Day 28: Menyuan (门源) – July 15, 2012

Hopping on an early morning bus, we headed over to the canola-flower capital of Qinghai. The bus ride was a bit scary as we had to drive zig-zag up mountains reaching 3800m, but the driver kept passing other trucks on the outside while driving uphill! Note, this is a barely two-lane road with not much room between the cliff and the bus. The only way to ease my fear was to sleep it through. The distance was short, but the roads were tough so 150km ride took over 3hrs, so I had a good nap.

What I woke up to was a breathtaking view from above, overlooking the glowing yellow fields down below! It is pretty amazing, like a giant piece of farm field tapestry. Apparently, these plots of land are owned by local farmers, so they plant whatever they like without much care for how it looks, but it sure looks cool. For the ridiculously large plots of yellow, it was said that they were all planted by the inmates of the local jail….

The city takes you into a rural and very nomadic environment, with bee-keepers on the side of the roads (flowers don’t pollinate themselves! makes for dangerous picture taking sessions though), and old men herding their livestock, with little shapes of houses dotting the foothills of each mountain….