On a Thursday morning and with a surprising lack of planning, we loaded up the car and headed out for a 13 day road trip. I had done some research in the form of asking DeepSeek for an itinerary centering around Qinghai Lake. I then checked reddit and found comments about restrictions for foreigners and a local recommending we stay away. Spooked, the night before we were to take off, I suggested to Sabrina that we scale back the road trip and focus on an Inner Mongolia loop. “Why?”, she asked.
Our first stop was actually in Inner Mongolia, to a city called Hohhot. It’s famous for its grasslands. We stayed just for the night in a faux courtyard that is just steps from a version of a food/tourist street. It was actually delightful. Our faux courtyard room had a tepee which was supposed to appeal to Amanda but instead became Kobe’s sleeping tent until he knocked it over in the middle of the night.
Before we left on the trip, I self committed to eating well, writing, and working out. By the second leg of the journey, I was mainlining Oreo’s and while reaching for the Lay’s chips. No writing or exercise occurred. IG posts would suffice.
Our second stop was Yinchuan. We stayed in a downtown hotel, near a Wanda Plaza which had what seems to be a typical Wanda Plaza food/shopping street. For an unexplained reason I had a massive burger for dinner which took two days to digest.
Then came Xining, which is the last significant city before Qinghai Lake. We were supposed to stay just one night but a marathon closed the streets around our hotel so we stayed an extra night. I was already tired from driving and didn’t mind the recovery time. It also gave us more time to adjust to the elevation. The hotel was filled with middle-aged tourists dressed in outdoor gear. It seemed to be middle-age tourist season. Our room itself was spacious. We spent the extra day in Xining watching the half marathon and a failed attempt to drive to their version of a food street.
We had originally wanted to take this trip a year ago, during my sabbatical from work, but I needed to stay in Beijing for some resident paperwork which blew us past the good weather window and into the potentially cold mountain weather. I do not like cold weather.
From Xining, it was time to head to the main attraction, Qinghai lake. We stopped at the main, really only, tourist stop and used the restroom assuming Kobe would not be allowed inside. We stopped along turnouts on the roadside for pictures. Our second stop of the day and where we would spend the night was Chaka Salt Lake. It’s at about 10,500 feet and we had to drive over a 12,500 feet pass to get there. The lake itself is famous for walking on water shots and the walkways were made of salt rocks which were not great for pushing a stroller around. After about two hours exploring, I was spent. Despite being far from anywhere, the lake was filled with tourists taking endless photos. Including us.
Our next stop was supposed to be Delingha but no hotels there accept foreigners which matched what I read on reddit. We instead headed further west, to Golmud. The expressway to Golmud was mostly the G6 which runs from Beijing to Tibet. A good road, even through the isolated areas it passed. Like endless Nevadas. It’s on this road we have our first EV battery charge panic. With about 30% charge remaining, we pulled into a rest stop to recharge. The problem was the EV chargers at the rest stop were out of service and by my estimate, the 30% charge remaining would not get us to Golmud. KM by KM, I watched the car’s estimated range vs KMs remaining. We made it with about 5% remaining. I was stressed out.
We stayed at the only modern western hotel in Golmud, the Doubletree. During the panic drive, my mind was looping over another time. “Doubletree” was one of a series of words Mimi and I used to try to remember but kept forgetting. In 1989, when we were first dating and never separated, I took my first ever business trip and stayed at a Doubletree. It was a big deal at the time to me. Plane, car rental, hotel, expense report. Mimi saw me off at the gate and then met me at the gate when I returned. Can still see her in the cute black leather jacket.
We spent the next day in Golmud exploring another salt lake. It was actually some kind of massive lake/mining complex with a tourist section. They had a cage/crate to store Kobe in while we looked around. Kobe did not like it. Amanda liked playing in the salt/sand 
Then came a couple of days of tough driving. Tough driving because the roads were 1-2 lanes and filled with trucks. Tough driving because of limited charging stations. On the second day, the only charging station was at the half way point to our destination and reports were it was not operational. We needed to go through a security check just as we got to the station. If it wasn’t operational we probably would not have enough juice to make it to our destination nor return back. Fortunately, it was working. Before that fateful encounter, we stayed at a mountain/desert place whose english name is “the lonely place”. Its nearby attraction is another salt lake and unique land formations; however they didn’t allow foreigners to enter. We instead drove along the lake, Sabrina hoping to see what she called the “wild lake” but mostly we saw trucks along a very bumpy road. Our room in the desert itself was pretty amazing.
After the mountain/desert the next stop was Dunhuang which is known for its desert and caves. The caves are a must see that we didn’t see. No good ticket window. I was feeling more of a sense of relief - that we were getting away from the far west and starting our way home. The Dunhuang night market did not disappoint. Live music, good food. Food wise, I wasn’t very exploratory on this trip, opting for whatever local noodles or dumplings we could find.
On the way to Dunhuang, we stopped at something of a ghost town. It had been a mining town but due to water contamination they had relocated the residents. The town that remained has been used for movies/tv shows and is now a tourist attraction.
After Dunhuang, we drove to Zhangye. The main attraction of Zhangye was the colorful mountains. I’ve seen some reviews saying they are not so interesting, but I found them spectacular. More tourists from nowhere and more photos.
Our next stop was Zhongwei and Sabrina asked if I wanted to stay in a tent on the sand, with only a shared bathroom. I could do a day I guess. Meaning, I could do a day without taking a crap. We checked in, and they took us across the sand in a 4-wheller. Amanda and Kobe loved the sand and I didn’t need to pee in the night. I did wake up at 4am and listened to the 49ers game while I half slept.
Our final stop before returning to Beijing was back to Inner Mongolia and the city of Ordos. I was ready to be home. The highlight of Ordos was the buffet dinner at the hotel. We used it as a “we made it, almost” celebration.
The last leg was our single longest drive. We left Ordos at about 9am and arrived home about 7:30pm. I was exhausted but Kobe needed to go out and smell his old friends. Amanda played with her toys like they were old friends.
I’m not sure about doing another road trip like this. It was a lot of driving. 3800 miles. I felt stress, worrying what would happen if the car broke down in the middle of nowhere with a toddler. At the same time, it was a great family experience. Working through things together. Eating noodles together. Being vulnerable. I remember my parents driving across the US with a Motel-6 directory. Wondering what they liked about it. The sense of seeing something. The sense of doing something.
I didn’t write (except for now) about the cultural experience. The culture is diverse, with Tibetan, Muslim, Mongol, and Han well represented. I didn’t write about it because we didn’t engage directly with it. It was around us, in the food, in the people, the signs, and the structures.