Category: Gansu province silk road

Silk road tour, day 1 and 2, Lanzhou to Qinghai

We started our silk road tour by flying to Lanzhou.

The silk road:

Silk Road, also called Silk Route, ancient trade route, linking China with the West, that carried goods and ideas between the two great civilizations of Rome and China. Silk went westward, and wools, gold, and silver went east. China also received Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism (from India) via the Silk Road.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silk-Road-trade-route

Due to a flight schedule change it meant that we missed the tours of the city. We made it in time to go to the night market.

Zhongshan Night market.

Spicy potatoes with chili and coriander.
Yes. Axolotls for sale. Though legal I do not approve as they are endangered.
On the left are sheep’s heads. Yes, they eat the whole parts of the head.
Large walnuts and very expensive grapes.
Tofu and stinky tofu. I don’t know how they process the black stinky tofu but it tasted much like the original to me. Spice here is outrageous. I was in search of drinks.
Large sunflowers with the seeds inside.
This is whipped cream frozen with liquid nitrogen. See the video below.

We woke up early for breakfast then to leave to visit the Kumbum monastery. Some history:

Located 26km south of the city proper, the sacred Kumbum Monastery (Ta’er si), is the best of the sights in the Xining area. This attraction is generally acknowledged to be one of the six most important monasteries along with the  Ganden, Sera and Drepung monasteries in the Lhasa area, the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse and the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe. The ancient monastery, built during the 39th year (1560 AD) of the reign of emperor Jiajing (Ming Dynasty 1368-1644 AD), boasts a Tibetan name, Kumbum, which means a grand place housing 100,000 Buddhas.

 

The sight is most sacred due to the personages who have graced it with their presence. It was originally built upon the birth place of the founder of the Gelukpa Sect (Yellow Hat) of Tibetan Buddhism, Tsong Khapa. Two of his disciples from this region also went on to become famous in the Buddhist world, one becoming Dalai Lama, the other the Panchen Lama, both great living Buddhas. The present Dalai Lama, now in exile in India, also studied and lived here.

https://www.tibettravel.org/news/201404083599.html
Lunch outside the monastery area. Vegetarians decided they had enough eating family style with just a few veggies dishes thrown in.
There was fresh yogurt in the cup on top. It was too good to wait.
They monks do run the operation here.
Inside the large meeting room.
The grand vegetarian kitchen is a separate building and houses three very large woks for cooking. This is one of them.
Prayer wheels.
A 360 view of the central courtyard.
A large prayer wheel.
The Hall of Butter Sculptures (Suyou hua tang) contains many of the famous yak butter sculptures. This art has existed for many hundreds of years, originally coming from Tibet to Kumbum in the sixteenth century. The detail is incredible.
This is the house that the dalai lama will stay in when visiting.

After the monastery, we headed to Qinghai lake which is at approx. 3000 meters elevation. There were plenty of sights along the way.

Sculpture of a Taoist goddess.

Closet to the lake we stopped to rent bicycles and ride part of the way.

White yaks are rare and are used for pictures and riding. They live here on the plateau with a lot of space to roam.
A telephone booth?

At the lake, we checked into the hotel and I walked to the lake. I missed sunset but snapped a picture with the moon rising.

When your yak is as big as the car!