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Xining

It was another cold day, but no rain. There was a huge traffic jam getting out of town due to a car-truck crash blocking most of the road. Then there was the slow Chinese Army convoy of about 500 trucks going down the road. We spent about 40 miles passing the trucks.
The road crossed high yak pastures and two 12,000 ft. passes and a 12,200 ft. tunnel. There was new snow from yesterday and the temperature on top was 36 F. Fortunately, we traveled a day ahead of schedule, or we would have been caught in the next snow storm. This area is near Tibet, and the terrain and people look like Tibet.
Xining is a large city with strong Tibetan influence. We visited a Tibetan style monastery with huge golden Budas and a gold roof. The say the temple has 834 kilos of gold. Quite impressive and expensive.
We have a couple of days off before the final three day run to Xian. The population density and traffic insanity are getting quite high.

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