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Graze your way through Qinghai’s high-altitude capital city高原上的斑斓之城，汇聚三大宗教与五彩民族风情
Here’s what makes Xining great: at an elevation of 2,275 meters above sea level, the sprawling capital of Qinghai Province has relatively clean air for a major Chinese city and is home to a diverse mix of ethnic groups. The white-capped men and embroidered-scarf-wrapped women of the Hui Muslim ethnic group of China are the predominant minzu (民族), but you’ll also find plenty of Sala (Muslim as well), Mongolians and Tibetans. Xining’s position on the eastern cusp of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau makes it an ideal jumping-off point for adventures into Amdo, the northwestern area of old Tibet, famous for its writers, artists and religious scholarship.
The city sits in a valley surrounded by mountains that reach up past 3,500 meters—not quite the Himalayas, but in winter they’ll be snow-capped. The Huangshui River (湟水河), a tributary of the Yellow River, snakes through town, adding to Xining’s geographic beauty. Foodwise there are the delights of Tibetan dumplings (momos), steaming bowls of Muslim noodles and plates of roasted lamb, and, thanks to the foreign residents living in town, there are cheesecakes, muffins and creamy lattes to be had in a number of good coffee shops—albeit no Starbucks.
It’s a fairly simple city to navigate; the main strip poking out of Central Square and running east-west has all the main stores you’ll see on any Chinese city high street as well as a packed underground shopping mall running for more than a kilometer. Green taxis ply the streets and except for after 9 p.m. are easy to hail. Xining people are a little gruff at first, so if you’re stuck for directions try asking a Tibetan or a Hui woman, who tend to be the most friendly and helpful.
Architecturally, Xining’s unremarkable, generic Chinese-city skyscrapers are a little disappointing. However, the grand Dongguan Mosque (东关清真大寺), a few shady temples, some leafy walks, a couple of curious markets and its general laidback air make Xining a chill place to enjoy a few days.
08:00 COFFEE AND A HUMMUS WRAP Who says just because you’re in the sticks you can’t enjoy Western treats? Head to Greenhouse Coffee (古林房咖啡) on Xiadu Dajie (夏都大街) for a wake-up brew and a fresh vegetable and hummus wrap, or even a double chocolate slice of cheesecake! Over the past few years, coffee shops have multiplied like horny rabbits on Xiadu Dajie. Now there are around a dozen on this small stretch, but Greenhouse definitely has the best coffee, with beans from Vietnam, South America and China. Many Xining expats (a large number of them American Christian missionaries) hang out here, and you may glean some interesting insights into the
city by eavesdropping or starting a conversation.
09:00 GOLDEN STUPA TEMPLE (金塔寺) Fortified with caffeine, head west along Xiadu Dajie, curving around to Hongjuesi Jie (宏觉寺街). There, tucked away between the incense shops, hides the tiny Golden Stupa Temple, residence of a handful of Tibetan monks from the massive Kumbum Monastery 20 kilometers out of town. It is a curious blend of Chinese and Tibetan styles, its courtyard dominated by a Chinese bronze incense tower that looks like a fancy witch’s cauldron.
The main temple is compact and musty, smelling of yak butter. Large portraits of the portly Panchen Lama (the 10th incarnation, now deceased) are propped next to the feet of the Buddha statue. This is a city temple, and if you wait long enough you can watch parents teach their small children how to kowtow on the cushions inside. Along the sides of the courtyard is a display of thangkas (Tibetan religious scroll paintings), including one of a lovely golden goddess and another of a blue dancing demon. If you sweet-talk the monks you can climb one of the creepy curving staircases and explore the upstairs to find a kitchen, the monks’ quarters and a shrine room filled with lamp fumes and rich Tibetan silk fabrics.
10:00 XINING’S TIMES SQUARE
Retrace your steps back to Xi Dajie (西大街) and head north to Xining’s Times Square, Da Shizi (大十字), a major intersection dominated by huge bank buildings, the main post office, the expansive Xinhua Book Store and a big-screen TV blasting ads. The Xinhua Bookstore has a disappointingly small collection of of Tibetan language books but it does have public toilets! The post office is where you can pick up train tickets if you’ve booked them online. But the real action is underground. Skip down any one of the subway staircases and you’ll find yourself in a subterranean emporium of Chinese high street stores that stretches beneath Da Shizi and for about a kilometer further west along Xi Dajie to Central Square. There’s your usual entourage of casual clothing stores like Metersbonwe, Dancing Wolves and so on, as well as an eclectic mix of local“boutiques” and snack shops.
