Nigel - The purpose of our visit to Xining was to acclimatise to the higher altitude which we would experience both in Lhasa and at Mt. Everest base camp. The city is around 2500m above sea level and there is very little to say about it. We were only there for 2 days and as our hostel was a little out of the way we didn't explore much of the city. The part we did see was very industrialised with a lot of construction going on. The most notable part to our visit was the kindness of the Chinese.

On the train we got talking to a group of Chinese lads. Although their English wasn't very good (though a lot better than our Chinese!) we were able to communicate a little. They were due to head up to the biggest lake in China the next day which is situated approximately 2 hours away from Xining. Before they set off to the lake they were staying in the city for one night. To get to the city and then on to our hostel, you have to take 2 buses or a taxi. We had emailed the hostel to come and pick us up but we hadn't received a response. One of the lads from the group rang the hostel for us but they said that they hadn't received an email. We didn't want to take the bus if we could avoid it but we were worried about getting ripped off by the taxi driver so decided to give it a go. The details we were given to get to the hostel were not clear and it seemed to be a very difficult task. Even though we had just met the group of lads, they said they would help us out when we got off the train by coming with us on the bus to the hostel and they would then head in to the city centre from there. First task... getting on the bus! The queue was unbelievable and the pushing from the locals to get on meant that we had little chance of getting on the first one or many more thereafter. We said to the Chinese lads that we would be happy to pay for a taxi for all of us if they could agree the price with the driver. In the end they got us to the hostel and insisted on paying for the taxi. They refused to take any money from us and we had read that if you keep persisting that they take the money, it offends them. So first refusal, money straight in the pocket. Their generosity was was a very nice act and was much needed.

Alison: As Nigel said, Xining wasn't really a place we planned to explore but was just a high altitude town to stop in to allow our bodies to begin to acclimatise. Neither of us have been anywhere that is of such high altitude and it was interesting to see how our bodies would respond...not much to report at this height! We were slightly more out of breath carrying our rucksacks up the stairs at the station but that could just have been due to our rapidly diminishing fitness levels or the large bowl of egg fried rice we had just consumed.

After a couple of days of doing nothing we were ready for the next part of the adventure....a trip on the highest train journey in the world to Tibet!