Featured Destination: Xunhua County, QInghai (循化县,青海省)

I spent a few hours this week passing through the county (and town) of Xunhua. If you look in the Lonely Planet for Qinghai Province, you will find a small section about Xunhua, so I won't go into too much detail here on how to get there, where to stay, etc. Let me just share a few pictures and my own recommendation of the place.

First, Xunhua sits in a fertile valley along the banks of the Yellow River. It is surrounded by arid mountains of red, brown, and sometimes almost purple coloring, making for an amazing contrast of color between the lush green of the farmland, the deep blue of the river and sky, and the red rock of the mountains.

Second, Xunhua is the home of the Salar (Muslim) ethnic minority. The vast majority of the Muslims you see here are not Hui, but Salar. They speak their own language (similar to Uygher) and at times look more central Asian than Muslim Chinese.

Third, there are also a large number of Tibetans living up in the mountains surrounding the large Xunhua valley. Wendu Monastery is the largest in this immediate region. It is situated just 4 km off the highway stretching from Xunhua to Tongren, and about 25 km from Xunhua Town.

Fourth, Xunhua town is a very quaint and inviting place. It is small, the streets are lined with trees, and there is an abundance of fresh fruit (in summer) and local family owned "tea gardens" where you can eat a meal or just drink Eight Treasure Tea (八宝茶).

Fifth, there are innumerable places to hike in this immediate region. You can take off walking from town to hike along the river or up in the mountains. You can follow the Lonely Planet instructions to get to Mengda Heavenly Lake. Or you can follow my instructions on how to get to Daowei Tibetan Village and/or Dalijia Peak.

Sixth, you can take a dip in the Yellow River. There is a large swimming race every year in the river just outside of town. This year's race was held earlier than usual because of the Olympics coming up next month. Normally it is held in August. The water here is cool but clean.

Xunhua is a great place to visit any time of the year, but especially from Spring through late Summer. I don't think you will be disappointed by taking a few days to explore this region!

Dalijia Peak

Today I drove the highway that traverses the pass just underneath Dalijia Peak (see our website for more info on this mountain). 

Here is a new picture of the peak, which rises to more than 4,500 msnm (14,850 ft.):

Xiahe Travel Update: No Good News

As of Thursday, July 23rd, Xiahe and the entire Gannan (Southern Gansu Tibetan Prefecture) region is still officially closed to foreign tourists. This month, many things have actually become more strict, instead of loosening up as we had expected.

For instance, there are now 2 checkpoints on the highway between Linxia and Xiahe that didn't exist at all from March all the way through June.

Just in the last couple weeks, these new checkpoints have been set up to check vehicles entering the region. They are screening primarily for foreigners, journalists, and wanted Tibetans, but many local vehicles are also being forced to register.

These checkpoints are different than any that we saw earlier this year, because they have actually blocked off most of the highway, and cars have to weave in and out of large barriers that have been placed across the road to keep traffic from driving through at full speed.

So I guess the point of all this is to say, "Don't try to visit Xiahe or Langmusi anytime soon!". You won't be able to get here.

Instead, I recommend you take advantage of the travel articles available on this blog, as well as what I have posted on our website (http://www.snowymtncafe.com/).

I will keep posting to this blog at least a couple times per week with new articles and updates, and hopefully one day I will have good news about the opening of this region to foreign tourists!

Featured Destination: Songmingyan National Forest Park

I am sure you have never heard of Songmiyan National Forest Park, but it is truly a gorgeous place to visit!

Located within Linxia Prefecture (临夏州) in Hezheng County (和政县), Songmingyan (松鸣岩) is a destination that is popular with locals and quite a few tourists from Lanzhou, but very few other outsiders.

There is an entrance fee of about 30 RMB to be paid upon entering the park area, but it is worth the price, especially if you can go on a day with clear blue skies.

You will see large mountains covered in forest, lower hills covered with farms and fields, and a few higher peaks towering off in the distance (Gannan Tibetan Prefecture, which is home to Xiahe and Langmusi, begins on the other side of the larger mountains).