11:00 SHUIJING XIANG MARKET (水井香商场)
Just shy of Central Square, on the northern side of Xi Dajie, is Xining’s most famous tourist market. The Shuijing Xiang Market—twin alleyways packed with restaurants and souvenir shops—is open from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. The northern end is dominated by Tibetan goods—think thangkas (唐卡 t1ngk2), bronze statues, all kinds of beads, gems, stones, silverware, prayer wheels, yak butter teapots and curving bovine horns. Bargain hard, as most of the shopkeepers are canny Han Chinese. Sprinkled in among these are some tackier stalls that sell cheap jewelry, cowboy hats (a favorite among middle-aged male Chinese tourists) and Genghis Khan-adorned skin flasks. The parallel alley is jammed with Hui restaurants and snack shops. Stop for lunch here and try a Hui-style yoghurt (RMB4), which is tangy and sweeter than its Tibetan yak-milk cousin. Authentic ones will have a crusty yellow film on top.
Alternately, chomp on a crumbly, spicy potato pancake (RMB3) off the street or slip into a restaurant and have one of Xining’s most famous dishes—niangpi (酿皮) a plate of cold, chunky noodles sprinkled with herbs and spices.
13:00 TIBETAN CULTURAL MUSEUM (藏文化博物馆)
Many Chinese museums are notoriously dull, but the Tibetan Cultural Museum is full of magical items. To get there from Shuijing Xiang Market, pop across the road and hop on the Number1 bus (RMB1). Ask the driver for the right stop, and expect the ride to the suburbs to take half an hour or so.
The museum’s big attraction is the giant thangka painting that weaves its way around most of the second floor of the building. It’s the world’s longest of its kind, and took more than 400 Tibetan artists two years to finish. You’ll need to pay RMB60 to see it, but the rest of the museum is free. On the ground floor is a marvelous collection of Tibetan medicine, from herb samples and rock fragments to a chilling display of surgical instruments like clamps, knives, giant tweezers and engraved spoons. The display card informs us that these implements were used back in the eighth century for cutting, bloodletting and cranial incisions. Most impressive are the rows and rows of medical textbooks written at around the same time and divided into chapters that modern Western medicine still uses today. There are medical thangkas showing how diseases are spread, how babies are born and how ailments are cured. You can happily spend the afternoon here.
17:00 SUPPER IN THE BLACK TENT (黑账房藏餐吧) Hop back on the Number 1 bus to Central
Square, a modern paved playground along the river. Grab an ice cream and people watch—there’ll be some kite flying, kids skateboarding and teenagers making out on benches. When you get hungry, head back along Xi Dajie and at Da Shizi walk north 100 meters to Wenhua Jie (文化街). On the northern side of this street is Wenmiao Square (文庙广场), topped with an old Confucius temple on its northern edge; the other three sides are packed with Tibetan restaurants and neon-lit bars. The establishment of choice is The Black Tent(third floor, top right, nearest the temple, 18 Wenmiao Square), a brightly colored Tibetan eatery managed by the very handsome Losang from Yushu. Wash down your yak meat chunks, egg curry and yak butter-sweetened mashed potatoes with steaming flasks of butter tea or cups of barley wine.
08:00 MALLISH
Mojia Jie Market (墨家街市场) used to be one of Xining’s coolest places. This long strip just southeast of Da Shizi came alive at night with bulb-lit food stalls, frothy plastic cups of beer, skewers of barbecued lamb and drapes of spicy, salty and tangy noodles. Sadly, the market has been sanitized and moved into a hideous strip-lit mall. Even so, the large range of local snacks makes a trip worthwhile. There are plenty of places selling baozi and spicy cold noodles, but instead try a bowl of Tibetan yak yoghurt—creamier and a little more sour than the Hui version—with dried fruit and honey.
