The Silk Road travelogue part 1 - Xining 西宁

This tour took place in June 1995, where I spent 2 weeks traveling along the western part of China, following quite closely in the footsteps of those who used to travel the northern Silk Road.

The first stop in China was Chengdu 成都. But it was just to clear immigration and have dinner, after which we are off again. Our tour starts in Xining 西宁, with a warm welcome. There was even a banner put across the entrance to our lodge to welcome us.

This scarf being put around my neck is a gift to visitors, used to welcome them and show their hospitality, as well as to signify their status as dignified guests.
Xining has lots of temples like this one here. Most of them are Tibetan Buddhist temples.Here is a prayer wheel. Inside are lots of scrolls of prayers. Spinning it one round is supposed to be equivalent to reading all those scrolls inside once. You will find lots of these prayer wheels in the Tibetan temples. I think it is a great solution, since in the past, most people were illiterate and won't be able to read the scrolls.We also managed to squeeze in a visit to Qinghai Lake 青海湖.The lake is so big, you can't see the other side... looks more like a sea to me. And that is exactly what the name means. 青 means 'blue' (as in 石青, which is the blue colour used in Chinese painting) and 海 means 'sea'. We had a nice dinner here, with fried fish (caught from the lake), plus lots of Tsingtao beer, and slices of red tomatoes with sugar sprinkled over them. There was also a show on traditional Tibetan dance. Then it is off to the next stop, Lanzhou 兰州.