We started our long journey west following the Silk Road across China on a very comfortable train ride from Xining to our first stop, Zhangye. This was our first high-speed train in China and definitely the nicest train we have been on so far this trip. It was a D class train which is the second fastest class of train in China capable of travelling around 200-250 km/h. It was only a quick two hour journey but we travelled over 340km.

That morning was spent exploring the lowkey streets of Zhangye. The public workout spaces in China are incredible, they are like a fully equipped gym with hundreds of different workout machines all free to use. We were walking around in the heat of the day, but even so there were still people doing a workout. I’m sure it would be absolutely packed in the mornings and evenings. We were saying how this kind of thing wouldn’t be possible in the US or in New Zealand as all the equipment would get destroyed in no time.

There was a famous 1000 year old Buddhist temple known as Dafo Temple. It is home to an enormous reclining Buddha statue. It was interesting seeing the Chinese influence on Buddhism here, with noticeably different styles of architecture and painting. The statue was very impressive, being around 35 metres long, and surrounded by statues of Boddhivastas.

The main attraction in Zhangye is the famous Rainbow Mountains which are about an hour's drive out of the city. We arranged for a driver through our hostel and a vanload of us headed there that afternoon for sunset. We made friends with a lovely girl called Bing from Hong Kong. She was on a week-long holiday in mainland China and was actually following a similar route to us, so we would be able to see her in some of our next destinations! We had no idea what we were getting into and it was only once we arrived at the ticket office megacomplex (the building itself would be similar in size to many New Zealand airports) when we started to realise what we were in for. The carpark was enormous and so were the crowds of mostly domestic tourists. We managed to get our tickets pretty easily and were soon on a bus from the ticket office to the first sightseeing stop. The systems in place here were outstanding, there were hundreds of buses looping around the national park dropping tourists at each site and picking up more. There were people whose job it was to organise the queues, much like a ski liftie at a busy ski field, and the buses were all full. Everything was working surprisingly smoothly considering the huge crowds and people were queuing in an orderly and calm manner. Given the crazy amount of people here we really didn’t have to wait in queues for long.

So what was all the madness about? Well the mountains are very beautiful and I can see why so many people flock here. Also we were there during the Chinese summer holidays at sunset which definitely contributed! However it was still a real shock for us to see so many tourists on a random weekday. We later learnt that China has a tourist attraction rating system which uses a five-tier scale, from A (lowest) to 5A (highest), to evaluate and categorize tourist sites in China. The mountains are ranked 5A, the same as the Forbidden City and Terracotta Warriors and makes it a major drawcard for Chinese people.

Bing was an excellent photographer and took some amazing photos of us. She was rather unimpressed by our boring camera poses and gave us some new ones to try. Being tall was a big benefit here as we could hold up our phone and camera to take pictures above everyone's heads. We met a lovely German couple called Felix and Franzi who were the only other foreigners we saw the entire time. They were on a road trip from Shenzhen (near Hong Kong) where they are living and studying their masters. As fate would have it they were also following the Silk Road but in a rental car instead. We were collecting a group of friends all following the same route West through China, and were very excited to see the landscape begin to change as we entered the Gobi desert at our next stop, Jiayuguan.

We felt like we had been transported to another world on our visit to Tongren, so it was a little surreal (and a little sad) coming back to Xining. This visit was short, just one day before we started our journey along the Silk Road. We were starting to feel a little more comfortable with how to “do” China and had a really nice afternoon and evening exploring the city. 

We enjoyed Jianbing for breakfast again at the same spot as last time, and gradually coaxed the owner's daughter to start practicing English with us. All of the kids learn English in school, but it is very rare for them to have any foreigners to practice on. This has resulted in a few brave souls starting a conversation to only then make a mistake and run away laughing! We try our best to always make time for these kids, they often have never interacted with a foreigner before and despite being a bit shy, usually are very polite, interested and friendly. 

Something they do very well in this country, much to my delight, is post cards!! Especially in the touristy areas, it’s not uncommon to find whole stores basically devoted to the things. Not only do they have postcards, but it’s also very common to see tables full of stamps. These are often very intricate and people carry around journals collecting stamps from different places in the country! I think this is also a big thing in Japan. So we happily spent some time in a lovely old store, stamping and writing and whiling away the hours. I hope as a loyal reader of the blog you are on my (intermittent) postcard list, but if not, please send me a message with your address and I’ll make sure you’re added! You might also remember a while back while we were hiking Manaslu, we talked about the caterpillar fungus that was being harvested by the locals and sold to China? Well, we had now come full circle and the street was lined with giant plastic model caterpillars and nearly every store had them for sale!

