Xining is the capital of Qinghai province and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau, sitting at 2,270 metres in the valley of the Huangshui River. For most travellers it is primarily a transit point — the start of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway toward Lhasa and the departure hub for the rest of the province — but it is a city worth spending two or three days in its own right, a place where Han, Hui Muslim, and Tibetan cultures converge in a way that is specific to this edge of the plateau.
The most important site near Xining is Kumbum Monastery (Ta'er Si), 25 kilometres south in the town of Huangzhong. This is one of the six most significant monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism, the birthplace of Tsongkhapa — the 15th-century reformer who founded the Gelug school — and the place where the current Dalai Lama spent his early childhood. It is large, active, and genuinely impressive, with several hundred monks in residence and a complex of chapels containing butter sculptures, thangka embroideries, and mural cycles. The Kumbum Butter Sculpture Festival in winter is the single most spectacular event in the Xining calendar. The entrance fee is 80 yuan; allow at least half a day.
Back in the city, the Dongguan Mosque in the old town is the largest mosque in the northwest — a vast modern complex that can hold tens of thousands of worshippers and fills to capacity on Fridays. The surrounding streets of the Muslim quarter, dense with noodle shops, spice merchants, and teahouses, are among the most atmospheric places in the city. The Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum holds a 618-metre thangka scroll that claims to be the longest in the world. The Northern Mountain Temple (Beishan Si) is a striking complex of cave temples carved into the cliff face north of the city. The Xining Wildlife Park on the western edge keeps Tibetan plateau fauna — yaks, snow leopards, Tibetan antelopes — for those not making it deeper into the province.
The Qinghai Provincial Museum has one of the finest collections of Neolithic painted pottery in China, while the Yak Museum is the only institution in the world dedicated to the animal that makes Tibetan plateau life possible. Xining's airport connects to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Lhasa, and other major Chinese cities. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway makes Xining the embarkation point for the Lhasa Express — one of the world's most celebrated rail journeys. Altitude at 2,270 metres is high enough to slow some travellers on arrival; the city is a sensible place to acclimatise before heading to higher elevations.