We were in the tiny town of Huangyuan, a little more than an hour outside of Xining. I had been standing on the road for an hour and a half. We had had about ten cars stop and offer us a ride, but all for money. On this trip, we have sometimes had to pay …
In America, all of our television journalists, in one way or another, are fairly attractive. At least, they are not difficult to look at. And, as far as I know, most American journalists appearing on television have great teeth. This is because dental health and appearance are very important to Americans, and no one is …
Really couldn’t put a sign in a more inappropriate place: Good job, China.
You may have already read the post on Tiantang Temple here, but Galen put together a cool video of the temple as well. Apologizes for being a little late with this. The Chinese are slowing their internet down for political reasons. We may experience more troubles down the road. We will do our best to …
Thanks to those of yall who participated in the little contest we had on this photo: We got a lot of great guesses. The closest one was Anna from Germany. In fact, it is an advertisement for an abortion clinic. Here is a mostly complete translation of the ad that I put together: Xining Family …
Can anyone guess what this ad is about? It’s not at all what you are thinking. Leave your answers in the comment section. If you can read Chinese, please don’t spoil it. Check back in tomorrow’s post for the answer. We’ll send a postcard from our next stop to anyone who gets it right (and …
Xining has a very Silk Road feel to the city. Qinghai, the province of which Xining is the capital of, is largely a Tibetan land, underpopulated, with vast stretches of wild, high deserts pockmarked with many mountains and almost no cities. However, Xining is dominated not by Tibetans but by Hui Muslims, the Chinese speakers …
We never originally planned to come here to this city on the northwest edge of the Tibetan plateau, yet we’ve been resting in Xining for several days. Our Tibetan friend has been wanting to start a business that would help young women in her community get involved in entrepreneurial ventures. Unfortunately, there is not much …
Here is another thing I love about China: Single-Wide Trailer Barbecue Shack. Got to love it.
Note: Though we normally avoid foul language in this blog, this post does contain a fairly provocative word. In order to faithfully record our goings-on, I have decided to leave the word in, only partially censoring the word. We were coming into Xining. I was in the passengers seat. A stranger pulled up on the …