Heading to Xining railway station

After our adventure on the sand buggy at the Qinghai Lake, we headed back to town to have dinner before getting on the train that brought us to Lhasa. As our journey mostly had us glued to our seats on the coach, I was vigilant so as not to miss a single scene that could be interesting.

The reflection on the windows remain a challenge to my photo-taking as I picked spots on the window where the scene is clear. However, this is difficult with scenes that required immediate snaps.


We passed a graveyard that was on the hill.


Planting fields were just about anyway except the city area. This one has terraced hill slopes.


Petrol stations in Xining had pointy rooftops.


We went passed a church.


In China, I generally see people gathered seated on the floor by the street.


Building with Chinese architecture in the midst of high-rise buildings


At the traffic light.


We had similar-looking meals all throughout the trip. These are specially prepared for tourists. They are Chinese dishes, mostly vegetables to keep us healthy as we will be undergoing drastic altitude change during the train ride. To my disappointment, they continued to serve similar dishes in Tibet instead of something more local. So, we requested for a Tibetan meal on our last day. Our guide arranged us a trip to a Tibetan restaurant on one of the main street in Lhasa. The story of this will come in the later post.


More high-rise buildings are located around the Xining train station area. I was rather impressed that some of these high-rise were built right next to the hill. They must have done something to prevent the soil from eroding, especially when a section of the hill seemed to have been cut off.


It was chaos at the Xining railway station. It was extremely crowded with people. Before we could enter into the building, we had our bags scanned. The entrance is barricaded for only those with a valid train ticket to enter the building. At the doorway, our tickets were checked again. Inside, the halls were dark and packed with people. The lights from the high ceiling and the many windows in the hall failed to illuminate the room.

When we were called to board the train, we lined up. But, other passengers came from all sides to go through the door, oblivious to the queue. A common behaviour of some people in China is that they push to get to their destination. They push old people too! They push even when the queue isn't moving at all!