"You are heading where?" a friend asked when I mentioned I was going on a journey to Northwest China. "To Xining," I replied. "Why?" I sat him down and explained in some detail my fascination not just with China’s western provinces and regions but also with Qinghai itself. In the 1990’s the province was not a major tourism destination. Indeed it was developing, for example, through mineral extraction and related industries. However, my visits to that vast, lightly populated plateau revealed to me the opportunities that lay there both for exciting, adventurous travel plus great photography.

Xining is the capital of Qinghai province in western China, and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. It has 2,208,708 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 1,198,304 live in the built up area made of 4 urban districts.

The city was a commercial hub along the Northern Silk Road's Hexi Corridor for over 2000 years, and was a stronghold of the Han, Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties' resistance against nomadic attacks from the west. Although long a part of Gansu province, Xining was added to Qinghai in 1928. Xining holds sites of religious significance to Muslims and Buddhists, including the Dongguan Mosque and Ta'er Monastery. The city lies in the Huangshui River valley, and owing to its high altitude, has a cold semi-arid climate. It is connected by rail to Lhasa, Tibet and connected by high-speed rail to Lanzhou, Gansu and Urumqi, Xinjiang.


Tourism
Many tourist attractions center on Xining, the provincial seat of Qinghai.

During the hot summer months, many tourists from the hot Southern and Eastern parts of China travel to Xining, as the climate of Xining in July and August is quite mild and comfortable, making the city an ideal summer retreat.

Qinghai Lake is another tourist attraction, albeit further from Xining than Kumbum Monastery (Ta'er Si). The lake is the largest saltwater lake in China, and is also located on the "Roof of the World", the Tibetan Plateau. The lake itself lies at 3,600m elevation. The surrounding area is made up of rolling grasslands and populated by ethnic Tibetans. Most pre-arranged tours stop at Bird Island (鸟岛, niǎo dǎo). An international bicycle race takes place annually from Xining to Qinghai Lake.

My first visit to Xining was a short stay in 1996, taking in some of the city along with nearby Qinghai Lake. Returning in 1997, traveling by rail overnight from Golmud, I expected to spend a couple of days but went on to stay for a week discovering so much of the city’s colorful diversity. A third visit, in 2000, was a stopover en-route to Lhasa.

What fascinated me, from my first moments in the city, was how different Xining felt to the rapidly internationalizing cities of China’s eastern seaboard. It resembled an interface where the country’s developing urban scene increasingly encompassed so many ethnic groups, some having distant associations with the fabled Silk Road of ancient times. This ethnicity translated into some unique building styles within the growing modern skyline, for example the minarets of downtown Dongguan Mosque. One of the most significant and largest mosques in northwest China, it dates back over 600 years. Contemporary images show it has been considerably enlarged since my earlier visits. There felt a noticeable Islamic feel to parts of Xining - a reflection again of its position on the major trade routes that connected with central Asia. Along neighboring streets there were stalls selling books, calendars, circular white hats for men, carpets, teapots and much more. Older men with long grey beards would sit chatting near schoolchildren fascinated with large birdcages.

Simply walking around Xining or sitting at alley food stalls was for me fascinating as I tried to identify the various people. Around 37 different groups live in or around the city, particularly noticeable are the Hui, Tibetan and Tu people. It was noticeable how when traveling up onto the plateau west of the city and towards the Qinghai Lake an increasingly Tibetan feeling emerged.

Xining, Qinghai’s capital, sits close to Gansu province. At around 2,200 meters the city is considerably lower than most of the surrounding plateau. However, its altitude creates summers cooler and significantly less humid than eastern lowlands, leading to its reference as ‘Summer Resort Capital of China’. The altitude and mostly clear skies also produce a noticeable diurnal (day and night) temperature variation.

Xining stretches along the middle reaches of the Huangshui River, a tributary of the Yellow River. That relatively narrow, though fertile valley provides a convenient communication corridor to Lanzhou and beyond. Access from eastern China follows a series of river valleys, including the Wei, climbing steadily up towards the plateau.

Xining was long seen as a frontier town. Formerly enclosed within walls it fulfilled major defensive roles during the Han, Sui, Tang and Song dynasties. With nomadic attacks penetrating from the west, regular battles were fought in its vicinity. The city’s name, Xining, meaning ‘peace in the west’, dates from 1104 during the Song Dynasty.

For over 2,000 years camel caravans headed up to Tibet via Qinghai Lake and Golmud, or traversed the Northern Silk Road via the Hexi Corridor towards Xinjiang. The city and its surrounds evolved into a commercial hub handling timber, wood, salt and more with related processing industries consequently evolving. For the few western travelers who ever made it to Xining in earlier days it must have been an amazing experience with so much resembling sepia images from geographical magazines - camels and porters carrying bulky goods around the narrow, dusty streets; people dressed in ethnic costumes from China and beyond; outdoor basic food stalls literally crammed along every alley; soldiers patrolling the streets or returning from battle and of course, the beggars and the poor, who were historically part of the scene in China’s remoter cities. Life then could be very hard and so different to the contemporary.