09:00 BEISHAN TEMPLE (北山寺)
Hop in a taxi for an RMB8-ride to Beishan Temple, passing the North Gate on your way. Dedicated to China’s homegrown Taoist deities, this marvelous complex of gardens and temples sprawls over a hillside. To get there, trek through the hell of Xining’s wholesale furniture market, which stinks of oil, rotting food and general malaise. The flowers, birds and absolute charm of this place make it all worthwhile. There are more than half a dozen worship halls, each guarded by a Taoist nun or monk who will bang on a bronze bowl if you kowtow on the cushion outside and offer a few sticks of incense to the bearded Taoist deity within. More shrines are up the hill, these scooped out of the cliff itself. Little porcelain bowls of pungent baijiu are placed there as gifts to the gods. Climb still further and you reach the park at the summit for a view of the whole city and a peek at mysterious customs.When we were there, a Daoist priestess was using candles and a strange metal disc to perform a ritual over a young woman who had wrapped her head in a scarlet sheet.
12:30 DONGGUAN MOSQUE (东关清真大寺)
Hop in a cab to Xining’s premier site—the Dongguan Mosque. Friday is the best day to visit, and by 1 p.m. the mosque (a humble green and white building) and the area around it will be packed with white-hatted Muslim Hui men. Of the thousands of faithful, those that can’t fit in the mosque lay their prayer mats on the street. Traffic is diverted and pedestrians scolded by brusque, bearded Muslim officials. Women will be berated for showing any leg, and don’t expect to take photographs without provoking a telling-off. Still, the sight of so many people facing Mecca to pray is worth the abuse. At other times visitors may enter the mosque grounds (but not the mosque), but there’s not much to see.
13:30 ROAST LAMB AND SHEEP NECK
Just around the corner and on the right on Gonghe Lu (共和路) is Dafeng Feiyang Xiaochaowang (褡丰肥羊小炒王), an oasis in a swarm of otherwise grubby noodle joints. The Hui waitresses glide about in purple and pink head scarves, and tables are clean and purple-clothed. Roast lamb ribs and sheep neck are the specialties, as well as bowls of nutritious soup cooked up in a giant porcelain pot placed at the entrance. Note this is an alcohol-free establishment.
14:30 TENTS, TRINKETS AND TSAMPA
It’s a 20-minute stroll east along Dongguan Dajie (东关大街) and then north up Jianguo Lu (建国路) to the lively Tibetan Market opposite the bus station. This scruffy, down-to-earth mess sells everything your average nomad would need, from boots to saddles and solar-powered karaoke machines. On one rear alley you can see Tibetan party tents being spray painted— they are made of white and blue fabrics that are popular for summer picnics. Curio shops sell incense, beads, thangkas, charms and Tibetan clothing—sheepskin fluffy jerkins and satin dresses for the ladies. There are also several great Tibetan bookshops here where you can get dictionaries, phrase books and posters of the Tibetan alphabet. Tibet’s version of a greasy spoon lies on the northern edge, where they serve flasks of tea and bowls of tsampa (糌粑z`nba, roasted barley flour mixed with hot water and yak cheese) and chunky soup noodles, miankuai (面块).
16:00 YAK WOOL OVER YOUR EYES
For awesome presents and afternoon coffee and cake, head to Amdo Café (安多咖啡, bus Number 17 will take you here) at 19 Ledu Lu (乐都路), where they serve delicious coffee (RMB12 for an Americano), lassies, hot chocolate and Indian chai. But it’s their cakes that are scrumptious: moist blocks of carrot or apple sponges, cinnamon rolls and tart cheesecakes. Over half of the store is occupied by Amdo craft, a local social enterprise that helps rural Tibetans earn money through craft-making. Their wares are unusual and very well made, ranging from yak wool bags and scarves to pencil cases, postcards and sheepskin booties for babes. They also have a range of scented yak butter soaps.
19:00 GRILLED FISH FINALE
For dinner head to Xiaoxin Jie (小新街)—walk north from the caféback up to Dong Dajie, cross the road and keep going). At night, this places bustles with shaokao (烧烤) restaurants whose main specialty is grilled fish and seafood. There’s a plethora of places to choose from, all with Chinese names. Find one that smells great and has a spare table, then wash down your selections with the weak but palatable local tipple— Huang Beer (黄河啤酒 Hu1ngh9 P!ji^). The more you drink, the easier it is to make friends!
