Northwest China
Xining was a garrison town on the edge of the empire for two thousand years, and it still feels like a frontier: Hui bakers, Tibetan pilgrims off the bus from Lhasa, and the smell of cumin lamb on Mojia Street. For travellers it is the practical base for Qinghai Lake and Kumbum, with the only international five-star in the province.
The case for going
One of the six great Gelug monasteries, 25 km away — butter sculptures, the 400-year-old prayer-wheel corridor, and pilgrims who walked here from eastern Tibet.
One of the four great mosques of northwest China, in the Hui quarter; the street food around it is the best in the city.
Lamb skewers, liangfen, sweet yoghurt and the local staple: a bowl of hand-pulled noodles in yak-broth.
The clearest primer on the plateau cultures — Tibetan, Hui, Tu and Salar — before you drive out into them.
At 2,275 m Xining is the right first night before Qinghai Lake at 3,200 m: sleep low, hydrate, no alcohol on day one.
Practical
Semi-arid plateau. Cool summers (18–25°C), dry cold winters, strong sun at altitude.
Caojiabao (XNN) is 28 km from the centre — 30 minutes by airport expressway. Direct flights from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Xi’an.
Airport. Xining Caojiabao International Airport (XNN)
Rail. Xining is on the Lanzhou–Ürümqi HSR: Lanzhou 1 hour, Zhangye 3 hours, Jiayuguan 4 hours.
In pictures
Questions travellers ask
Two days: Kumbum Monastery as the excursion, and the Dongguan mosque quarter and the museum in the city. It is the acclimatisation stop before the plateau or the rail to Lhasa.
The old quarter around the Dongguan mosque for the food streets — the city sits at 2,275 metres, so keep the first evening unhurried.
Fly into Caojiabao (XNN), or the high-speed rail from Lanzhou in an hour. It is the boarding point of the Qinghai-Tibet railway and the gateway to Qinghai Lake.
Yes — Kumbum is one of the six great monasteries of the Tibetan world, and the city is the right place to acclimatise for two days before the train or the lake loop.
Routes through here
Northwest China
6days
Qinghai is the part of the plateau you can do in a week: a 2,275-metre gateway city, China’s largest lake ringed by grassland, and a salt flat that mirrors the sky. Six days runs the loop at altitude-safe pace — two nights in Xining around the drive, sunrise on the west shore, and Kumbum as the cultural anchor.
From US$1,590per person
Combine it with
Where to stay
Sofitel (Accor) · Luxury
The only international luxury hotel in Qinghai — a plate of French polish at 2,275 metres, ten minutes from the museum district and a comfortable first night before the drive to the lake. The club rooms add lounge access, which matters at altitude where breakfast coffee is a medical decision.
From US$120 per night
Valid to 2027-03-31
