In the far west of Qinghai Province, Golmud is perched at 3,000 m in the forlorn Tibetan plateau. The only sizable city for several hundred miles, it is the second largest city in the Qinghai province after Xining, with a largely Han Chinese population. Today, it acts mainly as a transit point between Xining, Dunhuang, and Lhasa.

The city’s bus service which runs to Lhasa in Tibet is currently the only overland public transport that non-Chinese visitors are officially permitted to use to get there. The trip is not particularly cheap, as tickets can only be purchased through the tourist office at a fairly hefty markup. The bumpy ride takes about 25 hours on a tough road across high passes. Temperatures drop well below freezing point at night, and it is strongly recommended to take provisions and warm clothing. An alternative route out of Golmud is to take a landcruiser tour into some of the remoter parts of Xinjiang.

The city itself is largely unappealing, although the surrounding lunar-looking landscape has a rugged charm best appreciated on the way out. A 1,000-km railway line is being built from here to Lhasa scheduled to be completed by 2010. Tibetans fear the line will bring an influx of Han migrants to Lhasa.