Day 2 - Aug 10, 2007 Friday

 Xining西寧 / Qinghai Tibet Train 青藏列車

(click the hyperlink for the respective photo album)

After breakfast, we set off for the largest inland salt water lake, Qinghai Lake 青海湖 (3200M). 

On the way to the lake, we made a brief stop at Sun & Moon Mountain (Riyue Mountain)日月山.  In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the emperor gave in marriage his daughter, Princess Wencheng 文成公主, to the leader of Tibet, Songtsen Gampo 松贊干布 to improve the relationship between the two nations. When the princess reached this mountain and took a break, she felt a surge of homesickness. She took out the precious Riyue Mirror given to her by her father because she was told that it would show her hometown while yearning for her home. But she resolutely threw down the mirror so as not to miss her country any more, and continued her journey to the west. The mirror was broken in two pieces shaped like the moon and sun. From then, the mountain got its name, Riyue Mountain.

We reached Qinghai Lake 青海湖 before 11am.  It was very cloudy and thus the color of the lake was not the best.  It has an area of 4,635 sq km and is more than 360km (220 miles) in circumference.

After lunch, we visited one of the most famous monasteries of Gelugpa 格魯派 of Buddhism, Ta'er Monastery 塔爾寺. 

Built in 1622, in the center of the entire complex, the Great Hall of Gold Tiles is the core structure of the monastery. The ridges of the hall's roof are decorated with auspicious objects such as treasure bottles, gold streamers, and gold deer. In the center of the hall is a silver pagoda built around a pipal tree; and a statue of Tsongkhapa 宗喀巴, the founder of the Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, is placed in the pagoda. In the hall there also exists a collection of hundreds of works by Tsongkhapa 宗喀巴 and his disciples as well as hand-written copies of scriptures in Tibetan and Mongolian.

We finished our sightseeing in Xining at around 5:30pm and headed back to the city for the train to Lhasa that night!

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