Farewell lunch with Ruling and Hongyu
Arriving in San Francisco
With the excitement of the Olympics all around us, we felt we had to try to attend an event--at least one! The only problem was that every single event was sold out. We looked online for tickets and came across a man on Craigslist who was selling two rowing tickets. "We'll take them!" we told him. We arranged the hand-off at a restaurant downtown. We were so thankful that we had these tickets and that he didn't charge us an arm and a leg for them. :) The following day, we headed to the water park at which the rowing events were to be held. It was a rainy day, but that didn't matter to us...we were too excited! We were going to an Olympic event! We arrived at the water park and entered the venue. Everyone was given yellow plastic ponchos, which came in quite handy later on.
Rowing fans
Fencing Hall
Gold medal match
After visiting the Summer Palace on our first day in Beijing, we decided on our second day to head out and explore the city on a pair of bicycles. We borrowed the bikes from Ruling.
After a full two days in Xi'an, we departed for Beijing, the last leg of our trip! We were greeted in the new Terminal 3 of the Beijing Airport (the largest in the world) by Ruling Zhang and Hongyu Wang, our wonderful friends and hosts. We also saw some Olympic athletes, their friends, and family arrive in the same terminal! Olympic spirit is in the air, and everyone seems excited! New buildings, recently paved roads, beautiful flowers, helpful volunteers, colorful light displays, and visitors from around the world can be seen everywhere!
We will spend one week here and catch the first few days of the Olympics!
Photo from Chinadaily.com
…or just Everest Base Camp. :) We left Lhasa on Saturday and traversed several hundred kilometers to the small town of Shegar, stopping by the town Gyantse to see the Pelkhor Chode Monastery and Tibet’s second largest city, Shigatse, where we spent the night. We also visited the impressive and large Tashilhumpo Monastery and the open-air market in Shigatse.
On the day of our visit to Everest Base Camp, we woke up around 7AM, quickly ate breakfast, packed up, and left for our destination! We drove about 3 hours to Everest Base Camp, also known as Quomolangma Base Camp. This is the Chinese name for Everest, and the Tibetan name is Chomolama. When we arrived at Base Camp, a thick layer of clouds hung over Everest, blocking most of the mountain. We sat and waited for quite some time, keeping our fingers crossed that the clouds would break and that the peak would be visible. After about an hour, our prayers were answered, and Everest’s peak peeked through a small hole in the clouds! We quickly took some pictures, and before we knew it, Everest disappeared once again behind its curtain of clouds.
On our return drive the sky continued to clear and we were able to view Everest from a distance and with minimal cloud cover! Giddy with excitement, we took several pictures, some of which can be seen if you click ‘Additional Photos’ to the right. We hear that the weather in this area is highly unpredictable, and we’re so thankful to have been able to visit Everest and see her peak!
We also visited a small monastery called Rongbuk, located near Base Camp. At about 5,200m, Rongbuk is the highest monastery in the world. We headed back to Lhasa, staying the night in Shigatse at the hotel we had stayed at two nights prior.
It turns out our train was delayed four hours, which ended up being a blessing since we got to hang out with Drolma some more! We went to the Tibetan market near the train station and he helped us buy some popular Tibetan CDs. Then we went to the Construction Bank of China Hotel, which has a revolving restaurant on the top floor. We had a delicious dinner there, enjoying the changing views, and then headed back to the train station.
Our train ended up leaving around 8:30PM and the boarding process was quite frantic! Drolma and Cedric, the translator from our travel agency who facilitated our departure from Xining, weren't allowed on the platform at the outset. We weren't able to carry all our bags in one trip, however, and it was clear we were struggling. Plus our train was on the second platform over; we had to cross under the one closest to the station. Drolma and Cedric were finally allowed to enter the platform area, and Drolma helped tremendously by carrying one of our big bags!
We rushed to board the train and not long after we were aboard, the train departed from the station! We were able to say farewell (albeit a rushed one!) to Drolma and Cedric. We hope to see Drolma in Beijing since there's a good chance he'll be there when we're there in a few weeks.
We settled into our ‘soft sleeper’ on the Lhasa Skytrain, or Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which was completed about two years ago. The room was quite cozy and consisted of two sets of bunks. We shared the room with two Chinese soldiers who were to join us for part of the journey. The four of us watched part of the latest James Bond movie and then went to bed. The beds were surprisingly comfortable, and the train ride was so smooth, we felt like we were being gently rocked to sleep.
The next morning we woke up to stunning views: vast grasslands, turquoise lakes, majestic mountains, dramatic clouds, and several hundred sheep and yaks. We read for a little onboard but found the scenery too breathtaking. We spent a lot of our journey admiring and taking pictures of the landscape. As we headed to Lhasa, we saw quite a few villages of brick houses and prayer flags.
After about 24 hours of travel, we arrived in Lhasa at the relatively new station, whose architecture emulates the Potala Palace. We were greeted by our Tibetan guide, Tashi, who had patiently waited in the rain for us. He helped us to the car, where we met our driver, Jawang, who is also Tibetan. Tashi speaks excellent English and is incredibly knowledgeable about the history and culture of Lhasa and Tibet!
We drove into the city of Lhasa and our jaws dropped when we saw the Potala Palace. Its magnificence is legendary but nothing compares to seeing it in person! Seeing it lit up against the black sky was incredible.
We dropped off our luggage at the Tibet Gorkha Hotel, which has several gorgeous traditional Tibetan murals and is outfitted with traditional Tibetan décor. Then Tashi took us to a delicious Nepalese restaurant for dinner called Lhasa Namaste where we had Nepalese chicken curry and Tibetan yak stew. Yum!
