Any visitors to Qinghai, China?

Hey there,

A team and I are looking to do some exploratory climbing next summer in the Nyainbo Yuze, located in the southeast region of the Qinghai Province of China. This will be our first time traveling in China (and all of Asia for that matter) and I am very green regarding topics of visas, transportation, and other logistical aspects. If anyone has had any experience in Qinghai (whether climbing or not) any input would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Tess

Hey,

First off, I'll note that I have never been down to those part of Qinghai. I have spent about three summers in northern Qinghai, in the Qilian Mountains.

At least in northern Qinghai, access is very difficult because of mining and military operations. There are some tourist driving routes around Xining and Qinghai Lake that are more accessible, but any backcountry access requires a long permit process. Domestic tourism is encouraged in China, so Chinese citizens can get around relatively easily, but for foreigners, we need to go through a lot of hoops. Many of the regions are supposed to be totally off limits for foreigners, except with special permission. Again, this could be totally different in the south, although the closer you get to Tibet, I can't imagine things get easier. It takes me about 1-2 months of visiting police stations and government offices throughout Qinghai (mostly Xining, Haiyan, and Qilian) to get the necessary permits as a foreigner, and I need a letter from Chinese Universities to support me. Hopefully you have a Chinese contact that can start that process for you. The offices usually want a physical copy and physical person (not necessarily you) to start processing things. That said, this region has big foreign events, like the Tour de Qinghai bike race so there are more rapid ways to obtain permits. Maybe exciting sports are the key! I have no experience with tour companies, but maybe they could help you out and make things easier/faster?

Topographic maps and GPSs are off limits for foreigners too. Of course this is easy to get by.... Soviet topographic maps are pretty good and available online through a map collection at Berkeley. The paved roads are great and because of the mining potential on the plateau, dirt roads are well maintained in almost every valley. With the train no running from Golmund to Lhasa, maybe they've made things easier to access in the south for travelers?? Not sure.

I'd assume you'd fly into Xining or Lanzhou.. both are big enough cities with quick flights or slow trains to/from Beijing. I can recommend a great driving company and driver. I know he's driven all over Qinghai, and his employees are very knowledgeable about the Qinghai, Gansu, and Tibet. Let me know if you'd be interested and I can look up his info.

Hope that's somewhat useful.

EDIT: By the way, in spring it's absolutely beautiful up there. Everything northwest, west, and south of Xining is awesome.

I was basically a guide for two friends in Qinghai a few years ago when the trip we had planned to "Tibet" was cancelled because of China closing it just a week before the trip. This was in late June to early July of 2011.

One of the friends was coming from the US and already had bought flights to China, so we just changed the plan and bought tickets to Xining and handled our adventure from there.

He didn't have any special permission, just maybe was on a business visa, and the other friend and I were already living in China with residence permits. I definitely used my Mandarin speaking skills in Xining, but once you are out in more rural areas, I found out that some of the Tibetans speak English. We had no special permissions whatsoever, but it was somewhat necessary to speak Chinese to make arrangements once there, although perhaps you can get by without it, but if you have any Chinese-speaking member of your group I think it will really be better for you.

Out of the three of us, one friend flew to Lanzhou first and then came by train to Xining, and was the only one to suffer some serious effects of the high altitude. But after spending the night and using some extra oxygen, she was ok. I don't know what altitude you are planning to do your exploratory climbing, but bear in mind that you will be starting from a position of high altitude in Xining.

We traveled in Qinghai by hired taxi for some day trips and by bus for places we wanted to stay longer, like Rebgong.

When you travel, take toilet paper with you or at least tissues, along the way when you are out of Xining. You can get it in shops, but this is wild country and sometimes a shop is hours between one village to the next.

Also it can be quite cold, even in summer, which you might already know, but I was glad I had a winter coat with me for part of the trip in the mountains and near Lake Kokonor.

I lived in Xining, (Qinghai Province) for a few years while teaching english there. Two of my friends from Seattle had a hostel and travel agency there when I was living there. We went all over the place from Xining including Tibet and the Himalaya. We def needed to have permits lined up before we went overland as Americans. My friend and his family still live there and have several connections. I think his travel agency is called "Land of Snows" or Tibetan Connections" . I will find a link and paste it here

Jesse