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Yet another bus day. I’d say that 75% or more of the people
on the bus today were Tibetan. Once again, lots of staring at me during
the beginning of the ride, then when I wasn’t exciting enough to
them, most people lost interest. They’d still check back every once
in a while to see if I had started being interesting. The views  were spectacular
today. We went through some VAST mountain grassy plateaus, with goats
and yaks grazing all over the place. We also were on the worst stretch
of road yet. We literally drove on mountainous dirt roads. The number
of huge bumps that sent Tibetan monks into the air above their seats was
ridiculous. The pattern clearly goes like this: The better the view, the
worse the road quality. It only makes sense. The further you get away
from civilization, the more natural the scenery.
Along the way, I also got to see the beginnings of the Yellow river.
It’s China’s second longest river, second only to the Yangtze/Changjiang
River. It starts here in Qinghai, and flows through much of mid-northern
China, such as Gansu, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, and eventually all the
way to the Pacific, somewhat near Beijing. It’s not yellow here.
In fact it’s green, because it’s being fed by glaciers here
on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The river becomes yellow as it collects
silt, or loess, flowing through areas like Inner Mongolia.
LOTS of smoking on the bus today, and even more than usual amounts of
garbage on the floor, especially in the aisle. Today there were pieces
of wet fruit in the aisle, and every time someone walked down it, I was
surprised that they didn’t slip and fall down. There were also those
people who diligently waited until we stopped to let the driver inspect
the bus’s engine, on some beautiful mountainside road, and threw
their garbage out the window, instead of on the floor. I can’t decide
which is worse. On one hand, you have the people with little consideration
for the other people on the bus, but on the other hand you have those
with little consideration for the sanctity of nature.
Xiahe is interesting enough. It’s a one-road town, a few kilometers
long; whose main feature is the Labrang Monastery (click here for a wider
view). A couple of thousand monks live in the monastery in tiny abodes
outside the main temples, just like at Taersi Temple. The monk residence
area is big enough for its own city. The whole monastery complex is quite
huge. There’s  also a path around it, almost 2 km long, that the
Tibetan pilgrims from all over China (and some others) use to walk clockwise
around the monastery. Tibetans seem to do everything clockwise. Entering
and exiting temples (in left, out right), walking around various things
(which they do quite a bit of), and spinning prayer wheels are three that
I can think of off-hand.
From what I’ve seen in restaurants, Tibetan food consists mostly
of wheat/barley items and butter. I guess it’s only natural. When
you live in a high-elevation area like the Tibetan Plateau, where wheat
and barley grow well, and mostly yaks are the best livestock, what else
would you eat?
According to statistics, about one half of this city is Tibetan, 40%
are Han, and 10% are Hui. The Tibetans are also CLEARLY the poorest. Just
outside the monastery, I saw a long, long row of shoe salesmen, selling
shoes off blankets. Upon closer inspection, though, ALL the shoes in the
WHOLE row of merchants were used shoes. And there was a Tibetan lady selling
plastic toys – many of which were used and/or broken. I don’t
know if things are getting worse or staying the same. But I do know that
I feel inclined to give a bit of money to beggars here, whereas I didn’t
so much in other places. This is probably also influenced by the fact
that I see Tibetans giving money to Tibetan beggars here, which gives
me more confidence that these people really need it.
The other interesting thing to happen so far is that the electricity
went out while I was having dinner. The entire town was black. The owner
of the restaurant was telling me how it had gone out a few times the day
before, and POOF! – out it went. I was going to go to a net café
after dinner, but with no electricity, that became out of the question,
so I just came back here to the hotel. After about 20-25 minutes, the
power came back, but has been fluctuating in intensity a bit. It really
lets me know that I’m out in nowhere land.
I seem to always say how I’m getting up early the next morning
in my journal. I’m not sure why I feel so inclined to say so, but
I do. So, I’m getting up early tomorrow to go and roam the monastery,
as I hear that morning time is the best time to do it. Then I’ll
go on a guided tour of the temples. I may go to Lanzhou tomorrow after
the tour. Depends on if I feel like walking around the monastery more,
or if I get enough in the morning.
Jeremy
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