In the early 1950’s Xining underwent modernization and industrialization, including completion of a highway to mineral-rich Qaidam Basin. Like so much of Northwest China railway construction, historic and recent, has radically altered and improved connectivity both within the province and to other parts of China. In 1959 Xining was brought into the growing national rail network via Lanzhou and by1984 onwards to Golmud. However it was the completion of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to Lhasa in 2006 along with the recent high-speed rail developments both east to Xian via Lanzhou and west to Urumqi that have considerably reduced earlier isolation. Xining in the late ’90’s was starting to assume the veneer of modernity but it was around the railway station I would often spend time. Rail travel was then very cheap, with stations becoming busy transit hubs. There I would watch maroon-robed Tibetan monks and travelers carrying backpacks over their heavy brown coats arriving to head towards nearby Ta’er Monastery. Streets were filled with outdoor stalls offering snacks, including grilled spicy lamb on sticks and food for travelers, often surrounded by a cacophony of noise from tinny speakers playing cheap cassette tapes. The air was filled with cooking smoke and aromas, fruit was sold from wooden carts. So many dialects were spoken throughout the markets.

It always amazed me how quickly I could be transported by rail or road from this city of around 2,500,00, the largest urban area within both Qinghai and Tibet, to such a lightly populated plateau. It is where part of urban China gives way to a vast, often-arid, lightly populated landscape stretching across to the country’s far western borders.

Enclosed within a relatively narrow valley, Xining felt reasonably compact, easy to walk around. Steep paths led up hills such as Beishan and Nanshan, some with temples, either Buddhist or Taoist grottoes cut from cliff faces. I loved resting on those summits while looking out across the city and noticing how quickly, with altitude, the lower lying greens gave way to the browns of increasing aridity.

With such a city literally ‘on the edge’, bustling markets such as Shujing Xiang Shangchang on West Street provided endless sources of curiosity - I was certainly seen as a curiosity but such trading areas were stacked with traditional heavy clothing, headgear and domestic utensils seemingly brought down from surrounding plateaus. Stalls, or kiosks filled with the aroma of fried fish with red paprika were ideal locations to sit and watch life in so many forms passing slowly by. Hot clay pots brimming with mutton, peppers and noodles sat beside flat breads stuffed with roasted lamb.

Not everything was steeped in the past or ethnicity. At a traffic intersection a department store, the ‘Big Dipper’ had a small coffee shop where I regularly wrote up my notes. A smart restaurant on a recently opened food street served mouthwatering hotpot while, for me, they put on music CDs from the UK! Today there are much greater options for western-style fast food and cafes - virtually nothing existed during my early visits so dining then was very much with the locals, which is why I got so much out of each visit.

Xining boasts several sites of religious significance, such as Dongguan Mosque. Also19 km southeast of the city at Huangzhong, high in a serene valley is 16th century Ta’er Monastery. Its establishment raised Xining’s significance as one of the leading centers for the ‘Yellow Hat’ sect of Tibetan Buddhism. A visit to Xining could not be complete without experiencing the tranquility and wonders of Ta’er. From the town a road led up to a pailou arch and entrance to the large monastic compound. On important dates during the year major festivals take place at Ta’er, including ‘Sunning the Buddha’ when a great thangka, or religious tapestry, is rolled out on the hillside. It's a colorful time when many monks and visitors engage in dance and traditional musical performances.

Approaching the main square I was fascinated by a line of eight white chortens or stupas - monks and visitors on pilgrimages would walk around in a clockwise direction, frequently stopping to pray. The stupas act as symbols in the life of the Sakyamuni Buddha. Ta’er attracts people from across Northwestern China and surrounding countries - for me, again, it was fascinating to look at their costumes while wondering where the people came from?

The monastery was made up of several separate buildings, each of significance - for prayer, for administration and for living quarters. The Hall of Butter Sculpture is famed for miniature models of animals, people, flowers, landscapes and so on, all carved from yak butter. I continued walking uphill in beautiful sunshine, passing stupas and prayer flags set amongst trees turning autumnal golden. Arriving at the Nine Roomed Hall, dating from 1592, I ventured into its central courtyard. Many worshipers filled the space, some working their way along lines of rotating prayer wheels. Others performed prostrating rituals on the wooden floor - some may do thousands of such movements during their visit to Ta’er. In a yard enclosed by red wooden balconies monks sat on the floor in their maroon robes - chatting, they would stop, smile and welcome me.

Above the monastery ran a scenic ‘korla’ or trail that many pilgrims would follow again in a clockwise direction. The views were stunning of the compact forested valley and of the many halls with their roofs holding distinctive features of Buddhism.

The monastery was made up of several separate buildings, each of significance - for prayer, for administration and for living quarters. The Hall of Butter Sculpture is famed for miniature models of animals, people, flowers, landscapes and so on, all carved from yak butter. I continued walking uphill in beautiful sunshine, passing stupas and prayer flags set amongst trees turning autumnal golden. Arriving at the Nine Roomed Hall, dating from 1592, I ventured into its central courtyard. Many worshipers filled the space, some working their way along lines of rotating prayer wheels. Others performed prostrating rituals on the wooden floor - some may do thousands of such movements during their visit to Ta’er. In a yard enclosed by red wooden balconies monks sat on the floor in their maroon robes - chatting, they would stop, smile and welcome me.

Above the monastery ran a scenic ‘korla’ or trail that many pilgrims would follow again in a clockwise direction. The views were stunning of the compact forested valley and of the many halls with their roofs holding distinctive features of Buddhism.

Over my stays in Xining I made several visits out to Ta’er, each time thinking how rewarding it would be to stay a few days there. However, reluctantly I had to leave both Ta’er and Xining, and head to the railway station for an overnight train east along the Wei River valley to Xi’an.

It would be fascinating to return again to Xining and re-experience some of those precious memories.