To get there, take a bus from the Linxia South Bus Station (临夏南站) going to the town of Kangle (康乐), and ask to get off at Songmiyan. You can also hire your own taxi for the day from Linxia, or by first taking a bus to the town of Hezheng, and then hiring a taxi from there. It is about 1 1/2 hours by bus (10-15 RMB) to get to the park entrance.

Featured Destination: The Geographic Center of China

The vast majority of people do not know where the exact geographical center of China is located, and many people have probably never even thought to ask. The reason why the location is not very well-known is because it happens to be right in the middle of one of the poorest counties in the nation, far from any Chinese-speaking community, in the middle of Dongxiang Minority Autonomous County (东乡族自治县）.

For those of you who have never heard of the Dongxiang people, they are a Muslim minority who speak their own native language at home and in their communities. There are about 500,000 Dongxiang in China, and most of them live in the rugged mountains in and around Dongxiang County, which is part of the larger Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture.

Dongxiang County is almost 100% mountainous. The altitude ranges from about 1600 m along the banks of the Yellow River up to 2600 m on the highest peaks. Almost all major roads in the county and the towns with the most people are located on top of the mountain ridges. The ridges are rounded enough for there to be villages and highways, but the valleys are often too narrow and steep for either houses or any kind of road. So it is an interesting place to visit!

To get to Suonanba (锁南坝）, the largest town and commercial center of Dongxiang County, simply take a bus from the Lanzhou South Bus Station (兰州汽车南站）．The drive is spectacular at times, as the road follows the top of the ridge all the way to town, and the trip should take 2-3 hours (20 RMB).

To get from Suonanba to the Geographic Center of China, you will need to hire a local taxi or private car (there are many around) to take you to the village of Dongling (董岭), located about 30 km north of Suonanba on top of a high mountain ridge (you will be driving on top of the mountains the entire time!). When you arrive in Dongling, it will be easy to see the odd-shaped tower sitting on top of the mountain just a short walk away. That's the marker for the Center of China.

Another way to return to Lanzhou (or to come to Dongxiang) is through the city of Liujiaxia (刘家峡), which is the starting point for trips to the Buddhist grottoes of Bingling Si (see your Lonely Planet). There are a few buses every day (very few!) from Suonanba to Liujiaxia and the trip covers about 60 km and takes 2-3 hours. From Liujiaxia it would be possible to hire a taxi to take you up to Dongling (30 km) and on to Suonanba.

Here are some more pictures from around Dongxiang County:

New Police Checkpoint

On Friday afternoon, we were stopped for 3 hours while we were driving back from Linxia to Xiahe. This new checkpoint is located right at the place where Linxia and Xiahe meet, along the main highway.

Here's the story as I wrote it for my family back home in the States:

We had been gone for 2 days visiting a good friend in a town about 100 kilometers away from where we live in Xiahe. Today at 2:30 pm we managed to head out of town on our way home. It is about a 1 hr 20 minute drive under normal conditions.

At 3 p.m. we were stopped at a police checkpoint located right at the border where our prefecture meets the prefecture that we had been visiting for 2 days. Checkpoints have become a way of life since the Tib-et-an riots that happened back in mid-March, so this was nothing new. However, this was the first time since March that there had been a checkpoint at this location. Most of the time we were able to drive straight through on home without being stopped at all.

I was first asked by the police (and the military guards standing with him), "where are you going?". I replied that my family and I were "Going home". I then explained that we lived in this prefecture and that we were allowed to be there, even though other outsiders are currently banned from entering.

They seemed content with my answers and all seemed well, until we were told that we would need to wait for approval from "up above". They were not referring to a messenger from heaven, but from a particular office in the police department. They had made a phone call and were now waiting for a response saying that yes, we could continue on our journey. And thus began our afternoon sitting on the side of the highway, with my 2 1/2 year old boy, 15 month daughter, and 5 month pregnant wife, and the testing of my patience.

You have to understand that I could have done these guys' jobs better than they can. I know how their local government works better than they do, and I knew that we had permission to do what we were doing, even if they didn't. They kept referring to local government bureaus that really don't even exist, and how these people had to approve for us to travel on home. They were doing all they knew how to do, but therein lay the problem. They didn't know too much!

