The best hotel on the lake’s west shore — a new-built high-rise at Heimahe with oxygen-supplied rooms, underfloor heating and hot water that survives the plateau winter. Ten minutes from the sunrise point, which is the entire reason to be on this side of the lake.
May to October; July for the rapeseed bloom · Relaxed · Easy to moderate (altitude-aware)
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.