My Xining Travel Blog

Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, turned out to be already more wild than expected. It was far less modern than the other cities. The most obvious sign for this were the missing chain stores of Mc Donalds, KFC and Starbucks. We arrived after a comfortable night on the train. Chinese sleeper trains are of good quality with open 6 berths compartments and clean bed sheets. There is also a wake up service from the attendant in each carriage. The youth hotel was closed and we ended far outside of town in a kind of 4x4 car club accommodation. It had a certain American Wild West bar atmosphere with plenty of 4x4 decorations and route pictures. I struggled with the very kind, but confused receptionist to understand where we were and what would be our options to do something. Luckily she called an English speaking friend and we got all the information over phone. We decided to stay for one night and to visit the Sera Monastery about 25 km out of town. The bus stopped just in front of the hotel door. We had a quick meal in a small family run Muslim noodle shop with all men here were wearing the traditional Muslim white head cover. The kind receptionist helped us to get the right bus and waited with us outside. The buses had already passed while we still tried to identify the characters. It was a pleasant 1 hour ride to the monastery and we were surprised by the Tibetan touch of the town. The hills had prayer flags and streets shops sold temple goods and Tibetan handy craft. We bought an entrance ticket and visited the several monasteries scattered along the hill. It felt like in Tibet with the dark temples, pilgrims doing their prayer exercises in front of the temples and offering white scarf’s, butter lamps and Tibetan style painting on the walls. The Sera Monastery complex has a huge historic significance since it is the birth place of the founder of the famous Yellow hat sect and dates back into the 16th century. At this time the area was called Amdo kingdom and part of Tibet. The more we read about this area the more surprised we were. The birth place of the current Dalai Lama was not far from here and almost all Dalai Lamas came from this region and not from Tibet. There is even a holy mountain similar to Kailash with the name Mt. Amnye Machen. It is 6282 m high and it takes 7-9 days on horse to surround it while pilgrims take weeks. We got a little bit templed out and were finally sitting at the entrance gate of the main complex just watching people - a mix of pilgrims and Chinese tourists. It was late afternoon and somehow more and more young monks were showing up. They came first in groups of three and then more and more. They looked very colorful in the red robes with yellow and some had the yellow hats that gave the sect the name. Slowly I understand what was going to happen. The sect has the tradition of debating. The young monks meet in the afternoon and have a kind of arguing competition about religious topics. They group in pairs and one is standing and one is sitting. Each argument is supported by loud hand clapping to give it more emphasis. This is great fun not only for the watchers, but also the arguers. I have seen it during my trip 3 years ago in Tibet. And this is exactly what happened. Soon we were surrounded by hand clapping and shouting monks. It gave us a very special and unusual feeling as been suddenly catapulted into a different world. We watched one hour and went on a half circle around the monastery on the pilgrim path (kora). The way back to town we met a Tibetan couple who wanted to practice English. We had a cheer full conversation with a lot of laughing. She was educated as nurse and this time was come for a family private tour here. It was getting now very chilly since Xining is already at 2500 m altitude. We fought the cold by having downtown a very nice hot pot meal. Hot pot is a pot filled with different kind of boiling sauces. Several kinds of ingredients from meat to vegetables, mushrooms or tofu are dipped into the sauces, boiled and eaten. It is similar to meat fondue, but with a different stock and very popular in China especially during the winter season. We discussed out travel plans and decided to see more of the Amdo Tibet culture. There were the two small Tibetan towns of Tongren and Xiahe further into Qinghai, bordering to neighbor province Gansu.