So we waited, and waited, and waited some more. My kids played in the gravel, chased chickens at a nearby homestead, tried to eat some of the gravel, screamed a bit, ate some peaches, chased chickens a bit more ... for 3 full hours, from 3 pm all the way until 6 pm.

Finally, after I made numerous phone calls to people in the local government who I thought DID know how things were supposed to work, the necessary approval arrived and we were 'free to go'. And just in time! We were just getting the kids washed up to get ready to head back down the highway to get some dinner at the last restaurant we had passed.

It was another hour or so to get home, which made the total trip time right at about 5 hours... to travel 100 kilometers! I hope that we don't have to go through that again... especially for something so harmless as trying to get home to put the kids in bed!

(I don't recommend trying to visit Xiahe right now, either from Linxia or from Tongren. There are very strict checkpoints with police and military on both routes. It looks like it is going to be very tight here until after the Olympics are over, at least.)

Featured Destination: Tianzhu (天祝)

It is likely than you have never even heard of Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County (天祝藏族自治县), located to the northwest of Lanzhou.

Although Tianzhu is home to quite a few Tibetans, most of these have lost much of their cultural identity and traditional language and dress. In other words, they are Tibetan by virtue of their heritage. This is about the only downside to visiting their region!

Although relatively close to Lanzhou, and not in a direction that one typically thinks of being a Tibetan area, Tianzhu and its surrounding landscapes are suprisingly very much like what you see in the Xiahe region.

There are many big mountains, with the highest peaks reaching 4,000 msnm, that make up the very southern part of the Qilian Mountain range that straddles the Gansu-Qinghai border for more than 1,000 km.

Tianzhu is also home to a very large number of white yaks. It is known as the home of the Tibetan White Yak. These are not hard to spot as you travel the roads that cross the county.

When I visited Tianzhu, during the last half of May, I was amazed by the coolness of the air, the beauty of the mountain rivers and lakes, and the ruggedness of the mountains.

I was never able to visit the town called Heaven ("Tiantang" in Chinese) located at the opposite end of the county, but I hear it is beautiful, nestled along the banks of the Datong River. Tiantang is home to a fairly large monastery with visiting monks from places as far away as Labrang and elsewhere.

You can get to Tianzhu by taking a bus from Lanzhou (2-3 hours, 20-30 RMB). Try the Main Station, located near the Train Station, or possibly the West Bus Station.

Once you arrive, you will need to hire a private taxi to take you into the more rural regions of the county and to the town of Heaven.

More Checkpoints, Less Freedom

In my last post, I mentioned that it shouldn't be too difficult to get to Xiahe, even though it is still officially closed to tourism by foreigners.

Well, that is no longer the case. Within the last week, a new checkpoint has been set up on the highway between Linxia/Lanzhou and Xiahe and you will most likely be sent back to Linxia or Lanzhou if you try to take a bus to Xiahe on that route.

There are also more military and police patrolling the streets in Xiahe than there have been for the last month or so. I am not sure why the increase, but probably just as an extra 'precaution' before the Olympics begin in the next month or so.

If you want to travel in this region and see Tibetan culture, please consider visiting Qinghai Province. I have heard that there are almost no restrictions whatsoever on travel to the Tibetan areas of Qinghai.

For some articles and recommended places to visit in Qinghai, see my articles on Yushu, Nangqen, and Daowei posted on our website: http://www.snowymtncafe.com/

Business is non-existant for us. We were hoping to be back open by now, but so far no luck.

In the meantime, I'll keep this blog updated, hopefully with some new travel articles very soon.

Cheers,

Eugene

(the pics in this post were taken near Nangqen, in Qinghai Province)

Xiahe/Langmusi: Still No News

I just saw our local PSB friends this morning, and they said that they have still not recieved any news about a change in the situation here. So for now (as of July 1st) foreign tourists are still not welcome in this region.

I would say, however, that there are very few checkpoints on the highways and that if you were happy to just make a day trip to Xiahe, you shouldn't have any problems. Your "day trip" might be shortened by a few hours, depending on when and if the local PSB friends of ours find you, but you should have time to at least see the place!

That's about as best you have to look forward to for now!

More news when things change....