Here’s what makes Xining great: at an elevation of 2,275 meters above sea level, the sprawling capital of Qinghai Province has relatively clean air for a major Chinese city and is home to a diverse mix of ethnic groups. The white-capped men and embroidered-scarf-wrapped women of the Hui Muslim ethnic group of China are the predominant minzu (民族), but you’ll also find plenty of Sala (Muslim as well), Mongolians and Tibetans. Xining’s position on the eastern cusp of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau makes it an ideal jumping-off point for adventures into Amdo, the northwestern area of old Tibet, famous for its writers, artists and religious scholarship.
The city sits in a valley surrounded by mountains that reach up past 3,500 meters—not quite the Himalayas, but in winter they’ll be snow-capped. The Huangshui River (湟水河), a tributary of the Yellow River, snakes through town, adding to Xining’s geographic beauty. Foodwise there are the delights of Tibetan dumplings (momos), steaming bowls of Muslim noodles and plates of roasted lamb, and, thanks to the foreign residents living in town, there are cheesecakes, muffins and creamy lattes to be had in a number of good coffee shops—albeit no Starbucks.
It’s a fairly simple city to navigate; the main strip poking out of Central Square and running east-west has all the main stores you’ll see on any Chinese city high street as well as a packed underground shopping mall running for more than a kilometer. Green taxis ply the streets and except for after 9 p.m. are easy to hail. Xining people are a little gruff at first, so if you’re stuck for directions try asking a Tibetan or a Hui woman, who tend to be the most friendly and helpful.
Architecturally, Xining’s unremarkable, generic Chinese-city skyscrapers are a little disappointing. However, the grand Dongguan Mosque (东关清真大寺), a few shady temples, some leafy walks, a couple of curious markets and its general laidback air make Xining a chill place to enjoy a few days.
08:00 COFFEE AND A HUMMUS WRAP Who says just because you’re in the sticks you can’t enjoy Western treats? Head to Greenhouse Coffee (古林房咖啡) on Xiadu Dajie (夏都大街) for a wake-up brew and a fresh vegetable and hummus wrap, or even a double chocolate slice of cheesecake! Over the past few years, coffee shops have multiplied like horny rabbits on Xiadu Dajie. Now there are around a dozen on this small stretch, but Greenhouse definitely has the best coffee, with beans from Vietnam, South America and China. Many Xining expats (a large number of them American Christian missionaries) hang out here, and you may glean some interesting insights into the
city by eavesdropping or starting a conversation.
09:00 GOLDEN STUPA TEMPLE (金塔寺) Fortified with caffeine, head west along Xiadu Dajie, curving around to Hongjuesi Jie (宏觉寺街). There, tucked away between the incense shops, hides the tiny Golden Stupa Temple, residence of a handful of Tibetan monks from the massive Kumbum Monastery 20 kilometers out of town. It is a curious blend of Chinese and Tibetan styles, its courtyard dominated by a Chinese bronze incense tower that looks like a fancy witch’s cauldron.
The main temple is compact and musty, smelling of yak butter. Large portraits of the portly Panchen Lama (the 10th incarnation, now deceased) are propped next to the feet of the Buddha statue. This is a city temple, and if you wait long enough you can watch parents teach their small children how to kowtow on the cushions inside. Along the sides of the courtyard is a display of thangkas (Tibetan religious scroll paintings), including one of a lovely golden goddess and another of a blue dancing demon. If you sweet-talk the monks you can climb one of the creepy curving staircases and explore the upstairs to find a kitchen, the monks’ quarters and a shrine room filled with lamp fumes and rich Tibetan silk fabrics.
10:00 XINING’S TIMES SQUARE
Retrace your steps back to Xi Dajie (西大街) and head north to Xining’s Times Square, Da Shizi (大十字), a major intersection dominated by huge bank buildings, the main post office, the expansive Xinhua Book Store and a big-screen TV blasting ads. The Xinhua Bookstore has a disappointingly small collection of of Tibetan language books but it does have public toilets! The post office is where you can pick up train tickets if you’ve booked them online. But the real action is underground. Skip down any one of the subway staircases and you’ll find yourself in a subterranean emporium of Chinese high street stores that stretches beneath Da Shizi and for about a kilometer further west along Xi Dajie to Central Square. There’s your usual entourage of casual clothing stores like Metersbonwe, Dancing Wolves and so on, as well as an eclectic mix of local“boutiques” and snack shops.
