Welcome to the first installment of my photo journal of Xining. I am excited to be able to share these since this was the reason I started the blog in the first place. To the delight of many, I am the OG of Xining...lol somedays being stupid is the only way to survive. That tangka behind me cost me less than $25.

Like I mentioned before Xining has a population of about 3 million people. We are in the Quinghai province which on a map is about central China, but it is on the edge of the industrialized portion of the country...past us is the wildlands.

Sometimes I just like to take random pictures of people and things in the city...so that's what most of the first few pictures are. After that are some pictures from our visit to Kunbum Monestary. Any questions let me know and please dont mention anything sensitive since I am still here.

This is the main intersection in downtown...the city is kind of grid-like so this is where things intersect. Note the KFC in the backround. On all four sides you have to climb stairs to cross the street...it's about the only place in the city where people don't randomly wade out into traffic to cross...it's also one of the only stop lights.


Somehow I captured an empty shot...it's a miracle and I'm still not sure what happened. On 2 sides are big department stores and on another side is the post office. The internet cafe where I am typing this is 1/2 a block away and our apartment is about 10 minutes walk.



Just a few random snapshots from different places around town....








I took these a few days ago on the way to a noodle shop.










Side walk commerce...there is a lot of this as well as markets and freemarkets where lots of individual sellers gather.


This is a shot walking down the alleys of one of the freemarkets.


This is a picture I took the first morning we woke up here ...it's looking down on the street from my hotel room.



At dinner with our students and friends...

It was at this neat tibetan restaurant. They gave us a private room but when you eat downstairs there are dancers and singers and most of the people there get up and dance around the room with them. I didn't have my camera that night though.


The rest of the pictures are taken at Kunbum. You go for about 30 minutes by bus and it's really beautiful outside of the city.



They have traditional tibetan outfits that people can wear for pictures. Here is Diane with our guides.






This is the circuit outside of the Kalachakra mandala temple which was one of my favorite places there.


and my favorite temple...can you see who that is???




Our guides said these are good luck animals but I explained that these are used to sybolize the mind as you progress in meditation. Meditation is explained as taming the elephant mind and slowly refining it into a bird...free to fly away.


This temple was being rebuilt.






People prostrating outside of the temple with the stupa of Tsongkhapa who founded the Gelug order.



So there you have it...the first round is done...it's a lot of work and I hope you enjoy them. Please keep in touch and I hope to have some more goodies for you soon.

Cheers