Moslem Xining

... little to distinguish it from nearly every other Chinese town or city we have gone through recently. An almost identikit town of high rise apartments, wide boulevard streets, a myriad of hotels, and insane drivers. If a sane driver came here, I suspect they would probably have a nervous breakdown. What does set Zhange apart though is the collection of Buddhist heritage hidden amongst the back streets. Turn around one corner and there is a small Taoist monastery ...

... the train company already had he money. And the ticket was just a peace of paper.. Who would benefit from another 700RMB did we say..?? (everybody knew what we were talking about here) The discusion went on for 1 hour, then seeing that we were pretty determined as a group they gave up after having jot down our names on a little carnet.<br><br>After slurping some instant noodle (theoritical taste: roast beef and tomato) and drinking a beer we called this day a end!<br><br><br><br>

... olleen turhaa, koska Shenzhen Airlinesin lento oli myöhässä 1,5 tuntia.<br><br>Lento Xianista Xiningiin pilasi suunnitelmani matkustaa junalla Pjongjangista Lhasaan, mutta näin toimien saimme yhden lisäpäivän käytettäväksi Xianiin. Xiningistä aloitamme 20 päivän Tiibetin kiertomatkan. Tapasin siellä myös ensi kertaa kaksi tulevaa matkakumppaniamme, jotka olimme löytäneet Lonely Planetin Thorn Tree -foorumilta.<br>

... it was the first time for me to be really excited in a while, probably the previous time was in Tiger Leaping Gorge while the places after that (Lijiang, Dali, Kunming, Hong Kong, Beijing, Pingyao and Xian) have mostly been nice but nothing totally different and amazing, what I expect to see during our three-week tour in Tibet.<br>

... s Mom from Kunchok's advisor, Anne. It brought tears to our eyes,<br><br>Jessica has learned to get around in the cab. She knows how to tell the cab driver in Chinese where we need to go. As for me, my Chinese has certainly improved in the past two weeks.<br>Jessica will be going home soon while I will be heading to Kunming, and then to Singapore and Taipei before heading home. <br><br>Hope you all having a good summer and hope to see you soon.<br><br>

... cuts of yak meat, and yak yogurt, which is unbelievably<br>delicious (still waiting to try the Yak Butter Tea), also cow stomach,<br>and skin (I know, right?). Yummy Hot Pot (Chinese 'fondue') and tons of<br>homemade shaved noodles (one of my favorite aspects of Chinese<br>cuisine). I digress, I could talk about food forever.<br><br> <br>We have done some great sightseeing, a lot of which is unique to<br>this region, because of the high ...

... and instruments used in Tibetan medicine, the best part were the paintings and illustrations showing reasons, symptoms and cures of many diseases and illnesses. We had a bit of fun with some of them which were quite graphic. But the highlight of the visit was the breathtaking 618 meter long scroll painting- the biggest in the world which took 27 years to make. It is snaked around the huge room and I couldn't get my head ...

... I did see the plaques with the four ancient guardians / gods. These plaques came from the ancient castle. I also saw the largest lion statue I have ever seen. After the museum we went to a meal with several dishes native t o the region. Most of it was a little weird although I did like the pork sandwiches and the last dish they served. The last dish was like a fried sugar cookie with an egg yolk based filling. After lunch we went to the ...

... and he was damn funny lah. 1) He refers to Rob as "the handsome guy on your blog" 2) He thinks Rob will take care of me in Mongolia hmmmmmmmmmm No. 1 is debatable, No. 2 is a definite no. I'm pretty sure if he sees some hot chick, he's gonna just desert me and leave me with not even a Lonely Planet Mongolia. Come to think of it, if he DOES abandon me, i am quite doomed. Which is why... I'm kinda learning cyrillic now ...

... He was desperately thinking of things to tell us ("Be careful of your bags". "Don't open that window") so he could keep talking. Later, in the dead of the night a less friendly policeman woke Marianne up as he chased some unfortunate sod through the train. Bit of a change of scenery too of course. We woke up to a much browner and muddier landscape, which seemed a bit more barren as well (this is a relative term for China ...