Tianniange Hotel - Xining

... amongst traditional houses with solid doors protecting their courtyard from the outside world. Turn another, and there is a willow-lined street with a Buddhist temple and former monastery. It is down one of these that Dafo Si (or the giant reclining buddha) is housed. <br><br>The sheer scale of the Buddha is quite incredible. The largest indoor one in China, there is little evidence of it until you step inside a dark, smoke covered temple that is almost 1000 ...

... last second, one of the controller, maybe smitten with remorse (?) did let Nishi go through the gate... To our biggest incomprehension..<br><br>Then we understood why.. After checking everybody's tickets we saw coming the train staff with the head controller. They tried to have Nishi pay another time the ticket (which would be normal procedure in Europe). Being the best English speaker, I argued that since the ticket had been paid once, there was no reason to pay once more ...

... 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>

We didn't have too much time to spend in Xining as we arrived around 1 am due to the late flight, had a meeting with our travel agency at 9 am and our train departed at 11.30. So we didn't actually see anything in Xining, though it didn't actually matter as we were already looking forward to taking the train to Lhasa. In fact, I ...

... 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>

... It is an inland salt water lake, with a brilliant blue color. <br>We hiked a few miles to get close to it, and at about 10,000 foot<br>elevation, we were struggling a bit. The landscape is breathtaking -<br>surrounded by mountains - and a gorgeous large teal lake in the<br>middle. Unfortunately, the desertification in this region has caused a<br>lot of these mountains to become sand dunes, a bonafide desert next to<br>grasslands. The stark ...

... for your whole stay. You also have to provide an itinerary of where you will go. There are lots of agencies to provide the service but prices vary greatly and it took a while to get cheaper one. Although still an expensive, it was well worth it - but you'll hear about that in my later blog entry! Another preparation I had to make before Tibet was for the cold - It gets down to -15 degrees at night so I needed to invest in a ...

... Lake Kokonor zu fahren. Dieser See liegt auf 3200 Metern ueber Meer und ist der groesste Salzwassersee Chinas. Xining ist der Ausgangspunk fuer die Lhasabahn, mit der wir morgen weiterreisen. Nach wie vor geht es uns tip-top. Wir geniessen unsere spannende und ueberraschungsreiche Reise in vollen Zuegen.

... freeeezing. It's raining, and again, i'm wearing shorts. rarrr. why does it always rain in Xining when i'm inappropriately dressed? anyway... so here's the big news: I'm gonna skip the Tibet "Autonomous" Region (i.e.: Lhasa and beyond, westwards), because i've been quoted an insane 5,800yuan. and... the bigger news: i'll be heading to Mongolia. Will need to sort out some ...

... been colonised. But it has a very strong Islamic element, which manifests itself in about 1/4 of the guys wearing little white caps, mosques and iman towers doting the place, and the ability to have a sheep's head for breakfast. It gave the city a nice bit of individuality, and was the reason why we had forgone various "must-do's" to head out west. Being roughly off the tourist trail, Xining was a much more enjoyable stay as ...