A thangka - a Tibetan Buddhist painting - at the Qinghai Provincial Museum, in Xining.  In previous cities where our group overnighted during our drive across China, our morning Lifeline Express events took place in major squares in front of nondescript buildings.  This day, the event took place in a major square in front of this museum, so after the event, we went right in for a visit.

Detail of a textile display at the museum.  The Qinghai Provincial Museum is small, nice, and about the only place worth visiting within the city of Xining.  A significant amount of centuries-old Tibetan artwork is on display here.  For centuries, much of this province the size of Texas was part of Tibet; it became part of China over two decades before Mao came to power.  Xining itself, in far eastern Qinghai Province, is Chinese and has been for nearly five hundred years.

A Qing dynasty porcelain vase, painted with deer and landscape.  Han Chinese, the majority population in China, also make up the majority in Qinghai Province, but just barely.  Nearly a quarter of the population is Tibetan, and nearly another quarter is Muslim and Mongol - quite a mix.  Most of the Han Chinese live here in Xining.

Tibetan textile at the museum.  Xining was once a major trading stop along a caravan route connecting the inner reaches of Tibet with the Silk Road.  Trade in Xining is not so great these days - Qinghai Province is one of China’s poorest - but this remains the last large city along the northern route into Tibet, some thousand miles away.

Another thangka, one of many at the Qinghai Provincial Museum.  The Tibetan Buddhist influence at this museum is great, but it would be even greater at our next stop this day - our last major sightseeing visit before reaching Lhasa.