We were making our way towards the main mosque in the city, Dongguan Mosque. As we got closer, we could definitely feel the growing influence of both the Hui Muslims in the area. Stalls selling Nang breads, mutton and beef kebabs, and so many fruits were becoming more and more prevalent, and we ended up in a bustling and lively market leading up to the mosque. The mosque itself was very beautiful, an interesting blend of Islam design features and Chinese architecture that I hadn’t seen before. This is the largest and most important Mosque in Qinghai Province, and also one of the four major mosques in North West China, and it’s been through a lot to still be standing today! It was established in 1380 under the Ming dynasty, but has endured multiple reconstructions due to political upheaval and resulting destruction. The mosque is heavily used, it regularly welcomes 50,000 worshippers on Fridays and up to 300,000 during major festivals! We were visiting outside of prayer time, but it was still amazing to see the big courtyard which is no doubt often filled. In 2021 the main green dome and minaret domes were removed during China’s broader sinicization campaign, with the aim to make mosques look less foreign influenced and more traditional Chinese. I thought this was a bit disappointing on first read, but further research shows this was actually initially built in a more traditional Chinese style, and the minarets and domes were added in the 1990s, influenced by Middle Eastern mosque style. Even if the intention was to align with history, the community was generally unimpressed at this change and what it represented, the broader sinicization of religion in China with the goal of maintaining social harmony, national identity and limiting foreign influence. 

That evening we were wandering a park in the city somewhat aimlessly, and were again just shocked at what we found. This was quite a big, formal square like area with lots of manicured gardens and lots of different areas. It backed onto the museum and the art gallery and was very central in town. There were groups of people everywhere, on a random summer Thursday evening, and it was just amazing. There were community orchestras, choirs, dance groups, exercise groups, people walking, playing cards and just enjoying their public spaces. We love this aspect of Chinese culture and are excited to experience more of it when we travel east in a couple of months. 

We left Xining the next morning feeling so excited for what else we had to experience in China. We knew for now things were going to get more remote as we headed west, but Xining had got us absolutely buzzing for our return to the country in October, particularly the big cities.

We weren’t quite ready to leave Tibetan culture behind just yet, and had a plan to visit a town near Xining called Tongren. This town is home to a predominantly Tibetan population and is close to the border with the Tibetan Autonomous Zone, while still being accessible without special travel permits. We were particularly excited about this town as it is known for being the home of Buddhist Thangka art, a beautiful traditional style of Buddhist painting which we saw throughout Nepal and Tibet.

It seemed fate was on our side, and as we were having lunch in Xining we started chatting to a lovely man (via translation apps). He told us he was from Tongren and was heading there that evening. After some more discussion he offered us a ride with him, so we rushed back to our accommodation, packed in a hurry, and next minute we were on our way to Tongren with our newly made friend རྩྭཐངབུཆུང (who spoke no English). The drive was beautiful. It followed the yellow river up towards the Tibetan plateau, crisscrossing over huge bridges and passing straight through mountains via long tunnels. We were getting more of a sense of the infrastructural prowess of China. They don’t build roads like we do in New Zealand, instead they build their roads directly, and if there is a mountain in the way they tunnel through it. At times it felt like we were going from tunnel, to bridge, to highway on repeat!

We arrived in Tongren late that night and met his friend for dinner at an amazing yak noodle restaurant. The hospitality of the Tibetan people continued to amaze us, as our new Tibetan friends insisted they would pay for our delicious dinner while we chatted happily about Tibetan Buddhism over translation apps. We slept that night at his friend's place in the spare room. It was so special to be welcomed into someone's home so easily, and it didn’t feel weird at all, actually very comfortable. 

We said our goodbyes the next morning after we were given breakfast and a private tour around the local Tibetan monastery in town. A huge thanks to རྩྭཐངབུཆུང for your amazing kindness! Safe to say we were pretty amazed by the generosity and hospitality of the people we had already met in China. That evening at dinner we got chatting to a friendly Tibetan monk who told us it was his dream to speak English and visit another country one day. He was very stoic about the depressing reality that he likely wouldn’t be able to leave China in the future since the Chinese government makes it almost impossible for Tibetan people in China to obtain any passport. After exchanging WeChat contacts he insisted on paying for the meal and went on his way. Every time this happens we truly try our hardest to pay, but they are insistent, and culturally it would be considered rude to not accept their generosity. 