11:00 SHUIJING XIANG MARKET (水井香商场)
Just shy of Central Square, on the northern side of Xi Dajie, is Xining’s most famous tourist market. The Shuijing Xiang Market—twin alleyways packed with restaurants and souvenir shops—is open from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. The northern end is dominated by Tibetan goods—think thangkas (唐卡 t1ngk2), bronze statues, all kinds of beads, gems, stones, silverware, prayer wheels, yak butter teapots and curving bovine horns. Bargain hard, as most of the shopkeepers are canny Han Chinese. Sprinkled in among these are some tackier stalls that sell cheap jewelry, cowboy hats (a favorite among middle-aged male Chinese tourists) and Genghis Khan-adorned skin flasks. The parallel alley is jammed with Hui restaurants and snack shops. Stop for lunch here and try a Hui-style yoghurt (RMB4), which is tangy and sweeter than its Tibetan yak-milk cousin. Authentic ones will have a crusty yellow film on top.
Alternately, chomp on a crumbly, spicy potato pancake (RMB3) off the street or slip into a restaurant and have one of Xining’s most famous dishes—niangpi (酿皮) a plate of cold, chunky noodles sprinkled with herbs and spices.
13:00 TIBETAN CULTURAL MUSEUM (藏文化博物馆)
Many Chinese museums are notoriously dull, but the Tibetan Cultural Museum is full of magical items. To get there from Shuijing Xiang Market, pop across the road and hop on the Number1 bus (RMB1). Ask the driver for the right stop, and expect the ride to the suburbs to take half an hour or so.
The museum’s big attraction is the giant thangka painting that weaves its way around most of the second floor of the building. It’s the world’s longest of its kind, and took more than 400 Tibetan artists two years to finish. You’ll need to pay RMB60 to see it, but the rest of the museum is free. On the ground floor is a marvelous collection of Tibetan medicine, from herb samples and rock fragments to a chilling display of surgical instruments like clamps, knives, giant tweezers and engraved spoons. The display card informs us that these implements were used back in the eighth century for cutting, bloodletting and cranial incisions. Most impressive are the rows and rows of medical textbooks written at around the same time and divided into chapters that modern Western medicine still uses today. There are medical thangkas showing how diseases are spread, how babies are born and how ailments are cured. You can happily spend the afternoon here.
17:00 SUPPER IN THE BLACK TENT (黑账房藏餐吧) Hop back on the Number 1 bus to Central
Square, a modern paved playground along the river. Grab an ice cream and people watch—there’ll be some kite flying, kids skateboarding and teenagers making out on benches. When you get hungry, head back along Xi Dajie and at Da Shizi walk north 100 meters to Wenhua Jie (文化街). On the northern side of this street is Wenmiao Square (文庙广场), topped with an old Confucius temple on its northern edge; the other three sides are packed with Tibetan restaurants and neon-lit bars. The establishment of choice is The Black Tent(third floor, top right, nearest the temple, 18 Wenmiao Square), a brightly colored Tibetan eatery managed by the very handsome Losang from Yushu. Wash down your yak meat chunks, egg curry and yak butter-sweetened mashed potatoes with steaming flasks of butter tea or cups of barley wine.
08:00 MALLISH
Mojia Jie Market (墨家街市场) used to be one of Xining’s coolest places. This long strip just southeast of Da Shizi came alive at night with bulb-lit food stalls, frothy plastic cups of beer, skewers of barbecued lamb and drapes of spicy, salty and tangy noodles. Sadly, the market has been sanitized and moved into a hideous strip-lit mall. Even so, the large range of local snacks makes a trip worthwhile. There are plenty of places selling baozi and spicy cold noodles, but instead try a bowl of Tibetan yak yoghurt—creamier and a little more sour than the Hui version—with dried fruit and honey.
