yeti speak…

Today was a good day.  We (the Johnson family accompanied by our
guests, Christa’s parents) went to the largest lake in China–the
Qinghai Lake.  It’s about a 2.5 hour drive from Xining. 

According to wikipedia.com the lake is the largest (drainless) lake
in China at 2,278 miles² and is located 10,515 feet above sea level in
a depression (ha!) in the Tibetan Plateau.  The name for the lake in
Chinese, Qinghai Hu (pronounced like ‘who‘,) means Blue Lake/Sea and I can attest that it was very
blue.  They have found evidence of the "avian bird flu" at Qinghai Lake
so we steered clear of the "bird island" attraction at the lake’s
northeastern end.  Another bit of trivia: the lake is frozen solid three
months out of the year!

(To read more about Qinghai Lake.)

The Lake was much more impressive than what I was expecting…

…maybe because certain areas of the lake were surrounded by desert.  Desert!  Right next to so much water?  Maybe this is because the lake is saturated with minerals (like the Dead Sea) but according to wikipedia the lake also has many fish living in it–so it can’t really be too dead.

We brought a picnic lunch and ate by the lake.  It was a very Washington beach-like setting with lots of rocks scattered across the beach, chilly waters peacefully lapping the shore, and mountainous vistas in the background.  I guess the Tibetan tents and sand dunes could throw you off, but  other than that the beauty reminded me of many places in my home country.  Some of the highlights from the day:

• Playing freeway tag with a truckoad of pigs.  We kept stopping and this stinky truck kept passing us.  We would always catch up with the double-decker porker-mobile and we could always tell when we were close…by the smell.
• The young Tibetan girl who serenaded us on the beach.  We hit a non-touristed beach–which was nice, but there were a few people offering horseback riding as soon as we got out of our vehicle.  As we unloaded our picnic items on the beach a young Tibetan girl (really cute) started trailing me.  She was dressed in the colorful Tibetan garb.  She was probably about 7 years old or maybe a little older.  I think at first she was asking me something, but I was kind of ignoring her. 

  Then she started singing…and singing…and singing.  It was very cute, but I knew she wanted something in return.  I asked her what she wanted.  She just kept singing.  I told her that she was singing very well.  I pulled out a kuai (not much money at all, but more than I typically give the beggars here in Xining.)  I gave it to her.  She stopped singing, said thank you, and then walked away down the beach!  I felt like I was paying her NOT to sing!  The good thing was that she came back later and started the same routine with Christa.  Instead of giving her money, Christa gave her some of the lychees we brought with us (i.e. fruit that is a bit costly for most folks here.) The girl was visibly delighted!  My wife is a genius, I tell ya.

• For Anna one of the highlights of the day was finding two ladybugs at the beach.  They never made it back here to Xining alive, but she sure was excited about having these two pets for a few hours.  Her delight was one of my highlights.
• The desert.  It was really cool (slang, not description) walking on dunes near the Qinghai Lake.  We all thought that was pretty amazing.  For me, it was totally unexpected.  Besides the rolling sand, we spotted a lizard, a colorful caterpillar, and a place that rented "sleds" and other vehicles for sliding down the steep sandy hills.
• Stopping to smell the flowers.  Literally, this happened. Our Chinese driver (who was male by the way) wanted to stop at a certain place to smell the flowers.  We did.  They were very fragrant, indeed.
• Yaks and camels.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one.

I am publishing a photo album in the sidebar or click here.  I don’t want to steal my in-laws thunder when they come back to the States.  So, IF you must look at these pictures and you know my in-laws, please ACT SURPRISED and AMAZED when you see these pictures (for the second time) in person.  And if you don’t know my in-laws, well, you have nothing to fear.  Enjoy the pictures from the Lake!