We survived our 21 hour train ride from Lhasa to Xining on seats with fitful sleep and some very cute Chinese children to keep us company. The time had actually gone pretty quickly, and we had both had a few hours of sleep in all sorts of weird and wonderful positions. We had been inspired by Edda and Tekla and their very lean budget to change our seats from sleeper bunks to seats (for about half the price), and although cheaper we definitely both arrived feeling pretty sleep deprived! We had finally arrived in Mainland China and the culture shock we started to feel in Lhasa only increased. The entire time in Tibet had been easy mode with a guide, a personal driver, and our accommodation all booked. Now we were on our own!

Xining is the capital of Qinghai province in central China with a population of around 2.5 million people. In the Chinese city tier system it is only a tier 3 city, so relatively small by Chinese standards. Nevertheless we felt like we had just returned to modern civilization for the first time since Mumbai as it felt like a very modern city. The cities population is made up of a mix of Tibetan, Hui Muslim and Han Chinese, with an increase in Han Chinese in recent years. 

Our first day in the city after a big sleep was overwhelming but exciting. Everything was new and we spent the whole day learning. First impressions for me were surprise, confusion, excitement, and amazement. Almost every vehicle was electric, nobody spoke English, the people were so kind and welcoming. For our first breakfast in the city we had Jianbing (kind of like a savoury crepe) and the lady in the store was so lovely, she wouldn’t let us pay and said “Welcome to China”. We visited Popmart, Uniqlo and Sephora much to Alice’s delight, and really enjoyed being in a city again. We wandered around a nearby park that evening on a random week night and were shocked at what we saw. Aunties and uncles were forming huge dance groups, kids were playing ping pong on outside tables or kicking around balls. People were out with their friends and family enjoying a meal or chatting in the park. It felt like one big community enjoying a summer evening in Xining.  

We spent most of our time here adjusting to the culture shock, sorting our admin (it took us about two hours in a store to get our SIM cards), and enjoying what felt like the first modern city we had been in for a long time. We were already plotting a move to China, and slowly but surely getting our head around how to do things in this new environment. Alice had been doing Mandarin on Duolingo during the lead up to our trip, and I had started a couple of weeks ago. It was very cool to be able to try this out in real life, and we felt very proud of ourselves every time we managed to order a coffee semi successfully, or spot one of the handful of characters we recognized. 

Josh from the present time here, we are actually about two weeks behind with the blog. We have been writing these blogs for nearly six months now and are thinking it’s time for a buit of a tone shift. We’ve been writing really in-depth posts this whole time and loving it, but we’ve been really struggling to keep up with our crazy itinerary through China. We have been to seven places in the last two weeks alone, and have done so much in each location that we want to tell you all about. It’s not maintainable for us and we really want to be up to date with the blog so we can write them while things are fresh. So, we are going to try and shorten the future blogs, while hopefully still covering our thoughts, impressions and the overall themes of each place we visit. We are having the best time in China and can’t wait to share our adventures with you all!