Another highlight of our time in Tongren was two walks of Kora around the monastery. One was an evening walk where we got a little lost, but led us up a path above the town to a panoramic view point over the whole valley. The second was a morning walk with so many locals, where we were constantly being told where to go in what order and felt so welcomed into the community. There is nothing like Kora around a special monastery to feel the spirit of the Tibetan community, and it has quickly become our very favourite tradition in the Tibetan Buddhism religion.

On our final day in Tongren we managed to catch our first local bus in China out towards a nearby monastery. We caught the wrong bus but it dropped us close enough, and with a 10 minute walk and a hitchhike down the road we made it to our destination, the incredible Wutun monastery on the outskirts of Tongren town. We walked inside one of the many Thangkha art studios in the area and immediately started chatting to a young monk called Jiayang who lives in the nearby Wutun monastery. Turns out the owner of the studio was his father, Master Tashi Dangzhou who had been painting Thangka art for over 30 years. Over some tea we had deep conversations about Tibetan Buddhism via translation apps and our new monk friend asked us if we wanted to see the monastery? 

So began our private tour of the monastery. Doors were unlocked and we were given access to all the beautiful stupas in this incredible monastery. One of the stupa rooms housed the official Guiness World Record certified largest statue of Avalokiteśvara, a bodhisattva (enlightened being) in Mahayana Buddhism revered for embodying compassion. It is hard to compare, but this monastery was just as beautiful as any that we saw on our Tibetan tour, largely due to the incredible selection of Thangka art covering the walls. After our tour, our friend invited us for lunch with his family that lived just outside the monastery. So we found ourselves in a traditional Tibetan family home eating the most amazing selection of meat, noodles, and vegetables. The lamb was so tender and delicious it’s making me hungry writing about it. His wonderful family were so kind, and his mum wouldn’t let us stop eating with the quote “Eat more now so you won’t need to have dinner later”, and of course we obliged! We ended up buying a small keepsake (a tiny Thangkha necklace painted by our monk friend's father) to remind us of this incredible day, and to say thank you to this lovely family welcoming us into their home, showing us their art, and giving us such an incredible tour of the monastery. Tongren was such a special way to close our Tibetan chapter and it really goes to show the kindness of the Tibetan people that we were looked after so splendidly.

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!

For most travelers, Lhasa is the gateway to the rest of Tibet. An arrival point for acclimatization days, and an introduction to Tibetan culture and customs. After our exposure to Tibetan Buddhism and culture in India, Nepal, and over the last few days, it was a special experience to finally be arriving in Lhasa with some understanding already. This city is one of the highest of its size in the world, sitting at 3,656m above sea level! We were pretty well acclimatized at this point and had stopped the Diamox, but it was still high enough to be inconducive to deep, restorative sleep and generally fatiguing, despite our time spent at altitude. The city is the historic spiritual and cultural heart of Tibet and was the seat of the Dalai Lama as spiritual and political leader from 1642 - 1959. Today the city is still home to a number of important monasteries, temples and pilgrimage sites, but there is also an increasingly obvious modern Chinese influence. You’re all going to stop reading if we mention the word ‘infrastructure’ one more time I’m sure, but I can’t stress enough how impressive the scale of everything is here. Driving in at night it felt like we were arriving in a big modern city, which wasn’t how I had expected to feel in Lhasa. From what I could understand this feeling is common and only increasing year on year. The population of the greater area is around 900,000, and the percentage of Han Chinese in this mix is increasing due to government incentives to move to the area. 

We had three days here which felt like a treat after the last week on the move, two days with the tour and then a day just exploring before our evening train into Mainland China. The girls were on a really tight budget so had opted out of the Lhasa sites, and the Italian family had mistakenly (and devastatingly) booked their flight back to Nepal one day early. This meant we got a whole day with Yeshi by ourselves which was a real treat, private tour vibes!

Over our time in Lhasa we visited four major sites for Tibetan Buddhism - Drepung Monastery, Sera Monastery, Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple. Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery felt very much like living, breathing places of worship and deep spirituality, with lots of visitors (both tour groups like us and local visitors). Again it was clear from the empty Monk residences, size of the maps of the monastery and the general quietness that what felt like energy to us was nothing compared to their former states. 

Drepung was perched up on a hill above the city and we got some amazing views over the valley, despite the cloudy day. With the classic Tibetan style white washed walls and traditional window and door coverings, you could close your eyes and really feel like you had gone back in time 100 years. 

