http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/XiNing/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , XiNing en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:47:20 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:47:20 +0000 What an evening. After accidently dozing in the afternoon we woke up and it was already dark. We decided to head to the Muslim Quarter some time earlier but we were going to go late afternoon. How glad i am we didn't and left it until after dark. The palce felt so much more alive. The streets were crammed with market stalls selling food or clothes or artefacts handcrafted from wood or stone. The http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/XiNing/blog-356306.html We arrived at the station feeling a little worse for wear after a rough loud night on the train from Beijing. My nostrils still burning from the foul encounter I'd had in the uncleaned squat toilet onboard we stepped out onto the streets of Xi'an and into the real China that both Andrew and I had anticipated since landing. It was marvellous. In the last 28 hours we'd gotten up stupidly early to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/XiNing/blog-356298.html I've been in Xining for 2 weeks trying to figure out my itinerary for Tibet. It appears at this point in time that although the Chinese say Tibet is open in fact the only way to visit any part of what used to be Tibet is to have a group tour but everyone in the group must be from the same country having the same passport. This means hooking up at a hostel with other travelers to create a tou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/XiNing/blog-314860.html XiningOh so I arrived in Xining Aug 10th stayed at the Lete Hostel highly recommended much better than any hotel with internet access a tour co on site clean and updated washing etc. I moved to Xing Yuan Hotel with my orphanage buddies on the third night. We were supposed to only be here for a couple days but the main donor cannot cash her travelers checks only 3000 a day so we have http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/XiNing/blog-314155.html Hi Sorry for the lack of blogs but the last 10 days of the trip have been quite busy it felt like we were either seeing a sight or travelling at any given time... not so much 'free time' as Micheal likes to call it. So in order not to bore anyone by detailed stories of each day I'll just run through the sights and what I thought of them Luoyang Longmen Dragon Gate Caves Sept 20th 10 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/XiNing/blog-206603.html