Xiahe City

cctv.com 09-09-2003 14:14

Right outside the monastery there are many small workshops making various handcrafts such as traditional Tibetan furniture and Buddhist statues.

The main street leading to Labrang has evolved around the life of the monks and the needs of travelers. You can find all kinds of little stores catering to the daily needs of the monks. Looking for exotic souvenirs? You can find plenty in the tiny antique shops.

We are not the first travelers to come this way and the community is well prepared for your needs. There are English street signs everywhere, just as many as Chinese and Tibetan advertisements.

A hotel offers different accommodation to suit different needs and budgets. The cheapest way is to share a room with three other travelers and use common bathrooms. But you could pay for a few more creature comforts.

The grasslands around the Labrang Monastery are dotted with tents. That's because it's mid-summer and time for Xiahe's Xianglang festival. It's the best time of year to be here. The Tibetans camp out and cook on the grasslands for several days. It seems to be a really relaxed time. From morning to night they sing, dance and play all kinds of games. These people have camped near a spring. You can tell it's a sacred water source from the locks of fleece tied around here. The Tibetans hold nature in awe and anything dirty or polluted is barred from these waters. It's so clear and clean people drink straight from it. It doesn't get much better than this.

It may sounds like a cliche, but out here on the grassland I do feel a sense of harmony. Maybe it's got to do with the constant blue sky, ever stretching grassland, or the people, who live so comfortably with the land.

Summer is indeed a wonderful time to visit the region. Push further into the grasslands in the southern part of Gansu province, and explore more of the lives of the Tibetans who live here, some 3,000 meters above sea level. Nobody lives closer to the sky than they do.

Editor:Han Ling  Source:CCTV.com