It’s no secret that vast China is one of ex-Marine’s (husband, Steve) and my favorite destinations. You can read about a few of our past explorations in China on this site: Guizhou….The Silk Road…Mt. Khawarkarpo…..Beijing (with more to follow in the future)….Shanghai and more Shanghai details. So much to see and do, we’ve barely touched on all the possibilities.

With this, I contacted Shi Ming (Cindy) of Shanghai Far East Expeditions (or e-mail her at: fareast@shfareast.com) for information on traveling into the Qinghai Khampa Region of China, an area with a dominant Tibetan influence.. The Tibetans who live here are called the Khampas. They speak their own dialect and see themselves as distinct from Tibetans further west. The Khampas are tough, independent and the region remains Tibetan containing some of the country’s most important monasteries and, statistically, more Tibetans than live in Tibet proper!

location of Xining in China
Xining, capital of Qinghai province, was once a major stop on the Silk Road’s southern route. Today it is one of the poorest provincial capitals in China, and has few sites of real interest to offer a tourist in the city itself. Yet there are some worthwhile sights outside of Xining.

Cindy also suggested working our way from Qinghai Province, through Gansu Province, ending up in Sichuan.

This would be a very rough trip concentrating on an intensive study of Tibetan Khampa culture, history and its people. The people of this region are not accustomed to tourism, it is one of the most underprivileged areas of China, hotel accommodations are bleak to put it nicely, and the food would be iffy. Many e-mails later, an itinerary had been hashed out that we could live with, committed and starting the detail planning…