The motivation to travel comes from curiosity about the unknown world. It seems that in this vast land of China, there is always an unknown paradise waiting for you and calling you.
I miss the snow-capped mountains, the grasslands, and even more, the prayer flags dancing freely in the wind.
The temptation of Qinghai is as close as it is far away.
1. DAY1: First sight of Xining
My old father taught me from an early age: "The early bird catches the worm." Do things sooner rather than later.
It coincides with the peak travel period for May Day. According to news reports, the number of people traveling during this May Day holiday is as high as 2 Worried about traffic jams on the way to the airport, the uncle decided to use an efficient, convenient and environmentally friendly way to travel, so as to do his part to help the country achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible.
I got up early and rode Xiaoyou to the subway station while humming a ditty. I was instantly stunned! The tragedy of "the early bird gets eaten by the early bug" happened again. The first subway didn't leave until 6:00 6. I had no choice but to take a taxi to the airport. There is still a long way to go to achieve carbon neutrality!
In the car, I kept thinking about what my old father said, "The early bird catches the worm." But first, you have to figure out whether you are a "worm" or a "bird." Before doing anything, it is important to understand your role.
Flights from Ningbo to Xining either stop in Wuhan or Nanyang, with a total flight time of 5 hours. People who fly a lot will hate flying. It’s unpleasant to be squeezed into a small space. Therefore, Shu Miao chose to fly from Ningbo to Lanzhou, and then transfer from Lanzhou to Xining. Of course, the most important reason is that with Spring Airlines, you can fly from Ningbo to Lanzhou for 50 yuan.
Xining is the provincial capital of Qinghai. Before the Han Dynasty, it was the center of ancient Qiang activities. During the Han Dynasty, Huo Qubing set up a military base here and placed it under the rule of the Central Plains. Even today, Xining is still a multi-ethnic city and an important town in the northwest where multi-ethnic integration occurs.
Walking on the street, you can see Muslims everywhere, and you can see mosques everywhere. The more famous one is the Dongguan Mosque. The Dongguan Mosque is said to have been built during the Ming Dynasty. Its construction style combines traditional Chinese architectural art style and Islamic architectural style. It is one of the four major mosques in China and can accommodate 6 Muslims for worship at the same time.
When you come to Xining, you must eat halal meals! A must-have halal meal is hand-caught mutton. The lamb here is plump, tender and delicious. It doesn’t require too much processing. Just dip it in a little chili powder and it will make people love it. There is also bone-reduced yak meat. The total weight is weighed before eating, and the bone weight is weighed after eating. Subtract the bone weight and then pay. If you feel that the meat is too greasy, you can order a bowl of gaiwan tea to relieve the oil.
1.Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport has a direct airport bus to Xining, which runs every hour. The fare is 100 yuan and the journey takes about 3 hours. You can also take the intercity train from Zhongchuan Airport to Lanzhou West, the fare is 17 yuan, the journey is about 45 minutes, and then take the high-speed rail from Lanzhou West to Xining, the fare is 58 yuan, the journey takes about 1.5 hours. However, due to the connection problem between intercity trains and high-speed trains, the waiting time is long, and in most cases the actual time is about the same as taking the airport bus.
2.Xining is a city with very obvious off-peak and peak seasons for travel. Hotel prices in peak season are 3 times or even 10 times higher than those in off-season. The peak tourist season is from 5 to 10. If the itinerary can be confirmed, you can lock in high-season hotels and car rentals in advance during the off-season. For example, Shu Miao booked a hotel in 1 for 5. The Xi'an brand chain only costs 68 yuan/ for a standard room. night, in 4 month, the price has increased to 303 yuan/ night.
Regarding car rental orders, Shumao booked in the month of 1 for only 51 yuan for / days. By the month of 4, the price had risen to 255 yuan/ days. When I picked up the car, the boss kept insisting that the order was a loss, and reluctantly handed the car into my hands. The license plate number was very appropriate, as if it told the mood of the boss and the owner at that time. The boss called me "idiot" and I called the boss "13".
