A 17 hour car ride with 13 Tibetans

Before I returned to the states, I traveled around rural Western China for over 2 weeks.  Hoping to understand the area from a Chinese perspective, I traveled with my close Chinese friend Weiwei.  Firstly, because of the distance and remote location, simply getting to the west was an experience in itself.  We took a 24-hour train ride to Lanzhou, and then literally jumped onto another train heading towards Xining.  The train ride to Xining was about 4 hours.  We stayed the night in Xining, and the next morning took a 17 hour car ride to Tibetan Yushu.

A Brief Introduction of Qinghai

Xining is the capital of rural province Qinghai.  The province lies between Muslim Xinjiang and Buddhist Tibet, and is known as the Siberia of China.  Why would someone voluntarily travel to a province known for its cold winters, prisons, and nuclear waste sites?  The answer is pretty simple: A chance to see how far China’s economic development has actually spread, while at the same time experiencing Tibetan culture first-hand.  Since Qinghai is over 2,000 kilometers west of Shanghai and China’s prosperous Eastern coast line, I was also able to experience how deep the forces of globalization have actually spread.

As mentioned above, I traveled with my close friend Weiwei.  For those active readers, Weiwei is the same friend who took me to the Chinese countryside in late January.  Weiwei’s Mother works in the local government, and naturally he is a Chinese nationalist with a deep knowledge of Chinese politics. Unlike me, Weiwei’s primary goal was to understand Tibetan culture and the source of Tibetan animosity towards Han Chinese. Consequently, the collision of cultures, religions, and lifestyles made for an awesome trip that opened my mind like nothing ever has before.

The Long 3,000 km Trek to Yushu/Jyekondo

As mentioned above, we began our trip with a 24 hour train ride from Shanghai to Lanzhou. Lanzhou is the capital of the Gansu province, and would be a very quick stopping point for us so we could switch trains. The train ride from Lanzhou to Xining takes around 3 hours, so several people on our train were also heading towards Xining. Since the Shanghai-Lanzhou train is high-speed, Lanzhou serves as a sort of western hub for people traveling through the west.

Before I left for my trip, I made an effort to ask my Chinese friends about Qinghai. The answers were all the same: Qinghai is very poor and underdeveloped. Naturally, I was surprised to hear that people from a well-developed trading town would move to Qinghai to do business. In reality, I quickly realized that few Chinese people come in touch with people from Qinghai. One reason for this is that the entire province has a population of under 6 million. Another reason is that those that do make it over are from the poorest areas and all work in Muslim noodle restaurants.

On the train, we met a loosely-related family that was also heading to Xining, and their situation was quite interesting. They traveled with 5 children and 3 adults, and I was completely confused about how they were all related. However, I did pick up that they were from the trading town Yiwu and had moved to Xining for business. This was the first of many times when I encountered something that went entirely against the stereotype that I had heard. Because some areas in the west are closed to foreigners, I pretended that I was a Muslim from Xinjiang. Surprisingly, the family from Yiwu assumed I was from Xinjiang before I even spoke with them, and this gave me confidence that I could pull it off.

As the train got closer to Lanzhou, the family told us that we would probably miss the train to Xining. Our only option was getting off our train and getting on to another one as soon as we arrived. Not wanting to miss the train to Xining, we moved our luggage and waited by the door about 30 minutes before we arrived. Then, after we arrived we were told by the family to literally run onto the train at the other end of the platform. I was surprised that we were allowed on a train when the train had no seats left and we had no tickets. But, this is China, where life is organized chaos.

Since relatively few foreigners travel to Xining, I was completely stared at the entire train ride. Not wanting to be seen as a Westerner, I sat on the steps with a Muslim guy and told everyone my dad was from Xinjiang. Nonetheless, not everyone bought my story.

We arrived in Xining around 7:00 p.m. Xining is in a valley and has an elevation of 2,600 meters. Moreover, the high elevation causes the air to be extremely dry. For example, my eyes were tearing for about 30 minutes after we arrived.

China has a law that foreigners cannot stay in any hotel that is 2 stars or lower (by Chinese standards). While this law is almost never enforced in the larger cities, the government is strict about it in the more remote areas. Weiwei said that the reason for this law is to protect foreigners, while I believe it’s to protect China’s image from foreigners. As a result, I disguised myself by wearing sunglasses and a face mask. I also made an effort to speak Chinese as loudly as possible around hotels or guesthouses. Unfortunately, I was rejected from the first hotel because I looked foreign. The hotel was government owned and charged 18 yuan a person (about $2.50). We continued on the street until we found a guest house willing to accept us. The guest house we stayed at was 50 Yuan per room, but the room had no bathroom. Also, we weren’t given a room key, and had to call an employee every time we wanted to get in. Tired from a 28-hour train ride, we both wanted to shower. However, we were told that hot water isn’t usually available and that we should check later. We spent the rest of the evening walking around and occasionally attracting stares.

Even though Xining is over 2,000 km west of Shanghai, all of China is considered to be in one time zone. While this may promote political unity, it creates a very tiring lifestyle for those living out west. For example, our plan was to stay the night in Xining, and take an 18 hour bus ride to Yushu the next morning. We woke up the next morning around 6:30 and headed towards the bus station. Because the sun sets around 11 p.m., we were expecting the city to start the day a little bit later than eastern China. After all, the sun doesn’t rise until 7 or 8. Unfortunately, to our surprise, the station opened at 6 and was completely packed with people when we got there. The woman at the counter told us all buses leaving to Yushu that day were entirely sold out. We asked her for tickets for the next day, but were told to come back tomorrow morning.

