Xining

Took a long train ride then a long bus ride to Xining, covering a distance of over 1000 kilometers. Xining is the capital of the Qinghai province, a frontier region that has long been a battleground between Tibetans, Mongolians, Muslims, and Han Chinese. I got a bad cold during this arduous trip. The train traveled over a vast and desolate desert country where the Silk Road used to travel, then our bus crossed mountain valleys of snow-capped Qilian Mountains. Signs of Muslim minority villages and Tibetan nomads encampments were easy to see along the route. During the bus ride someone found out he had a winning lottery ticket that can get him a motorcycle. Someone at a nearby seat advised my friend Wei to hide his video camera to avoid trouble. We saw the lottery winner getting off the bus, but several guys got off the bus shortly after, possibly going on to mug him.

Xining has a large Han population, but also evidence of many ethnic groups living nearby. We visited the nearby Kumbum monastery, one of the 6 biggest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. I was amazed by the cultural relics inside the monastery, as well as the devout Tibetan pilgrims. We had a great chat with a young monk over butter tea (tasted pretty bad), and we came away with the feeling that Tibetan people fervently desire freedom and progress, but they hold no animosity toward Han Chinese like us.