Temple Lake
Our camp was just by the lake, Miaohaizi (庙海子) . We woke up early to take a walk to the lake. At the opposite end we saw a temple. Miaohaizi (庙海子) meant temple lake in Chinese. This lake got this name because a temple was built by the lake.
This temple was called Badain Jaran Temple also known as the “Forbidden City in the Desert”. It was built 200 years ago by followers of Tibetan Buddhism. All the bricks, tiles and wood that went into building the temple were carried across the desert by camels and livestock from hundreds of kilometers away.
The temple looked elegant and clean. The sky was overcast so we did not get a golden background behind the temple. At best we had when the sun rose higher was a light sandy color background.
After eating breakfast at our camp it was time to leave the desert. On the way out we we stopped to view some lakes.
We were too quiet for Gao Fei during our ride out of the desert. Gao Fei was dune bashing and we were not yelling our heads off. We had done sand dune bashing before so we were not caught unaware. Well it was thrilling but we were no longer young and this “excitment” was not a must.
After an hour, we finally reached the entrance of the desert. The sky had turned gloomy and we were glad that the day before was good. Gao Fei let us down at Shangshiyuan Hotel where we picked up the rest of our luggage and met up with our Zhangye guide, Lao Li and driver.
Our desert trip was over and though the desert sights we saw were not as brilliant and beautiful as those internet pictures we still felt that they were awesome.
On our way to Yining
Our next destination was Xining. Xining city was 430km south of Badain Jaran Desert, which was a 6-7 hours drive. The plan was for our Zhangye guide/driver to bring us back to Zhangye City (2 hour drive) and from there we would board a express train to Xining (1.5 hour ride).
About an hour drive later we were caught in a terribly heavy massive traffic jam on the highway! The jam delayed us by about 2.5 hours. So instead of having more time chilling at a Zhangye Mall before our train ride we had to go straight to the Zhangye South Station to board our train.
Ourside the train station we bated farwell to our Zhangye guide and driver, they did a great job bringing us around the last 6 days. They would not be going with us to Xining. At Xining we would be met by another set of guide and driver.
To enter the station we had to “swipe” our passport as the train tickets were bought based on our passport information. Our luggage had to go through scanning, the process was just like checking into an airport. In fact the luggage check was more stringent than that at the airport as our scissors (sharp object) in one of our luggage was confiscated.
The train station was huge, the departure hall was massive and packed with people but everything was very orderly. There were proper electronic sign boards annoucing the schedule the trains, there were cafes and eateries and plentiful of seats.
The train arrived punctually. After we boarded, it left the station not a second late! The seats were comfortable (we were on first class seat) with a lot of leg room. The only inconvience we found was that there were not a lot of luggage spaces per cabin and four of us had large size luggage! Luckily the locals were not moving around with large luggage so we still managed to squeeze our luggages at the “luggage holding area” at the start of the cabin.
On the advice of our Zhangye guide we bought cup noodle at a store before boarding the train so that we could fill our stomach on the train ride. Our journey was only 1.5 hour ride which actually did not require a meal on board. But midway on the ride we tore open our cup noodle, filled it up with hot water that was easily available and “chomp” our noodle.
Our hotel at Xining
Once we reached Xining upon exiting the train gate we were met by our Xining driver holding a card with our names on it. Our hotel was Sofitel Xining (西宁新华联索菲特大酒店) which was just about 15min drive from the station. It was a 5 star international hotel in a vibrant city.
Our room was huge, clean and cosy. The ensuite bathroom was large and clean.
Other Accommodation in Xining
