Xibai Hotel Xining

... Buddhist monasteries outside Tibet. Although somewhat full of tourists at times, it is still a fully functioning monastery, housing 600 monks and playing host to any number of bedraggled looking pilgrims, prostrating themselves on the floor at various points. Prayer wheels line many of the walls of the temples, whose insides are filled with shrines and a variety of offerings. Going into these, and perhaps into areas where you are not necessarily meant to be, you ...

... last second, one of the controller, maybe smitten with remorse (?) did let Nishi go through the gate... To our biggest incomprehension..

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 ...

Viimeisenä päivänä Xianissa lähdimme Hua Shanille, joka on yksi taoismin viidestä pyhästä vuoresta. Alkuperäisenä tarkoituksena oli patikoida ylös vuorelle ja samalla kohottaa kuntoa ennen Tiibetiä. Aikataulullisista syistä jouduimme turvautumaan köysirataan, jotta ehtisimme nähdä alueesta mahdollisimman paljon ennen lentoa Xiningiin. Hua Shan osoittautui odotettua jylhemmäksi kalliomuodostelmaksi. Valitettavasti my ...

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 ...

Sorry for the silence. Jessica and I have been super busy but the past few weeks have been quite a learning adventure. Our hosts have been warm and friendly and we have seen lots of places, met lots of people, and learned about Tibetan medicine which incorporates prevention concepts innclduing nutrition! Today, we met a group of medical students from the States including from Standford (Laura: I told him to find you when he does his Peds rotation).
Xining, Qinghai, China maywang

... bonding time for
the American and Chinese researchers to bond. As dinner was nearing an
end, one of the American mentors received a phone call and quickly
asked myself and three other researchers to go with him. We were going
to meet one of the most important governmental figures in Qinghai
province!


Just this week I have learned so much about the intricacies of
business culture here in China. There are so many ...

... 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 ...

... massage by blind massage therapists. The second part was treated with a clean laundry and european food for a day. The next day we are back in action setting up our tickets and permits for the following night to Lhasa. We assembled into a group with a few other travellers because the government is not allowing individual travelers since Mr. Bush gave the Daili Lama a Medal of Honor. Three days ago we could not even form a group, so the ...

... in this place, and it's huge and barky and VERY dirty and smelly. It drooled all over me today, and it's disgusting. It makes the dog at Rosie's in Cambodia look like... it came out of a Pedigree ad. Farking hell.... freaks me out. We also bought an anti-dog device thingy today at the Tibetan market. It's basically a piece of metal at the end of a piece of string, and you're supposed to swing it at dogs that attempt to attack you. Rob's carrying ...

... the two, there's always the option of combining the two - by using yak butter to stick money to statues... Which leads to the reason why I wanted to come here - the monastery is famous for its yak-butter sculptures! Eventually we found them, just one large (although intricate) piece, almost like a 3-D mural. But incredibly well done - you could only tell it was butter because one of the buddha's hands had fallen off. Found ...