Tuesday morning we were up at 7:30 am again and off just after 8:30 am. We continued our drive along the lake and passed an area of huge sand-dunes which was quite unique in the generally grassland area. We are heading to Tongren, or Repkong, at least that is what we hope and are also hoping that there are no police checks along the way which may refuse us access. Tongren is a monastery town of Tibetan monks and Hui shop-owners. The area around Tongren is famous for its thangkas and painted statues and it’s inhabitants are a mixture of Tibetan and Tu, who bear some relationship to the Monguls.
Slowly we descended from the Tibetan Plateau and it seemed that all of a sudden we were back below the tree line. The land became much more green and fertile and things started to look more Chinese than Tibetan. We pulled into Xining (population 770,000) and were struck by the high rise apartments. Xining, at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, is the capital of the Province and the only large city. It is a Han Chinese outpost, a military garrison, and a trading centre since the 16th Century. Being on cook group we explored the massive Shuijing Xian market for lamb and ended up with beef – 32 yuen a kilo, chopped into bite size stewing pieces and the fat removed. The mutton was the same price, pork a little cheaper. We bought potatoes, carrots, onions, chillis, red pepper and cabbage for 21 and it cost 42 yuen. Once the shopping was done, I went into a typical restaurant with John and had lunch for 4.5 yuen – a cup of green tea and a bowl of vegetable noodles cooked in a sauce with a comfortable bite, shredded fresh carrots, fresh coriander leaves, and something else we couldn’t place. They were delicious!
The last part of our day’s drive followed the Gahe River, a tributary of the Yellow River, along the sides of an impressive gorge. The rocky sides rose perpendicular out of the water bed and were dotted all over with hardy, sure footed, mountain goats. The paved two lane road wound its way, corner by corner, through short tunnels, along the course of the river. You could see pack ponies winding their way along the narrow path on the opposite side of the canyon wall. We came across a Buddhist religious site where a suspension bridge draped with prayer flags crossed the roaring water below to a huge painting of a Buddha on the rocks.
In one stretch we paralleled an aquaduct along the opposite side into a min power station. Making full use of the arable land along the roadside, much like we had seen in Newfoundland last summer, people had planted patches of bright yellow canola and other vegetables, and of course we saw the inevitable road repairs where patches of the beautifully smooth road became rocky challenges that jettisoned those in the back seat of the Truck up to meet the Truck roof high above them. It was an extraordinary area but scarred in places with power dams and gravel works and pipelines although areas of reforestration attempted to cover up the severity of the rocky mountains as we drove out of the canyon into the valley.
As we neared Tongren we saw 3-wheeled cart loads of monks who smiled and waved at us enthusiastically as we drove by them. We saw Chortens (stupas) built at strategic points in the valley; we passed the 400 year old Gomar Gompa with its Gasar Gompa distinctive by its 8 chortens and in the village of Sengeshong there are 2 monasteries famous for their thangka art which is commissioned from as far away as Lhasa. The Lower (Mango) Monastery also has 8 chortens. We camped on the terraces overlooking the town about 7:30 pm and had a pleasant evening chatting around the campfire. I was on cook duty and we hurried to have dinner ready around 10 pm; beef stew “a la Chinese”, mashed potatoes and cabbage.
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