Xiahe Off The Beaten Path Tips by sachara Top 5 Page for this destination

Mosque in pagoda-style and countryside

In Lynxia are 27 mosques. Small boys learn the arabic language here. Not far from Lynxia we saw this wonderful mosque with a beautiful minaret in pagoda-style.
We enjoyed the journey from Lanzhou to Labrang and vice versa of 240 KM through the countryside and small villages. We saw villages with drying garlic, villages with wood, further a lot of bikes, hand-, horse- and oxcharts, pickups. The landscape is rough with mountains, streams and fields. The fields, especially the working at the fields looked like the images of the 50s, I know from old pictures, with a lot of people working at the fields, harvesting and sheaving the grain.

Linxia, main street

For our lunchstop in Linxia we bought some bread at a small bakery and just sat down on one of the sidewalks along the mainstreet, looking at the local life.
There was not much traffic, a few trucks, a litte more handcharts, some bicycles and pedestrians. That was all. It was quite relaxed to sit there for a while. We looked at the people around and they looked at us and we smiled to each other or greeted.

Linxia, people

The people we met in the main street were very friendly, welcomed us and pushed their children forward to let them be photographed by us.
Many men in the area of Linxia wear white caps. The women wear different colours of head scarves. The girls and young women wear green scarves, if they are not married or just married. Women with children of 5 years or older wear a black scarf. And the white scarves are for widows.

Linxia, shops and marketstalls

In Linxia we found small shops and market stalls along the mud main street.
It was nice to walk along these shops and stalls to have a look what was for sale in this area. I saw a lot of stuff I couldn't identify.
The vendors, sitting under their umbrellas, were greeting us, but we didn't understand their explanations.
In one of the small shops we bought some bread for Y0,4 for lunch.

Linxia, between Lanzhou and Labrang

On our way from Lanzhou to Labrang we stopped in Linxia for lunch. In Linxia live the muslim Hui-minority. The Islam came from Arabia along the silk road to this area. In the past Arab tradesmen were active in Linxia, and probably the Hui people are descendants of these tradesmen.
We walked along the mud road to look for some food. The friendly people showed us where to go to find the shops and market.