A G: Silk Road - Qinghai Lake 青海湖, Laji Mountain 拉鸡山, and Taersi Monastery 塔尔寺 by Gordon

Qinghai Lake, Laji Mountain, and Taersi Monastery

- Gordon

The Silk Road

The Silk Road Day 6:

Qinghai Lake, Laji Mountain, Taersi, Xining

The sunrise at Qinghai Lake, 5:50 a.m.

The sunrise at Qinghai Lake, 5:52 a.m.

The sunrise at Qinghai Lake, 5:55 a.m.

Qinghai Lake after sunrise

To view sunrise at the Qinghai Lake, to climb up to the Laji Mountain, and the Taersi Monastery are all very good for anyone needs exercise.

Qinghai Lake

It was pounding, and pouring the night before. I didn't expect that we could be able to see the sunrise at Qinghai Lake. You know, we only stay here for one night. I was a little bit disappointed. I set up the alarm clock to 5:55 a.m.. The sky was so clear when I woke up. The rain stopped! The sunrise on the Qinghai Lake was about to end. Luckily we don't need to go out to enjoy the beautiful scene. Opened our curtain, It was right there in front of us. The red orange sun looked so tiny and pretty behind the clouds.

The rock castles

We rushed out to the lakeside. We saw many rock castles. They looked like temples. My brother and I started building a copy of it. The water of the lake was very cold. I had an interesting idea that Somebody could go around the lake by bike. Because the lake is so big, he cannot finish his journey in one day. During the night, he could go camping with a ski jacket and thick pants in a sleeping bag. This gonna be so cool. I would give it a try someday.

Laji Mountain

The Laji Mountain has a pagoda building on a mountain top. A funny thing, cause there's a lot of chickens. That is probably why the name of the mountain was called. The view to the valley was also very nice. That was good because we were so high. We were 3820 meters above sea level to be exact. From one point of the view you can see the meadow with the distant snowy mountains. The photos looked like postcards. They also raised a lot of Tibetan sheep.

Laji Mountain sign, 3820 miters above sea level

The valley of Laji Mountain and the snowy mountains far away

Entering Taersi Monastery

Taersi Monastery viewed from above

See the golden rooftop

That is the Grand Golden Tiled Hall 大金瓦殿

Entrance

Taersi Monastery

Taersi

Monastery

Taersi Monastery is the last place we went to before finishing our Silk Road journey. It was the most religious place. There were lamas that used modern tools like phones. They wore red cloaks that they wrapped in a special way. There were many halls like the Dhammapala Hall, the Amitayus Hall, the Main Assembly Hall, the Vegetarian kitchen, and the Medicine Institution. The most famous place belongs to the Grand Golden Tiled Hall. It is located at the center, which means that all the other halls were built around it. It had a silver tower, built around a white sandalwood tree, decorated with various types of treasures. There are even silver and gold teapots. They didn't let you take pictures of the halls though. The fun part is to turn the prayer wheels. I didn't miss any signal one of them. Hope they can bring me good luck!

The son

sandalwood tree

outside of the

Grand Golden Tiled Hall

See the Grand Golden Tiled Hall?

It is behind the square!

The Grand Golden Tiled Hall

viewed from different angel

Taersi Monastery

Climbed up to the top to reach the Great Lamas Residence 班禅行宫

Exit, Taersi Monastery

Our driver took us to Xining training station. Thanks to our driver giving us a safe and comfy ride along Qinghai - Tibetan Plateau for three days. The high speed train led us to Lanzhou airport. On the night, we flew to Kunming to start our next adventure, Teahorse Road. Tomorrow will be a new day. It is waiting for us to explore.