Walking the Wall

MEAT!!!

Our waitress set down a platter of mutton, a stack of the thin tissues that pass for napkins in China, and an elbow-length disposable plastic glove, then walked out of our tent. There were no plates or forks. No chopsticks. No instruction manual.

We eventually figured out that the glove was for holding the greasy hunk of meat, the knife played its usual role, and the rest of the work was performed by the God-given utensils at the ends of our arms.

Thus we were introduced to the finer points of Tibetan cuisine – meat, milk tea, meat, butter tea, meat . . . meat. Okay, that’s probably not fair, but it is true that the mountainous lands inhabited by Tibetans, hidden under snow for much of the year, yield little in the way of fruit and vegetables and a lot in the way of animal products. Certainly where we were, in the Sangke Grasslands outside the town of Xiahe, the focus was on local products.

Our tent’s the one with the pointy roof

Although it’s not in (or even especially near) Tibet proper, Xiahe is a Tibetan village and the surrounding grasslands are important for Tibetan graziers – another bit of diversity in the ethnic salad bowl that is Gansu province – diversity that was conspicuously on display on the drive up.

We began the day in Lanzhou, a mostly Han Chinese city of 10 million people and the capital of Gansu province, where we were taking some time off the wall to rest and see a few sights. As we drove up through the foothills, we passed numerous mosques, many of them new, constructed by people of the Hui minority, the Muslim people of north-central China. Gradually we left the mosques and minarets behind, the valleys opened up into subalpine grasslands, and we began to see colourful Tibetan tents along the rivers and shaggy yaks wandering alongside the roads.

Yakety Yak, Yakety Yak

We think the one with a white face might be half-yak, half-cow, but we’re not exactly yaksperts

The tents (and yaks) reached maximum density when we got to Sangke, at an elevation of about 3000 metres. The grasslands are among the largest in the area and, together with the nearby Labrang Buddhist monastery, make Xiahe an important tourist destination.

The tent village at Sangke Grasslands

Although the place was mostly deserted when we were there, there are dozens of tents available for rent by the day or hour, each of them fully equipped with couches, TV, DVD, home theatre system, and most importantly (to Chinese men at least), ashtrays. Then it’s order a few huge slabs o’ meat; slip a disc into the player; and eat, drink, smoke and play cards to your heart’s delight (if that’s your idea of fun).