Sera was very busy with families, as there is a particular deity here that you take young children to for blessings. It made for some great cute baby spotting for Edda and I, and walking through the leafy alleyways here was lovely. A highlight of the whole time in Tibet was watching the monks debate at Sera. Tibetan monastic debates are a dramatic and rigorous tradition used to train the mind and sharpen one's understanding of Buddhist philosophy.  A large group of monks were gathered in the courtyard paired up with one sitting (the answerer) and one standing (the challenger). The challenger begins with a dramatic clap and then poses their first question to the answerer. The challenger then follows up, and they go back and forth. Sometimes the process is slow, with long answers and pauses for thought, but often it is fast, quippy and very dramatic. They were debating in Tibetan so we didn’t know what they were saying, but it looked like a lot of fun and often got very fast paced and theatrical. 

Potala Palace felt more like a museum than a palace or a place of worship, but it was very special to be walking through the former residence of the Dalai Lama. Security was high and no photos were allowed inside, but the history was deeply steeped in this place. We saw some incredible three dimensional mandalas, made of ghee, gold and sand. This was our first experience of an intense tourist attraction in China, and with hindsight it is comical to look back and think how busy we found it!! 

Our final major site in Lhasa was Jokhang Temple. Located in the center of the old town, this place is an active worship site for many and a major pilgrimage destination with people coming from all around the Tibetan Plateau (often by way of prostrations) to visit. It was founded in the 7th century, and is home to the Jowo Rinpoche statue, a depiction of Shakyamuni Buddha that is believed to have been blessed by the Buddha himself, and bought to Tibet by Princess Wencheng. It is the most venerated object in Tibetan Buddhism. Being inside this temple was insane, it was packed with visitors and worshippers, but being outside it was almost more special. It is considered very meritorious to perform Kora around the temple on the Barkhor circuit, spinning prayer wheels, chanting mantras or performing prostrations. Walking this route at sunset with the locals was very special, despite visitors often getting in the way of this sacred act with their photo shoots while dressed up to the nines in traditional Tibetan constume… yikes. 

The whole downtown area around the temple was busy with monks, tourists, pilgrims and police. Once we were through the check point to get into the old town area, we loved exploring the shops, contrasting from Popmart (no Labubu in stock) to local Thagka studios. One day we were searching for a specific tea shop in the center of town and it turned out to be closed. We got chatting to an older monk on google translate, and tried to ask where else we could go for tea. He promptly got up and told us to come with him, walked us into a tea shop nearby, bought us a pot of tea, wished us well and was on his way. We could hardly even talk to him (Tibetan is not supported for voice translation on google translate), but he was so warm and friendly and kind. The old town was a real blend of new development (Popmart, KFC, photo shoots, new buildings with stylized facades to look “old”) and then pockets of history (pilgrims prostrating, Thanka studios, this monk walking us through centuries old streets to his favourite tea shop). It was a real privilege to stumble across these little moments in a very quickly changing place. 

It will be no surprise to any of you that we ate well while in Lhasa! We thoroughly enjoyed the “east meets west” buffet at the hotel every morning which offered everything from fried eggs to steamed buns. My highlight meal was the noodles and tea we had in a traditional tea house with Yeshi, and for the one and only time on the tour (at our insistence) he joined us for the meal. The noodles are everything we dreamt of and more, and this Tibetan variety was rich with flavour, heat and comfort. We found another spot which turned out to be a local hangout for young people, and thankfully a few other customers had enough English to help us out with ordering. KFC in China for the first time was also a great experience, ordering completely through a Wechat mini program not so much. Very hard, very confusing! 

Our newly found freedom in Lhasa felt like learning to walk again. I’m sure we’ll touch on this time and time again but everything is different in China. Sri Lanka, India and Nepal were in many ways “cut from the same cloth” and by the end of our time there it was feeling pretty easy. Something as simple as using maps is a real challenge, the English version of their google maps alternative (AMap) is hard to navigate and often incomplete. One night with the girls we tried to work out where to go for a few beers, and none of us had the first idea where we would even start with researching what might be a good place. We ended up back at the room with a box of beers and many good stories, which of course made for a fun night regardless. Every time we left the hotel felt like a battle with translation apps, map apps, WeChat mini programs, silent electric vehicles and culture shock. We were still loving it, but felt incredibly incompetent. We were so excited the first time we managed to book a DiDi (Chinese Uber) and I proudly reported back to mum and dad when I managed to ask someone where the supermarket was in Mandarin, and even understand the number when they told me it was on the second floor. The small wins felt amazing!

Before long we were headed to the train station in the pouring rain, ready to start our 20 hour journey through the Tibetan Plateaux to Qinghai province. We were both nervous for the trip, but armed with cups of noodles and boatloads of enthusiasm for our journey in this strange and exciting new world.