09:00 BEISHAN TEMPLE (北山寺)
Hop in a taxi for an RMB8-ride to Beishan Temple, passing the North Gate on your way. Dedicated to China’s homegrown Taoist deities, this marvelous complex of gardens and temples sprawls over a hillside. To get there, trek through the hell of Xining’s wholesale furniture market, which stinks of oil, rotting food and general malaise. The flowers, birds and absolute charm of this place make it all worthwhile. There are more than half a dozen worship halls, each guarded by a Taoist nun or monk who will bang on a bronze bowl if you kowtow on the cushion outside and offer a few sticks of incense to the bearded Taoist deity within. More shrines are up the hill, these scooped out of the cliff itself. Little porcelain bowls of pungent baijiu are placed there as gifts to the gods. Climb still further and you reach the park at the summit for a view of the whole city and a peek at mysterious customs.When we were there, a Daoist priestess was using candles and a strange metal disc to perform a ritual over a young woman who had wrapped her head in a scarlet sheet.
12:30 DONGGUAN MOSQUE (东关清真大寺)
Hop in a cab to Xining’s premier site—the Dongguan Mosque. Friday is the best day to visit, and by 1 p.m. the mosque (a humble green and white building) and the area around it will be packed with white-hatted Muslim Hui men. Of the thousands of faithful, those that can’t fit in the mosque lay their prayer mats on the street. Traffic is diverted and pedestrians scolded by brusque, bearded Muslim officials. Women will be berated for showing any leg, and don’t expect to take photographs without provoking a telling-off. Still, the sight of so many people facing Mecca to pray is worth the abuse. At other times visitors may enter the mosque grounds (but not the mosque), but there’s not much to see.
13:30 ROAST LAMB AND SHEEP NECK
Just around the corner and on the right on Gonghe Lu (共和路) is Dafeng Feiyang Xiaochaowang (褡丰肥羊小炒王), an oasis in a swarm of otherwise grubby noodle joints. The Hui waitresses glide about in purple and pink head scarves, and tables are clean and purple-clothed. Roast lamb ribs and sheep neck are the specialties, as well as bowls of nutritious soup cooked up in a giant porcelain pot placed at the entrance. Note this is an alcohol-free establishment.
14:30 TENTS, TRINKETS AND TSAMPA
It’s a 20-minute stroll east along Dongguan Dajie (东关大街) and then north up Jianguo Lu (建国路) to the lively Tibetan Market opposite the bus station. This scruffy, down-to-earth mess sells everything your average nomad would need, from boots to saddles and solar-powered karaoke machines. On one rear alley you can see Tibetan party tents being spray painted— they are made of white and blue fabrics that are popular for summer picnics. Curio shops sell incense, beads, thangkas, charms and Tibetan clothing—sheepskin fluffy jerkins and satin dresses for the ladies. There are also several great Tibetan bookshops here where you can get dictionaries, phrase books and posters of the Tibetan alphabet. Tibet’s version of a greasy spoon lies on the northern edge, where they serve flasks of tea and bowls of tsampa (糌粑z`nba, roasted barley flour mixed with hot water and yak cheese) and chunky soup noodles, miankuai (面块).
16:00 YAK WOOL OVER YOUR EYES
For awesome presents and afternoon coffee and cake, head to Amdo Café (安多咖啡, bus Number 17 will take you here) at 19 Ledu Lu (乐都路), where they serve delicious coffee (RMB12 for an Americano), lassies, hot chocolate and Indian chai. But it’s their cakes that are scrumptious: moist blocks of carrot or apple sponges, cinnamon rolls and tart cheesecakes. Over half of the store is occupied by Amdo craft, a local social enterprise that helps rural Tibetans earn money through craft-making. Their wares are unusual and very well made, ranging from yak wool bags and scarves to pencil cases, postcards and sheepskin booties for babes. They also have a range of scented yak butter soaps.
19:00 GRILLED FISH FINALE
For dinner head to Xiaoxin Jie (小新街)—walk north from the caféback up to Dong Dajie, cross the road and keep going). At night, this places bustles with shaokao (烧烤) restaurants whose main specialty is grilled fish and seafood. There’s a plethora of places to choose from, all with Chinese names. Find one that smells great and has a spare table, then wash down your selections with the weak but palatable local tipple— Huang Beer (黄河啤酒 Hu1ngh9 P!ji^). The more you drink, the easier it is to make friends!