Since we didn’t think we’d be able to buy bus tickets, we planned to hitch hike. Fortunately, I was stopped in the street by a tall Tibetan man. He grabbed me by the arm and asked where I was heading in broken Chinese. I told him I was going to Yushu, and he told me he could drive us. He told us that he would be driving 9 people in his minivan, and that he was waiting to find other passengers. We told him we wanted to eat breakfast and go back to our inn to get our luggage. Since Yushu is an 18 hour car ride, we wanted to go to a supermarket and buy some snacks before we left. However, the driver called us as soon as we finished breakfast, so we only had time to go back and get our luggage.

Most of the route to Yushu is over 4,200 meters high, and it is important to stay hydrated to avoid getting ill. Consequently, I stopped on the way to the car and bought 9 average sized water bottles and a box of crackers.

We got to the car and saw that every seat was full but our two. Just as the driver had said, the car had 9 people. Until 7 more people came from the bathroom. My row had 3 seats but 4 people, and naturally I was stuck between two of the seats. To make the experience even more authentic, everyone but us was Tibetan and only one spoke Chinese. While we were waiting to head out, Weiwei was eating these small chocolate bars he brought. All of a sudden, the driver came over and grabbed a handful of the chocolates. Tibetan culture is even less individualistic than Chinese culture, and we felt it throughout the trip. Every time someone ate food or smoked a cigarette, he would offer the rest of the car.

We finally headed out around 9:30 a.m., and had to keep our windows down so the authorities couldn’t see how many people were stuffed in the car. Luckily, I was seated next to a religious Tibetan man traveling with two monks. He prayed the majority of the trip by mumbling prayers. Also, every time we passed a holy area, the entire car would start screaming and throw slips of paper out the window. While the screaming seemed rather chaotic, I later discovered that the entire process was very ordered. Each word that the men screamed was part of an important prayer, while the paper was a form of respect to Buddha.

Another Tibetan cultural trait is a deep love for music. While the car was too old to play CD’s, almost every passenger either sang or played Tibetan music on his cell phone. After numerous bathroom stops (I drank a lot of water), we stopped for lunch around 1. The monk and driver kissed me as soon as they discovered I was American. They offered to show us around Yushu and recommended that we stay in their monastery. As we finished our meal, I asked the monk what he thought about the different ethnic groups living in the area. Even though Yushu was 90% Tibetan, the area was home to many Muslim ethnic groups as well as Han Chinese. Surprisingly, the monk said he only had a major problem with people from Xinjiang. He said that they are all criminals and have no respect for his religion. After that, I stopped pretending to be a Xinjiang Muslim when I was around Tibetans.

As we passed through Qinghai, I was quite mesmerized by the scenery. We saw no cities and very few people. Most of the people we did see lived in tents, while the only towns we saw were bathroom stops with a few restaurants. Keep in mind that the places we passed were on the highway and were probably the most developed in that area. The area was so rural that we saw many more yaks than we saw people. There were several instances when we had to stop and let yaks cross the road. Apart from yaks, we also saw some wild antelope and eagles from the car. Overall, the first 10 hours of the car ride were absolutely incredible. It didn’t matter that the car was crowded and the roads were a little bumpy, I was just happy to experience such a different culture and lifestyle first hand.

However, it didn’t take long before my positive attitude was tested. All of a sudden I felt very nauseous and my entire body was sore from sitting like a sardine for 10 hours. Our driver decided to skip dinner in order to arrive a little earlier, and we all felt the same way. Nonetheless, my stomach felt full from all the water I drank, while my head felt like it was going to explode. Seeing that I felt ill, the driver reassured me and told me that we would arrive by 10:30. At this point it was already 8, and I felt confident that I could arrive without fainting or vomiting.

Every minute became a struggle as I felt weaker and weaker. Suddenly, Weiwei threw up all over the floor of the car, which included my shoes. I spent the next two hours miserable simply trying not to pass out. Because of how I felt, I knew that we were at a high altitude but wasn’t sure exactly how high. As it got closer to 10:30, the driver said we would actually arrive around 11:30. However, at 11:30 the driver changed his approach and told us it would be at least 3 more hours.

As my condition became more and more miserable, we passed a sign that stated the exact altitude: 4,856 meters. We had ascended over 2,000 meters in several hours. Many people can begin to feel altitude sickness at 3,000 meters. We were now at close to 5,000 meters. Since we were on a mountain, we had to drive very slowly and curve around to prevent sharp turns. Shortly after we saw the sign, we hit a pothole and I knew what was next. I yelled for the driver to stop the car and jumped out. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of nowhere and it was pitch black. All I heard was the sound of dogs barking. Weak from the lack of oxygen, I slipped onto the grass when I threw up. Weiwei ran out of the car to help me up, and we continued for a few more hours until we finally arrived to Tibetan Yushu after 3 a.m.

After the exhausting experience, we wanted to stay in a nicer hotel and be able to shower. Unfortunately, even the nicer hotels had no hot water, so we decided to stay in the monastery run inn. We paid for a room with a bathroom, but our sink had no water and toilet couldn’t flush. The room looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. Clothes were all over the floor, and our beds were covered with stains and peanuts. Also, like the hotel in Xining, keys were not given to guests. For anyone counting, this made it 60 plus hours without showering.

I’ll post the rest of the adventure and pictures in the upcoming days.