Xiahe is a small city in Gansu province a few hours southwest of Lanzhou best known for being the home of the Labrang Monastery, one of the six great monasteries of the Gelugpa (yellow hat) sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Labrang is visited often by foreigners because, although it is in an area with a mostly Tibetan population, it is outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region and therefore doesn't require a special permit or being part of a group tour to visit.

This was my second visit to Xiahe since the last 9 days or so of this trip from Lanzhou to Xian repeats the same route I did on my Silk Road trip with Dragoman in 2006 . That was fine with me since that was the part of the trip on which I was very sick in 2006 with an illness that had very flulike symptoms. I spent most of my two days in Xiahe in 2006 writhing around in bed in a puddle of perspiration with high fever, chills, severe headache, and pain all though my body. I did manage to get out to with the group to tour the monastery, but the weather was gray and rainy.

Conditions were very different this time, though, with sunshine and pleasant temperatures. The town had changed as much as the weather in those eight years with the eastern Chinese part of the city now sprouting tall buildings. The western Tibetan side of town around the monastery hadn’t changed much, but Xiahe no longer felt like a small mountain town. The road up the valley to Xiahe was completely different too; in 2006 it was a rutted gravel road with much construction taking place to build a paved road. Currently the road snaking up the canyon to Xiahe is a good paved two-lane highway, but there’s an expressway under construction through tunnels and over bridges for a fast and direct future route to Xiahe and beyond.

Xiahe is located on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau around 10,000 feet, an altitude that seemed high in 2006 but nothing after weeks trekking in Nepal and traveling through Tibet. Xiahe was my first contact with the Tibetan world on my Silk Road trip in 2006 and my last on this trip from Kathmandu to Xian which focused mostly on Tibet.