Lanzhou – Linxia – Xiahe – Langmusi – Tongren – Xining
Hello Mr. Le Guyader,
I’m late in giving you an account of our trip between Lanzhou and Xining…
Since our return I have prepared two short tours, already completed: the first with Mr. Leret and the second with Nicolas, the Sichuan-Roads agent.
The week spent in the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai began with a few adjustments between the guide’s schedule and ours. Among other things, the guide maintained the postponement of the tour from Friday afternoon to Sunday, leaving us a second free afternoon in the small town of Tongren with its few streets and its market that are our daily life in Danshui, only to have it finally canceled due to our fault in order to arrive at the airport without rushing: organized this way, the tour could have been shortened by a day.
You warned us about the services offered by two- and three-star Chinese hotels. But we always had large, bright rooms and, above all, hot water!
Our driver, grumpy throughout, nevertheless took great care of his very comfortable car. We were lucky to have a Tibetan guide, Gongke, who was very interesting. Gongke taught us a lot about Tibetan life and Buddhism (this was useful during our last trip to Mount Emei). Moreover, since we couldn’t take pictures inside the monasteries, we had to use our memory.
As we approached Langmusi, it was snowing: the yaks made a few black spots in the snow-white meadows. What a good idea to have planned all the meals on the tour. Always letting Kongke choose, we never ate in the same place twice and we feasted on the local specialties.
In the end, an excellent week of change of scenery and discoveries.
Patrice joins me in wishing you great success in creating your agency’s French/European branch. We are so happy that your agency exists, making our move to China even more enjoyable!
Sincerely,
Patrice and Marie-France GIRARD