3.In a civilized society, you have to pay a price for swearing. You silently recorded the amount of gas when you picked up the car, and went to Ctrip to get another fortune. If you choose Ctrip Preferred when renting a car, you can enjoy the platform guarantee service, which guarantees that new cars within 3 years will be delivered after washing, and the oil content at the time of delivery is greater than 75%. If there is a If it does not match, you can ask for compensation of 100 yuan; it is difficult to collect evidence after the car is delivered after washing. Remember to take pictures of the vehicle's driving license and the fuel level when picking up the car for the other two items.
2. DAY2: Heading westward, revealing the true face of Chaka Salt Lake
The destination of today's itinerary is Chaka Town, passing through scenic spots such as Kumbum Monastery, Laji Mountain, Qinghai Lake, and Chaka Salt Lake. The whole journey is about 300 kilometers. In order to avoid traffic, we depart from the hotel at 7.
Kumbum Monastery is one of the six major monasteries of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism in China. It is the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug Sect. It is a very powerful place. Shu Mu does not believe in Buddhism or religion, and has not studied the intricate relationships between various sects. The first impression that Kumbum Monastery gave him was that the tickets were really awesome! It costs 70 to enter the temple!
Although I am not interested in the history of the Gelug Sect in Kumbum Monastery, Kumbum Monastery is still worth a visit. It is very suitable for taking pictures. It may be blessed by the Buddhas. Any photo can produce a blockbuster, even the Redmi mobile phone is no exception!
1.The parking lot of Kumbum Monastery is very small, and you need to queue up to park in the temple during peak hours. If you are driving to Kumbum Monastery by yourself, it is recommended to park your car in a parking lot owned by nearby villagers. The price is 20 yuan.
2.If you want to avoid the peak hours, it is recommended to visit the temple as soon as it opens at 8 in the morning. If you want to watch the debate, you need to enter the temple in the afternoon.
After visiting Kumbum Monastery, you can go around Laji Mountain to Qinghai Lake. Laji Mountain is the first snow-capped mountain to be crossed on the way to Qinghai Lake. The altitude of the pass is 3820 meters. Climbing Laji Mountain, one can experience the vertically distributed landscape belt of snow-capped mountains, meadows and forests at close range. The overall landscape is similar to that of western Sichuan. Zheduo Mountain in Kangding is similar, but there are far fewer cars along the way than Zheduo Mountain.
Qinghai Lake is the largest inland lake in China. Legend has it that the Queen Mother holds a peach feast every year in Qinghai Lake to entertain all the gods. Therefore, this also explains why there is a statue of the Queen Mother carved in the Erlangjian Scenic Area of Qinghai Lake. If you just want to enjoy the natural landscape, there is actually no need to go to Erlangjian Scenic Area. Instead, the private farms of herdsmen around the scenic area are more suitable for fun. Compared with the entrance fee of 80 yuan/ per person in Erlangjian Scenic Area, private farms only charge herdsmen 20—30 yuan/ People, you can see sheep and sea of flowers in the farm. Unfortunately, the sorghum went at the wrong time. Flowers usually don’t bloom until the months of 6 and 7, but I was lucky enough to see the sheep.
Follow the road around the lake to the west, cross the Rubber Mountain and enter Ulan County, and soon arrive at the Chaka Salt Lake. Chaka Salt Lake is known as China’s Sky Realm and was rated as “one of the 55 places you must visit in life” by National Geographic magazine.
Shu Miao has never had any expectations or illusions about this "must visit place in life"! After experiencing countless "must-visits in life", Shu Miao found that there is no reason to go to such a place except for the helpless mentality of "come all the time" and send people to the scenic spot. The same is true for Chaka Salt Lake. The entire scenic spot is a big salt field, with strong winds and sand, strong sunshine, and many tourists, which makes people completely lose interest in visiting. The beauty of Chaka Salt Lake can only exist in "photographing".
1.Chaka Salt Lake is divided into two scenic spots: Sky Realm and Sky No. 1. Sky Realm is an old scenic spot, focusing on natural scenery. The ticket price is 70 yuan; Sky No. 1 is a new scenic spot. , there are many man-made buildings in the scenic area for taking pictures, and the entrance fee is 50 yuan.
