china guide

Qinghai is one of the most under-rated places in China. The Lp guide has about 8 pages for the whole province. Most people don't realize that all of Qinghai was a part of the Tibetan Kingdom until the 1920's (Qinghai became a province of China in 1928). There are over 1.1 million Tibetans in Qinghai province. It is an excellent place to see the Tibetan culture. The current Dalai Lama was born in Qinghai about 20 minutes outside of Xining, the capital city of Qinghai. Xining itself isn't the coolest place in China but it isn't too bad either. The city has 1 million people and has a large Muslim (Hui) community (around 250,000). One of the largest mosques in China is in Xining. If you can, check it out on a Friday around 1pm. You will see nearly 30,000 Muslims worshipping there. There is also a relatively large Tibetan population in Xining (around 40,000). Check out the Tibetan market directly across from the main Xining bus station early in the morning. There are lots of Amdo and Kham nomads that hang around that area. Traveling outside of Qinghai can be a bit difficult if you cannot speak Chinese or Amdo Tibetan. The areas in the Xining vicinity are mostly Muslim so a good knowledge of Chinese will be very helpful. Once you get about 90 minutes outside of Xining, you are among the Tibetan people. The northeast area of Qinghai is inhabited by Amdo Tibetans. Many of them are nomads living in black, yak hair tents raising yak and sheep. Most of them cannot speak Chinese. In the fatr south of Qinghai, the Kham Tibetans live They speak a different dialect of Tibetans than Amdo. They also are mostly nomadic. Most places in Qinghai are now open to foreigners. Some places that are closed to foreigners are Delingha county west of Qinghai Lake, nuclear testing is done there and foreigners are not allowed. It isn't that cool anyway. You wouldnt want to go there. There are two counties in Golok Tibetan Autonomous prefecture that are closed to foreigners. They are Darlag and Banma counties.

You can pick up a permit for these counties at the PSB in Machen (Dawu in Chinese) for around Y35. Qinghai is broken up into 7 Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures: Haibei, Hainan (Chabcha in Tibetan), Haidong, Haixi, Golog (Guoluo in Chinese), Jyekundo (Yushu in Chinese) and Huangnan. All of these areas are great if you want to see Tibetans. My recomendations for you are the following...Qinghai Lake, Gonghe in Chabcha, Yushu town, Tongren (Repkong in Tibetan), Ta'er Si (Kumbum Monastery), Machen (Dawu Town in Chinese), Nangchen and Mengda Lake. You can reach nearly all of these places by bus from Xining. One hour outside of Xining and you are at 3200 meters so be careful of altitude sickness. Most of southern Qinghai sits above 4200m. Qinghai is very remote once you are outside of Xining. The Xining metro area contains nearly 3/5 of the provinces population. Outiside of Xining is very remote and very barren and very poor. There are no nice hotels, hospitals or many English speakers. Take a Chinese and Tibetan phrase book with you if you cannot speak the languages. Qinghai is a great place and I would recommend it to anyone. Very very few travelers spend time in Qinghai. Most are there for only 2 days or so to take the bus to Lhasa.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. I would be more than willing to help you out.