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Published: August 24th 2011
A KISS ON QINGHAI LAKE (Qinghai Hu)
I travelled to Qinghai Lake under blue skies. The lake is visible on the horizon and during the early summer season is surrounded by vast fields of golden rape-flower fields.Happy Summer to everyone. Hope all of you are safe from the up-coming hurricane Irene, and that you and your belongings have not been affected by the East Coast Earthquake.
It has been a whole semester since my last entry, and yes, I am still teaching in China, and I have signed another year's contract. 5 years have passed since I have signed my first contract at Taizhou Teachers College.
Though I have stored 1,000s of photos from 10,000s of miles of travels across this vast country of China, it has actually become more difficult and frustrating to post the entries. Time has become limited, since I am involved in many more college and city activities, and above all, the slow and un-reliable computer speed is simply driving me crazy. The photos up-load slowly, and often, they and hours of writing get lost when the computer shuts down regularly.
So I am trying once again, with this new travel-adventure earlier this summer (2011), to the North-Western Chinese Province of Qinghai, a huge province, though less developed than the Eastern Provinces of China.
For Centuries, Qinghai was regarded as a frontier province, that marked the outer limits of
ancient China.
Qinghai is located between the province of Gansu and Tibet on a vast mountain plateau and inhabited by only 5 million people.
Culturally, historically, and geographically, Qinghai is part of the Tibetan Plateau. It was once a Tibetan Province, called Amdo, and became part of the Chinese Empire in the 18th Century.
It has the destinction of being the place of the first Chinese Nuclear-Bomb-Test explosion.
The province of Qinghai abounds in natural beauty, with beautiful and lush valleys around its quickly developing capital of Xining. (The capital of Xining will be the topic of one of the future TravelBlogs).
There are miles of unspoiled wilderness around "Qinghai Lake" (Qinghai Hu), China's largest lake and a salt water lake. Qinghai Lake is the topic of this TravelBlog entry.
Qinghai also houses one of the country's greatest Tibetan lamaseries, Ta'er Si, also the topic of a future entry.
This TravelBlog photo essay will focus on Qinghai Lake (Qinghai Hu):
Qinghai Lake is located in a remote mountain region, some 93 miles West of Xining, and only accessable by car, on a long mountain road. It is the largest lake in China, and
covers a vast area of over 1,700 square miles. At a height of 10,500 feet above sea level on the Tibetan plateau, the lake is quite remote. I hired a car and cabable driver, so I did not have to deal with a tour agency and a group of 40, which is the normal way to access this remote area.
The stark and grand desert vistas along the way and the steep mountain roads made this a special travel-adventure. Oxygen also becomes someone more sparce at these heights. Few trees are available to shade the sheep and yak herds as they graze in the lush meadows.
I was lucky, that during the early summer season, the blue Qinghai Lake is also surrounded by the gold colors of expansive rape-flower fields.
I missed the breeding season for the colonies of swans, cormorants, bar-headed geese, and the rare black-necked cranes, for which Qinghai Lake is also so famous on its western side, and so I headed for the southern shores, with opportunities for boating and the grand views of the golden rape-flower fields, and encountered a few special surprises. The photos will speak for themselves. The 57 photos can
only show a small part of Qinghai Lake's beauty. But I hope, all of them bring you joy and smiles.
I hope this entry will appear published this time, and please let me know what you think. I miss all of you much, and the loving memories never leave. Would love to hear a hello from you. Thanks for taking the time to check out this TravelBlog #131. Enlarging the photos will give you a greater appreciation for the details.
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Kevin watkins
non-member comment
Hi Hans
Was a guest speaker at the Australian Sister Conference last week in Toowoomba city. Met someone there who had a close relation with taizhou, and when I mentioned you her face lit up and she said she knew you. IM trying to think who it was. Mayor and I are flying to BJ on Saturday night, im in China for 3 weeks on business but not close to Taizhou this time. Hope all is well. Hope to see the two students, Jody and Apple from the competition, and look forward to see Liz in Guilin. Take care. Cheers kevin