A journey to another world

We took advantage of the May holidays and explored a new corner of China: this time we went to the northwest provinces of Qinghai and Gansu.

But let's start from the beginning: we haven't prepared so much for a vacation in a long time. Since there is no good public transportation network in Qinghai and we are not allowed to drive in China, we arranged our trip, including a driver, through a small local Tibetan travel agency. This year, a large influx of tourists was predicted for the May holidays, so we had to book all the trains in advance. Just a few hours after the tickets were released (tickets can only be booked 2 weeks in advance), all the trains were already fully booked depending on the route. But in the end, we managed to get all the tickets :-)

We started on April 28th with the overnight train from Suzhou to XiAn and the next day continued to Xining in the Qinghai province. In total, we traveled by train for 17 hours. But this time we didn't have snoring neighbors, so the journey was more pleasant than last time.

When we arrived in Xining, we went to the snack street to eat.

The next morning, our driver Zhaxi, a local Tibetan, picked us up. Zhaxi originally comes from Yushu, the place where a strong earthquake occurred in 2010, killing thousands of people. He has experienced a lot and thanks to his many stories, we were never bored. He also taught us a lot about Tibetan traditions and Buddhism.

Today's destination was Beishan National Park. On the way there, we visited 2 Buddhist monasteries. According to Zhaxi, the first one was built by three monks who killed the king in Lhasa and then fled to Xining.

Afterwards, we drove further to the next monastery in the mountains. Zhaxi told us that there are monks who retreat to caves for weeks, months, or even years to meditate and only survive on what other monks bring them. Quite an intense idea...

In the afternoon, we continued towards Beishan, where we set up camp for the night. It was my first time camping "properly". Despite temperatures around freezing point, we were able to sleep reasonably well. Simon and I have already made plans for camping in Europe when we return! The next morning, we hiked to the big waterfall (unfortunately fake :D).

Afterwards, we visited Simon's acquaintance. He had a noodle shop in Suzhou but then returned to Xunhua on the Yellow River in Qinghai. Currently, the family is living in a tent until their new house is finished. Our plan was to only stay for an hour, have a quick meal, and then drive back to Xining. However, we didn't take into account that it is currently Ramadan. Therefore, dinner is only eaten after sunset at 20:10. Accordingly, it took longer than planned. But it was definitely worth a visit!

On Sunday morning, Zhaxi picked us up again and took us to Haibei. There, we rented bicycles and wanted to ride 80km along the Qinghai Lake to our hostel. The first half was extremely exhausting as it was mostly uphill. From Haibei (about 3000 m) to the elevation of Qinghai Lake (about 3300 m).

However, the effort was worth it! When we arrived at the lake, we were overwhelmed by nature: blue lake, yellow desert, and snow-capped mountains in the background. After 50km on the bicycle, I finally switched to the car, while Simon completed the remaining 80km.

The next morning, the hostel owners invited us to an authentic Tibetan breakfast. We had tea with yak milk and a kind of porridge made from a special flour, tea, yak cheese, and yak butter. It sounds a bit strange, but it really tastes good! Fully energized, we got back on our bikes and wanted to ride the 60km to Heimahe. However, it was so windy that we could only move in a slow pace on a flat road. Completely blown away and with sand in our eyes, we asked Zhaxi to pick us up after 20km. We were disappointed that we couldn't continue, but it was impossible with that storm. Instead, Zhaxi took us to a cave where the guardian of the lake is said to reside. We then planned to drive to Bird Island, which was described as a tourist attraction in our travel guide. Unfortunately, the entire island was closed off due to nesting birds.

So, change of plans again, we returned the bicycles and drove back to Xining.

On Tuesday, Zhaxi picked us up for the last time. Today's destination was Kanbula National Park. By chance, we found out that Voith Hydro recently overhauled the hydropower plant here.

After two short hikes, we arrived at a nunnery. The landscape and the nuns or the monastery really impressed us. All the nuns, whether young (some were still children) or old, sat together in the prayer room and sang prayers while visitors presented them with donations. Simon and I listened for several minutes and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Then, Zhaxi took us back to the hotel where we unfortunately had to say goodbye to him. We are very glad that we met him. Apart from the fact that we would have been completely lost without him, he truly enriched our journey. He taught us so much and told us so many stories, making the trip something truly individual and special.

On our last day of vacation, we took the train to Zhangye to see the Rainbow Mountains. The mountains are made up of layers of rock with different minerals that have been pushed up to form mountains through tectonic processes.

Unfortunately, the Rainbow Mountains are a major tourist attraction, so you can only move around with buses and can only walk on small parts yourself. But the landscape is really stunning!

And now we're sitting on the train again, on our way back home. Thanks to the good rail network, we only need 10 hours by high-speed train from Lanzhou in the Gansu province to Suzhou for about 2000 km. Plenty of time to start processing all the impressions and experiences - and prepare the blog post.

Best regards,

Anna and Simon