Xiahe Off The Beaten Path

It is worth it to take a Grassland tour to drive around the Sangke and Ganjia grasslands as the scenery of rolling hills and distant snowy mountains are excellent and there are some nomad-style Tibetan tents and villages on the grasslands where you might be able to stop and visit.

However, bring along some food as there appeared to be no chance to stop for lunch.

In Lynxia are 27 mosques. Small boys learn the arabic language here. Not far from Lynxia we saw this wonderful mosque with a beautiful minaret in pagoda-style.
We enjoyed the journey from Lanzhou to Labrang and vice versa of 240 KM through the countryside and small villages. We saw villages with drying garlic, villages with wood, further a lot of bikes, hand-, horse- and oxcharts, pickups. The landscape is rough with mountains, streams and fields. The fields, especially the working at the fields looked like the images of the 50s, I know from old pictures, with a lot of people working at the fields, harvesting and sheaving the grain.

For our lunchstop in Linxia we bought some bread at a small bakery and just sat down on one of the sidewalks along the mainstreet, looking at the local life.
There was not much traffic, a few trucks, a litte more handcharts, some bicycles and pedestrians. That was all. It was quite relaxed to sit there for a while. We looked at the people around and they looked at us and we smiled to each other or greeted.

The people we met in the main street were very friendly, welcomed us and pushed their children forward to let them be photographed by us.
Many men in the area of Linxia wear white caps. The women wear different colours of head scarves. The girls and young women wear green scarves, if they are not married or just married. Women with children of 5 years or older wear a black scarf. And the white scarves are for widows.

In Linxia we found small shops and market stalls along the mud main street.
It was nice to walk along these shops and stalls to have a look what was for sale in this area. I saw a lot of stuff I couldn't identify.
The vendors, sitting under their umbrellas, were greeting us, but we didn't understand their explanations.
In one of the small shops we bought some bread for Y0,4 for lunch.

On our way from Lanzhou to Labrang we stopped in Linxia for lunch. In Linxia live the muslim Hui-minority. The Islam came from Arabia along the silk road to this area. In the past Arab tradesmen were active in Linxia, and probably the Hui people are descendants of these tradesmen.
We walked along the mud road to look for some food. The friendly people showed us where to go to find the shops and market.

Longwu Monastery was built in 1301 (the 5th year of Dade Reign of Yuan Dynasty) initially which is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of Sajia Sect (Yellow Sect). In 1370 (the 3th year of Hongwu Reign of Min Dynasty), it was permitted to be built. In 1426 (the first year of Xuande Reign of Min Dynasty), the famous monk, Sanmudan Renqin rebuilt it, and his younger brother and other 5 family members were conferred by the emperor. During the years of Wanli Reign of Min Dynasty, the Grand Scripture Hall of Longwu Monastery was built and granted by the Min Emperor as ýthe superb place in the westý in 1662 (the 2nd year of Tianqi Reign of Min Dynasty). In 1767 (the 32nd year of Qianlong Reign of Qing Dynasty), the director of the Monasteryýs First Xiaricang was conferred by Qianlong, one of the emperors in Qing Dynesty. And the Monastery and its sub-monasteries changed into Gelukpa Sect. From then on, it dominated in religions and politics for about 200 years regionally. Longwu Monastery became one of the biggest monsteries of Gelukpa Sect in Anduo Region. The architecture of the Scripture Hall and other halls in the Monstery is very magnificent and splendid with gorgeous decorations. There are rich historical relics in it.

Xiahe is surrounded by mountains. Xiahe is about 2500m high and the mountains are up to 3500m. Soem people get problems with the altitude. So take care, when you hike in this beautiful landscape!!