2.Which scenic spot should you go to? Tourists from Zhejiang are not required to choose multiple-choice questions and must select all. Because the scenic spot waives the first ticket fee for tourists from Zhejiang.
3.Photography in the sky depends on luck. It needs to be sunny and windless, but there must be clouds in the sky. I went there twice and both times ended in failure.
3. DAY3: Encounter the most beautiful snow mountain road
The destination of today's itinerary is Qilian County. The planned scenic spots include Qinghai Lake Cliff, Dadongshu Pass and Binggou Forest Sea. The whole journey is about 400 kilometers. Later, due to the navigation deviation, I missed the two scenic spots of Dadongshu Pass and Binggou Forest Sea. I walked a section of the unnamed mountain road, but the scenery on the unnamed mountain road was still amazing.
Qinghai Lake Cliff can be directly located and navigated on Baidu Map. Walk from west to east along the G315 highway. Turn into the gravel road at Daximulabzai and you will see a railway bridge opening. , pass through the bridge hole and drive toward the center of the lake for about 10 minutes. You can see a large array of prayer flags. Stop the car and walk forward to reach the cliff of Qinghai Lake. At the necessary intersection of the cliff, local Tibetans will guard and charge 10 yuan per person. When you go out, you can only spend money to "dispel disasters."
4. DAY4: Niuxin Mountain and Zhuoer Mountain in Qilian County
There are two sacred mountains in Babao Town, Qilian County. One is called Niuxin Mountain, which looks like a cow's heart. Its main peak is as high as 4600 The other is red like agate, called Zhuoer Mountain, which belongs to Danxia Mountain. If you are lazy, I recommend you go to the square in the center of the town to see the two sacred mountains at a glance. Most tourists go to Zhuoer Mountain because it has the best camera position to shoot Niuxin Mountain.
However, well-known scenic spots like Zhuoer Mountain are very prone to congestion during holidays. In order to avoid the tragedy of "Fanjing Mountain" from happening again, Shumao chose to hike Niuxin Mountain instead of going to Zhuoer Mountain. Niuxin Mountain Scenic Area is currently under development and you can hike for free. Due to time constraints, Sichuan only walked halfway up the mountain. However, two people took over the entire scenic spot during the whole journey, so they could pose for photos as they pleased, which was very comfortable!
From Qilian County back to Xining, we took the Xisha Line of the 315 highway. Snow mountains line up on both sides. We passed by the Gangshika Snow Peak and the Daban Mountain Observation Deck. The scenery was very nice and very suitable. Self drive. Tragically, the cooling system and battery of the Shuimai car malfunctioned, and the water tank leaked. I bought two barrels of coolant on the way, and added them while leaking while driving. The 200 kilometers back to Xining turned out to be a full ride y4>8 hours! Glad to have arrived safely.
5. DAY5: Lanzhou is not just about ramen!
By chance, while navigating Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport, I discovered this film and television base located near the airport. The film and television city is only 6 kilometers away from Lanzhou Airport. It only takes 10 minutes by taxi from Lanzhou Airport. The fare is 12 yuan and the ticket is 50 Yuan. The film and television city has built the Temple of Heaven, the Sphinx, the Greek Temple and other ancient and modern Chinese and foreign monuments on a one-to-one scale. It only takes half a day to travel through thousands of years, directly above the picture.
The original planned itinerary was 9 days, starting from Xining, and completing the Qinghai Lake Small Loop and Gannan Loop. Due to the car's condition problems midway, and the fact that Gannan and Qinghai Lake are both Tibetan areas with similar scenery, we gave up the Gannan loop route.
I used Spring and Autumn Xixin to buy air tickets and buy hotels at bargain prices half a year in advance. The car rental company paid about 500 yuan due to vehicle failure, and the total trip cost for the two of them 5 days was about 3200yuan, including round-trip air ticket 200yuan, 4 night accommodation 350yuan, 5 day car rental 270 yuan, gas fee 500 yuan, and the remaining part is tickets and catering expenses.
The cost is amazingly low! Shu Shu himself couldn’t believe it!
Next stop: South Xinjiang trip
