itineraries
With a week to 10 days, it's possible to make a loop from Xining or Lanzhou that hits several important sites. Start in Xining. Take a minibus outside of town to the Ta'er Si Monastery, a Yellow Hat Tibetan temple where that celebrates the first Dalai Lama. Head back to Xining and catch one of the hourly buses to a small town Tongren 4 hour trip, where Tus have painted elborate thangka paintings for several centuries. From there head on to Xiahe, just over the border in Gansu province. The three hour drive passes 4,000 meter peaks and small Tibetan settlements. Xiahe's Labrang Monastery is the Yellow Hat's most important outside of Lhasa. Plan to spend a couple days wandering through the temple and surrounding hills before taking the 6:30AM bus to Lanzhou with a large Hui population and a cool scenery along the Yellow River. More than a dozen buses make the three hour trip back to Xining every day, along with about a half dozen trains.
