China Tour: Part 4 - "Tibet" (Qinghai, Gansu)

Concerts done!!! But tour technically not over yet. Two movements still to impress—Tibet and Heilongjiang.

For the Tibet chapter, due to various difficulties arranging travel to Lhasa, we decided instead to explore parts of the Tibetan Autonomous region.

This portion of the journey was definitely the most challenging in terms of navigating such a foreign, remote region and culture all on our own. This time without host organizations, without local guides, without family members taking care of us and showing us the way. We were simply tourists. Even with my basic mandarin skills, out there in West it was hard at times to get around—the local accent was strong, and so much writing and speaking were done in Tibetan (a beautiful language and script!)

Nonetheless, it was an incredibly eye-opening, awing, memorable experience. Figuring out the day-long high-speed train from Beijing to Xining, crossing 1635km of farms and fast-changing landscapes , riding the bus through the most formidable mountain ranges and watching the snowy peaks emerge through the clouds, lined with elegant temples, the fluttering colourful prayer flags in the most desolate, windy, cold open plains floating in the sky … there was so much to soak in every second of every turn.

Again, there were the dramatic, wondrous, awestruck moments—epic sceneries, pristine monasteries, 日月山, Kumbum, Labrang, the extravagant ornate shrines, gold, silver, tapestries, rooms full of vibrant, decadent, sweetly alluring butter sculptures, the boundless Sangke grasslands.

But, there were also the in between moments—small, personal, intimately observed with people, with little objects. Our gracious, passionate Tibetan hosts in Xiahe who welcomed us the moment we walked in with hot tea and traditional Tibetan tsampa/zanba (炒面 roasted barely flour with bits of cheese and yak butter tea!) They immediately directed us to their next door neighbour, a fierce taxi driver (with slightly concerning driving technique, creating his own lanes as he weaved through traffic…) who helped take us to an off-the-beaten-path horseback riding area behind the busy, touristy Sangke location, where the owner lady received us also so warmly and invited us into her beautiful B&B to rest and gaze out at the endless rolling hills while listening to Tiebetan music blasting through the speakers.

Just to sit there in our hosts’ beautiful home in the morning, writing, soaking in the light, watching the husband/father carefully water each plant, the wife/mother dust the windowsills—and to offer her a little gold maple leaf pin from Canada, seeing her face light up— “We heard it’s a beautiful place, but we’ll probably never be able to go there in this lifetime”, she said. And I responded, “Well, you never know. But we hope that by being here, we can to bring a little piece of it to you.”

To be able to share with her bits about our beloved home, our beautiful country, culture, to exchange stories, to ask her and her husband to write their names down in my journal in Tiebetan—these are the truly precious, magical moments. These are the moments we journey here for. Moments we could’ve never known were necessary. That people, cultures, so different, so far away—they are really so similar to us, so already connected. Sincere. Familial. A mother is a mother is a mother.

There were also the sheep crossings. Precious. The yaks napping on street. Precious. The school kids getting bubble tea at lunch break. Adorable. The monks on their phones watching funny videos. Badass. That one enigmatic monk at Labrang monestary who was our tour guide but took us (almost hostage) on a wild philosophical ride of deep rhetorical, existencial questions. Ah, his cute, slightly sarcastic chuckles, the lightness and seriousness of everything that he said, the aura that he suspended us in— what an bizarre, curious journey.

All these experiences, packed into 4 days. We even got local yak ribs and cooked it ourselves! And drank fresh hot yak milk! (One of the most deliciously creamy, rich, umami drinks I’ve ever had). And stayed at a gorgeous traditional Tibetan home built with the traditional “mortise and tenon joints” method (interlocking one piece of wood with another without the need for nails). Lots of interesting fermented yogurt. Lots of lamb. Lots of incredible homemade hand-pulled noodles and Xinjiang shou zhua fan 手抓饭.

Oh! And in Xining, wandering through the busy street market at night, grabbing skewers, acquiring the best ever personally selected honeydew (based on sweetness, ripeness, crispness preference) from the smiley street-side honeydew man with his giant cart, drinking huge cans of beer on the street curb, eating black rice yogurt, borrowing a big knife from the market gang to cut our melon…all these tiny moments. What a life.

This opportunity to go so far out West to regions that even most of my Chinese relatives haven’t journeyed to—to be able to get a taste of these cultures, foods, landscapes so vastly different from one another side by side on this tour has been an once-in-a-lifetime experience. Truly to be treasured.

Thank you, to all my relations who have been a part of this journey. I will carry your stories forward.

xoxo

Skye

Day 1 Train to Qinghai, lamb feast, 青海酿皮，盖碗茶