Arrival in Xining and Kumbum Monastery
Xining Train Station
June 29
The ride to Xining lasted about 26 hours, nd luckily i had a hard sleeper. On the train i met a bunch of students from the same school i visited a few days before, Southwest Minorities University. They had just graduated and were headed home to the Amdo region of Tibet – which actually makes up most of the Qinghai province. I talked mostly with a woman, and she explained many things to me. When we arrived in Xining i helped her carry her luggage to her family’s car. After meeting her family she gave me the largest and heaviest loaf of bread i have ever held in my life. After going to the wangba to check my email later in town, a couple of locals decided to intentionally bump into me. They proceeded to steal my phone number and call me a million times to meet up later that night. Bill and I got some hotpot for dinner, and afterwards we met up with a guy named Hutch who is another world cycler. Hutch has a website, mostly photos of his China trips, at www.cyclingpeace.org and another at www.haaqi.com and a blog www.cyclingpeace.blogspot.com . After meeting Hutch, 
Giant loaf of bread from Amy
the two local ladies picked me up and took me out to one of the muslim restaurants. Afterwords they took me to hot spring to swim that was located below a building in town. The water is supposed to be good for your joints etc. It was a very fun night.
