Blogs from Tongren/Rebkong, Qinghai, China, Asia

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Asia » China » Qinghai » Tongren/Rebkong June 6th 2012

I took a small bus to start my tour around small traditional Tibetan villages.After 4 hours in an uncomfortable sit I arrived to Tongren. Tongren felt bitter, it the sad place I have been since I arrived to China. Is in the mountains in Tibet, the scenery to get here is quite impressive but then the rest not much. It is an old town, that in Tibetan language it is called Rebkong. I found it very dirty and poor. I have never seen so many beggars in China as I have seen here. There are not places to stop for a cold beer or a soda because most of the small kiosks do not have fridges so there are not cold beverages or bottle of water. The population is mainly Tibetan and there are several Muslims ... read more

Asia » China » Qinghai » Tongren/Rebkong June 14th 2009

After posting last night, we headed back to the hotel for an early night in our very basic hotel room in Tongren. We read our books, wrote in our journals, and shut out the lights for some much needed rest, after traveling basically the whole day... About a half hour later, I was awoken by what sounded like some very drunk people in the hallway. After five minutes, the sound died down, and I thought nothing of it. However, about 15 minutes later, and probably every hour after that until about 4am, the same thing happened. I would first hear the same man start coming down the hall yelling REALLY loud. From what I could understand, he was walking down the hall, knocking on doors, telling people to come out. Twice in the night, he knocked ... read more

Asia » China » Qinghai » Tongren/Rebkong June 13th 2009

This afternoon we boarded a train to Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, which is on the border with Tibet. Outside of Tibet itself, Qinhai has the greatest density of Tibetan people in the world, and since Witt and I couldn't go to the real thing, we wanted to be able to experience a taste of tibetan culture in Qinhai. The train ride was uncomfortable, but uneventful, with some pretty scenery (but not really that much to be honest). Arriving in Xining, I was a little nervous. I had been planning on taking us to Xiahe, another city near Lanzhou, which is famous for it's tibetan culture, but since the riots last year in Lhasa, Xiahe has been closed to foreign visitors. I wasn't 100% sure about this until yesterday when I asked at the bus ... read more




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