the market, we had an entourage. 5 or 6 people at all times following us around, just watching to see what I was looking at. I bought some great things in this city including a mandolin. During dinner we found out that there were no birds at the lake and that the lake was frozen, so we decided to turn around and head back to Xining the next morning. From Gansa to Xining was a 4 hour bus ride. The plan was to arrive at the bus station and catch another bus to Tongren, another Tibeaten town 4 more hours away. WHen we got half way there, we were stopped at a government checkpoint. The police pulled me off the bus because I was a foreigner. They stated that Tongren city was closed. How exactly an entire city closes to one person is beyond my comprehension. I later found out that the week before the Tibeateans had staged a demonstration against the CHinese governement. The government, being afraid that I was a reporter, decided to keep me out. So we had to wait at a police checkpoint for another hour before we caught the last bus to Xining. It was completely full, with people sitting on the floor. They weren't too happy when Liu and I trudged on the bus and made everyone tighten up even more. So we finally arrived back at Xining after 10 hours of traveling. The next morning we went to Tar Si a village with buddhist monks. This is where most of the pictures are from. Overall the trip involved a lot of time in buses, but it was really cool to meet the Tibeateans.




Some very old paintings on the walls at Tar Si

Me looking rather dapper.

More paintings from Tar Si

Beautiful ceiling

Liu and I in front of the altars

Nice Dreads!

This is the town we were stuck in

Nuclear research facility

Xining at sunrise

Xining at night

Cool!

Wishes she was cool

Tibeaten prayer wheels

People arrived at 5 in the morning to pray and will be there until 9 pm praying.

Prayer wheel with people praying behind

A monk who is walking circle after circle around the altars

Cool as the other side of the pillow

Frozen Lake

Looking good

Traveling on the bus

out of our hotel room window