China-2024: Qinghai Lake and further West…

The first leg of our journey through China had come to an end. So far – so good amazing. As per, we were in “tourism till you drop” mode (up early, see and do and/or travel as much as possible, never taking it easy…) – just the way we like it. Yet no one was too concerned about the 3000+ kilometers of traveling by coach that lie ahead; after all – together with those thousands of kilometers would come shed-loads of walking-sightseeing-marveling-extraordinaire. And anyway – dwelling on the great distances ahead would only have been a distraction; much better to dive headfirst into a new adventure without overthinking it or wasting brainpower on unnecessary emotions. Just “get it done”, as they say. And that’s just what we did…

The long route ahead of us was somewhat unclear: most of the online information was only in Chinese, our driver didn’t speak any other languages, and my Chinese wife – visiting the region for the first time – also couldn’t understand much. And to top things off – it turned out that even many Chinese sources were way slightly off.

But before heading west, let me tell you a bit about the city of Xining – the start and end point of our big loop through deserts, mountain landscapes, and salt lakes.

Xining is the administrative center of Qinghai – not the most industrially developed or densely populated province: essentially a “provincial” province ). However, in China, you should always multiply everything by ten: the capital of China’s third-sparsest province still has a population of 2.5 million! Here are some views out of my hotel window:

I passed through here on my way to Tibet back in 2019. We strolled around the city for a bit and visited the main… mosque (really!) This time we didn’t even go for a walk – only the ladies went shopping at the local mall, while the gents… stayed in the lobby bar.

The hotel’s floor numbering was… original…

The floors aren’t numbered sequentially – 1, 2, 3… 19, 20, 2q… – but instead as 19A, 19B; 20A, 20B…

Why’s that? – we all wondered. Then it dawned on me – it’s to avoid having 40^th to 49^th floors! In China, the number four tends to be disliked, and as such is often shunned (“four” sounds similar to the word for “death” in Mandarin)!

One more photo of the hotel – and we were on our way again…

Back on the road – and straight away an unexpected observation…

Although Islam and Buddhism are said to be the most common religions in Xining, isn’t that… a Hindu temple? Or am I, as is often the case regarding such matters, mistaken? ->

No matter. What I wasn’t mistaken in was the fact that we’d embarked on our big loop-route of central China’s wonders and marvels:

Ahead lay over 3000 kilometers of desert landscapes. What would we see there? Still unclear. Let’s go find out!…

At first the roads impressed us with their quality, though the speed limits were a bit puzzling: 120km/h for cars – but only up to 100 km/h (and sometimes less) for others…

One surprising thing was the sheer number of wind turbines. China’s fully diversifying its energy sector, and it seems they’ve got everything: massive hydroelectric plants, a rapidly developing nuclear industry, and all sorts of other modern alternatives. Way to go. I envy them… quietly :)

Meanwhile, we were approaching our first (in this, the second leg of our China tour, which we’d just begun) tourist adventure – driving along the road around Qinghai Lake (literally “Turquoise Lake”), also known as Koko Nor. Why it has two names, I don’t know. And why the road around the lake has is called something else entirely – I don’t know either ) ->

Of all those Chinese characters in the name of the road, I only recognized the third one – cha, which sounds like the Russian for tea – chai. Why do they sound similar? Simply because we borrowed the drink, along with its name, from northern China! :)

The road is top notch, as you can see ->

But there are some oddities. The speed limit on this highway is… 60 km/h! Is that to better admire the scenery? ->

…Cameras are everywhere monitoring the traffic. Why?!…

After a while of head-scratching, it became perfectly clear: herds of yaks, horses, and cattle graze along the roadside. The new road was built – but industrial livestock grazing didn’t go away. The cameras are there to keep a check on impatient drivers wanting to break the speed limit and increase the risk of a high-speed collisions with an animal…

If you look closely at the above photos, you’ll notice completely empty bike lanes and pedestrian paths as well. Apparently, these were constructed with future plans in mind (and in China, plans usually get realized). We even noticed a rest shelter for cyclists and pedestrians – how about that?! (Although, curiously, we didn’t see another for miles before or after it.) ->

A logical question: why did we choose to go by road instead of flying? Simply because many of the most interesting places don’t have airports! This is very remote Chinese hinterland – not the Shanghai or Hong Kong, or the Sichuan and other rich provinces where you can practically fly from village to village. Things are simpler here, but along the way you get to see all sorts of sights.

Qinghai Lake is a beaut – but not something incredibly magical. We still decided to stop here for a bit. Handily, it comes with a huge tourist complex:

For the next few days, we’d be traveling at altitudes of over 3000 meters above sea-level – something we’d experienced before for short periods, but this time it’d be constant over days. For those who’ve climbed much taller mountains, this might seem amusing, but for newbies such altitudes can feel rather uncomfortable.

Kicking things off – here’s the altitude of the lake:

Stupa. Beautiful:

Having your photo taken with seagulls is a big hit with visitors – but it’s risky: a lucky few suffered in the most natural yet unsavory of ways )

It seems the lake was at its peak water level: various lakeside areas were flooded:

Definitely flooded – this wasn’t intended:

A small park featuring sculptures from ancient military and historical epics of different times and nations:

We even came across something related to the Tale of Igor’s Campaign. We weren’t expecting that…

Back on our way – the highway having become a minor road (with less traffic)…

The road started winding through the mountains:

These scenes weren’t captured from the coach. Only a drone in the hands of a skilled operator – like DZ – can capture shots like these:

From the bus, it looks more like this – but even so the vast Chinese countryside with its wind turbines dotted across endless fields is stunning! ->

Here’s a small mountain pass. Not too high up – just 3817 meters – but we decided to stop and stretch the legs…

// It seemed strange that there aren’t any cameras on the poles here…

Brief walkabout – with no touristy intentions…

Moving further along, we encountered an unexpected sight: curious tourists stopped to photograph the birds, attracted here by a generous offering left by the locals – a yak’s head!

I’d never seen such a feast before.

A while later and we were approaching our next significant treat of the route: Chaka Salt Lake – so stunning a natural site it needs its own post. Coming up next!…

The rest of the photos from our China-2024 trip are here.