Blogs from Qinghai, China, Asia - page 4

I went to Qinghai province last week for Fall break on a whim with a backpack and a sleeping bag, boots and the notion of camping. Well, I never used the sleeping bag, it was colder there then I expected and due to events on the train ride there I was not feeling up to the challenge. I took a train from Beijing on the 24th of October, two Sundays ago and because I bought my ticket that Friday there were no sleeper tickets available and I ended up with nothing but a seat for 23 hours. The bigger issue ended up being something I had not expected. Everyone seated near me wanted to talk to me when they found out I could speak some Chinese so I had a bunch of enthusiastic people trying to ... read more

At the Beginning "Wo Pu Tong." Means I don't understand (or something like that). My friend Yla often uttered this whenever it became too hard to understand what the locals were saying. Me? "I don't have a clue what he just said." The language barrier is so thick that it hindered us from maximizing our sojourn in Shanghai. First stop: Shanghai. This is where we boarded the Qinghai-Tibet Train going to Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region. The fantastic urban planning, road design, and efficient and well-developed railway system are difficult not to notice. Our local city engineers and chief executives could learn a lot from Shanghai urban planners. Manila's traffic problems would be a thing of the past if only we have similarly well-designed structures. The cool weather is a welcome respite from Manila's sweltering ... read more

Seeks dreams in Qinghai -- Most beautiful oil cauliflower paddies... read more

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

Qinghai, the west province of China, the path to Tibet, also known as "Heaven path", and the land of Tibetan also. So the natural beauty is main sight as usual. The Qinghai lake is the most famous there. Qinghai lake, the biggest lake of China, also known as West sea in the past, because the lake is huge, and the people thought that was the sea or ocean. I went to the Qinghai lake in the end of May, that was the end of Spring and beginning of Summer in China, but there was a incredible event, while we were surrounding the lake, we met the snowing, raining and sun, just like 4 seasons all together, I never imaged the snowing on May is possible, there is a popular saying in China, "Snowing on May" means ... read more