Qinghai Provincial Museum (青海省博物馆)

The Qinghai Provincial Museum (青海省博物馆) is the best single introduction to this province you can get, and it is free with a passport. It is also the one place that explains what you drove through on the way here.

What to See

The Tangut (Xixia) material - Khara-Khoto (黑水城) was a Tangut city that dried up and was swallowed by sand in the 14th century. What the excavations rescued is displayed here: documents in a script found nowhere else on earth, coins, everyday objects. This is why most visitors come.

The Lajia (喇家) site - In 2000 a flash flood buried the village of Lajia. Archaeologists found a family inside, still in place, exactly as the mud covered them. Those remains are exhibited here - the most affecting thing you will see in Qinghai. Sometimes called the Pompeii of China.

The Qinghai Lake fossils - The shallow lake beds that dried up here preserve animals that no longer exist, including Eotrichodon, a rhino with a horn longer than a person is tall, and a giant snake several metres long. Nothing like this is on show anywhere else.

Tibetan Buddhist art - Thangkas (唐卡, painted or embroidered cloth scrolls), statues, Qinghai turquoise (绿松石) jewellery and Qinghai-Tibet costume.

The modern gallery - The province as it is now: goji berries (枸杞), yaks, and the Sanjiangyuan (三江源) headwaters feeding the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong.

Practical Tips

• Reserve on WeChat. It is free and popular, so you normally claim a slot on the official WeChat account the day before and show the QR at the gate. Without a plan, ask at the desk - they often release walk-in slots late in the day.
• Bring your passport. Photographing the ID is the booking. Foreign visitors are routinely admitted free where a Chinese-ID holder walks straight in.
• Location: Haixi New District (海湖新区), 20 minutes by taxi from the old centre. The Qinghai Lake Expo Museum (青海湖博物馆) next door is free and smaller.
• Signage is mostly Chinese. An English-speaking guide costs ¥100-200; otherwise bring a translation app for the Tangut and Lajia sections.