We headed home and rested up for our first full day in Lhasa!
In the afternoon we were joined by Drolma and Tarvinder and went to People’s Park located near the heart of the city. It’s a beautiful park with a lake, zoo, stage, amusement park, train and more! We rode a zip line across the lake, watched a few dance performers, wandered through the zoo and amusement park, rode a boat on the lake, and took many, many pictures. The park seemed like an oasis tucked away and hidden from the rest of the city by its trees and beautiful vegetation.
Later that evening, Renchen organized a graduation dinner for us at a delicious Chinese restaurant. He and Konchog presented us with certificates of completion and kadas, Tibetan prayer scarves. After dinner, the celebration continued at the Tribal Sun, a noma, which is a Tibetan nightclub where performers sing and dance. It seems that they usually sing and dance to pop songs but wear beautiful traditional garb.
What a wonderful last evening with our fellow medical students and teachers! It was a great four weeks and we learned so much! We’re so thankful to have had this opportunity and look forward to integrating what we’ve learned in the future. It’s been fascinating learning about a medical system so different from our own, and it has been truly eye-opening. We hope the dialogue among Tibetan, Western, and other medical systems continues. We all have so much to share and learn from each other!
After the rotation, the Californians returned home to Stanford and the Canadians continued their travels around China as well. It was wonderful sharing these four weeks together, and it was fun comparing notes on our experiences thus far in medical school!
And again, we'd like to thank everyone who made this program possible, especially Dr. Phuoc Le and Renchen Dhondrup!
The day after we finished our program, we embarked on an adventure with Drolma, our teacher, translator, and good friend. He kindly invited us to his hometown, Chi Ga, located about 3 hours south of Xining by bus.
We arrived at his home and met his family: his mother, father, great-grandmother, older brother, uncle and cousin. They're all so sweet and hospitable! They made us feel so welcomed! Drolma's mom is an awesome cook and prepared some delicious food for us not long after our arrival. After our snack, Drolma gave us a tour of his home and land. They have a beautiful garden, where they grow a large variety of vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Some of the ones we saw: wheat, rapeseed, soybeans, green beans, garlic, carrots, spinach, squash, apricots, and onions. Drolma said that most of the food they eat comes from their garden and that they sell whatever they don't consume. They also have some sheep, which are currently grazing in the next valley over.
He took us up a hill behind his home and we were able to see two stupas, one of which is on his property. The other stupa was built when Drolma was in fifth grade, and he, his family, and his village helped build it. We visited this stupa the morning of our departure. We walked back to his home, had a delicious dinner, and went to bed!
We woke up and had breakfast, consisting of tea, homemade bread and tsampa soup (buh-ra). Everything was delicious! We felt fortified after the buh-ra and were ready for our adventure! Drolma took us to a newly discovered park not far from his village. We spent the morning exploring the park, seeing the hot spring there, crossing a river (more than a few times!), drinking tea and playing cards in the guesthouse/restaurant tent area.
While playing cards, it started pouring down rain! The thunder, dark clouds, and heavy rain were rather exhilarating, but we were very thankful to be in a tent and out of the downpour. Drolma told us that that area is known for its rain and that rain is viewed as auspicious since it helps everything grow.
We then were taken by motorcycle to Drolma's friend's house, which is located in the park. His friend, Dorjee Tsedan, is a ranger and helps ensure that no one chops down any trees. The motorcycle ride was quite the experience as we sat three or two to a motorcycle and the rain continued pouring down!
Once at Dorjee's house, we warmed up by the fire and had some tsampa, bread, yak yoghurt, and tea. Dorjee lives with his sister in a house that we later learned Drolma's dad built. Drolma's dad is a carpenter, nomad, farmer, and architect. In fact, he designed and built a monastery.
We spent about three hours at Dorjee's house, enjoying their company (and the company of several neighbors and an elder that stopped by), drinking tea, looking at pictures, listening to music and taking pictures. Dorjee and his sister let us try on some traditional winter robes and we took lots of pictures in their home, outside, and with their yaks!
We headed home when the rain died down and had delicious mutton dumplings that Drolma's family prepared as well as some yak yoghurt. Exhausted from our adventure at the park, we fell asleep immediately after dinner.
After breakfast, Drolma's family outfitted us in traditional Tibetan summer robes and accessories. We had fun taking pictures and they seemed to get a kick out of it too! :) Soon after, we said farewell and gave thanks for such a wonderful weekend. We will miss them so much! We headed back to Xining, stopping by a monastery in Drolma's county town on the way.
Epilogue: Our bus broke down when we were in the mountains and about 45 minutes from Xining. Another bus arrived fifteen minutes later, but all the seats were taken. Our only choice was to stand in the aisles. The bus was absolutely packed, and we barely fit! Needless to say, we were glad when we arrived to Xining safe and sound. :) What a wonderful weekend! Thanks so much, Drolma! Gua drin chi!!
Hi all! Our latest group expedition took us to an area known as Chab Cha. The main purpose of our trip was to meet up with roughly 40 Tibetan medical students and join them on an herb picking expedition. The plan was to go camping in the region, but due to a mixed blessing of heavy rain, we stayed overnight in a monastery town instead.
Ascending the stairs to the main hall at Rongwo Gonchen Gompa
Hi! Here is how we spend most of our days in Xining:
The biggest challenge thus far has been avoiding overly spicy foods, both at Tibetan and Chinese restaurants. Tibetans love to eat meat so a typical meal consists of Yak meat and Sheep mutton, along with other dishes. Tibetans use almost every part of the yak for either cooking or medicine or other uses. They also use yak butter for artistic carvings, which we saw at a recent trip to a monastery.
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