Xiníng, December 22

I post another blog now, because I think I won't have time to blog from inside the Tibetan Autonomous Region. I uploaded more pictures too.

A stroll through the Tibetan bazar in Xiníng today: about fifty people told me: "hello!", one monk shook my hand, several vendors tried to rip me off. In my turn, I told them: "tashidelek", shook the monk's hand, told the fruit vendor that mandarins are only 3 kwai per kg (not 5) and probably still got ripped off later, when I bought a Chinese army hat against the cold.

Xiníng is a huge city, about 2.1 million people live here. Most seem to be Hui (Chinese muslims) or Tibetans. The city has at least two large mosques. They are among the biggest in the PR of China. Tibetans are very nice, funny and interested people. Somehow you can immediately see when a person is Tibetan, because their faces are different from the Chinese. And many wear traditional Tibetan clothes - warm, furry and colourful.

From Jiayùguan I took a train to Zhangyè, where I stayed just one day. Enough to walk around a bit and visit the big buddhist temple. It is built around an enormous reclining buddha statue, about 35 m long. Taking pictures of the 'big god' isn't allowed though. If I ever come in Zhangyè again, I will certainly take a day to visit the nearby monastries of Mati Si, built in and hanging from a sandstone cliff. But I wanted to have some time in Xiníng to prepare for my journey through Tibet. There are only two busses a day from Zhangyè to Xiníng: one arrives at 2 AM and the other departs at 7 AM. I chose to wake early so I could at least see where I was going. I had to wake the poor girl at the reception at 6 AM.

The ride over the Qílián Shan was really spectacular. The road climbs up and up. Gradually you find yourself on a plateau where yaks are grazing, surrounded by high peaks on all sides. The highest pass was about 3800 m, after that the road leads down to Xiníng. And that's where I'm now. Maybe I'll visit the Kumbum monastry tomorrow morning, before I take the train to Lhasa in the evening. As the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, it's one of the holiest places for Tibetans. You can expect more pictures later...