China Tour 2013

The small bus was scheduled to drive for 4 hours, but after one hour we stopped at a fuel station and a big verbal fight between the bus drivers wife and another truck driver started who would be the first filling up his tank. Actually an useless discussion as the station seemed to have run out of fuel and only after 45 minutes waiting we finally got fuel and continued our journey.



In the beginning a well developed highway, later smaller streets following a river which was running through this great looking area.



We arrived about 19.45 in Tongren, which is famous for its Longwu Monastery 隆务寺. The town itself was disappointing, one of these remote towns in nowhere in China and now being strongly developed by the government in adding high rise residential buildings, sports arenas and so on... does not really fit, but thats how it is.
We found an acceptable hotel (bargaining worked!) and grabbed some food in a shabby restaurant (there are only shabby restaurants!) and went to bed early after enjoying to watch the dancing of the locals on the main square.
The next morning we were lucky and got again fantastic weather with amazingly blue sky. We went to the monastery which is located at the end of the town and were surprized. Some pilgrims making their way around the monastery and also around every single temple, turning the countless prayer wheels at this place.
More than 150 monks are living here, among them a lot of younger guys and we could watch one of their debating hours (looked actually very strange to us).
The good thing here is: No tourists, no crowds of people around so we could take great pictures about the monastery, monks and pilgrims. A really great place and we enjoyed our time here.









Afterwards we took a cab to another monastery about 6 km outside of town, called Wutong 五屯寺, famous to be an artist place for buddist thangka paintings. After paying a small entrance fee one of the monks guided us through the monastery, opened the doors to the holiest temples (only no photographing) and also here we have been the only guys around.





A bit chitchat with the monk (his Chinese is really not much better than mine) and he showed us some of the paintings. Extremely nice, very detailed and also very expensive (20x20 cm starts at 800 RMB). We left without any purchases and walked the way back to Tongren. On the way back we could visit another small monastery, but not very spectacular.
The afternoon and evening in town were not very special, as there is honestly nothing to do. No bars, cafes, what a healty (and cheap!) lifestyle.
We got the tickets for the bus on next morning at 8 am which will bring us to Xiahe in Gansu Province.
Today was a great day, a lot of impressions of Tibetan culture in the middle of China.

After another almost 12 hours train ride in the sleeper wagon we arrived Friday morning at Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province. As the main railway station is closed for construction for the new high speed railway Lanzhou-Xining-Urumqi (even to these remote areas the bullet trains will run soon), the train ended at the West railway station and we had to make our way to the city (10 km). A friendly guy at the station warned us in very good english about the rude and overcharging taxi drivers and recommended bus line nr. 2 which will bring us to the bus station inside the city. So we squeezed in one of the city busses, packed with people and a driver who loved to hear his techno music while driving and while sitting inside his self made circle of teddy bears...
We were already wondering where we have get into, all people around us looked more like being from Turkey or Pakistan, not China.
Anyhow, after more than one hour in this funny bus we arrived, managed to deposit our luggage at the bus station and went for a walking tour through the city.
Xining is on about 2200 m altitude and the temperature was much colder than before. A big part of the population are Muslims and as it was Friday a lot of people were coming out of the famous Dunghuang Mosque and swept to the local markets around.





We felt even more strange if still in China, people have not much in common with the ones I saw before and





also the presentation of goods and food would not always match the standard criteria of Food and Drug Administration in China :-)



Only after a short moment of thinking to become a vegetarian we took our brunch, beef noodle soup in a local shop for 6 RMB! Afterwards strolling through the Tibetan Market, where I could not decide wether to buy a blue or a red cowboy head and afterwards getting on a small bus bringing us to our next destination: Tongren
It really feels that our adventure started from here, now really depending on my Chinese skills and not sure what to expect from the remoter mountain areas between here and Sichuan.