My husband and I planned to walk and run around the sacred Qinghai Lake on Tibetan Plateau in May 2024. The challenges were multiple: first, nobody has done it by foot other than local Tibetan people who normally circle around the Lake clockwise by Long Kowtow (kneel down by all fours) to gain merits in their religion, which normally takes months to complete. Because circling the lake is religious in nature, no local Tibetans have recorded how long how fast etc. by wearing a GPS watch or other device, as they do not care. Most people circle the lake by bike, which takes 2-5 days but it is not exactly tracing the Lake, as they normally start from Xihai Town and end at Xihai Town, which is not adjacent to the Lake. So we would have to design our routes based on estimate of the length by using Baidu map (as Google map is not quite working there); second, the altitude there is between 3200 meters to 3400 meters, we were sure how the high altitude sickness or impact to affect our energy and endurance; third, the lodgings around the Lake are very restrictive, as we are holding Hong Kong ID cards, most lodgings cannot receive us, so there would be days that within 80-90 kilometres, no lodging or store is available for us to stay, yet I did not want to run at night; and fourth, the weather there changes quickly from rain to wind to desert, we would have to prepare to cope with the nature.
So initially we were thinking to do it unsupported and almost the last minute, we decided to use a driver and car as our support who then can take care of transporting us to the lodgings and providing us with food and water. We found a local biking company to help us and they sent a very good 32 year old driver Little Liang who worked in Qinghai Lake to support bikers for years. Liang told us he had never seen anybody who had run around the Qinghai Lake.
It went quite smoothly, although we suffered high altitude discomfort for the first 1-2 days a lot, even walking would feel like 100-metre dash, but gradually we got used to the high altitude. My husband got very bad blisters on both his feet starting from second day, I almost thought he would gave up, but luckily he continued by poking the blisters and taping them lending our experience from MDS. The third day was a long day, almost 60k, as our original booking was not kept and we were asked to stay in a different lodging the night before, so we had to change our plan to cover 15 more kilometres. It did not bother us too much because one you went through a long day, the remaining 50k day became relatively so easy and doable. The second to last day we went through desert, it was so hot and dry, and there was no store at all, we almost got dehydrated in the end. Luckily the last day was rainy and cloudy, it was cooler and we finished without much difficulty.
We ran together, our food was bought from groceries or local restaurants, and we bought bottles of water and put them in the car Little Liang was driving. So the only support we receive was from our driver. Our Days are like below:
Day 1 August 19, 2024: Xihai Spring Sichuan Restaurant in the southern part of the Lake to Road Marker 80 after Jiangxi Gou around 37.82K, we stayed at a Tibetan house 5k away.
Day 2 August 20, 2024: Road Marker 80 to 15K away from Hei Ma He (Black Horse Town), we stayed at a local Tibetan house right at the finish, around 49.03K
Day 3 August 21st, 2024: Yesterday's finish lodging to West Coast Holiday Hotel, around 58.73K, it as a long day. We stayed at finish hotel.
Day 4 August 22nd, 2024: West Coast Holiday Hotel to Gang Cha County Tsangyang Gyatso Square, around 47.86K, we stayed at a decent hotel 2K away.
Day 5 August 23rd, 2024: Yesterday's finish point to Around Lake Road Marker 507 east to Ganzi He Xiang (Ganzi River Town) around 48.35k, we stayed at Xihai Town 42K away as there was not lodging nearby.
Day 6 August 24th, 2024: Yesterday's finish to Gold Sand Bay Camping Base, around 48.55k, we stayed at the finish camp site.
Day 7 August 25th, 2024: Gold Sand Bay Camping Base to Xihai Spring Sichuan Restaurant, around 46.46k.
Note I was wearing two GPS watches, one to record daily milage and time, the other was for the entire loop, which I submitted as record. so there might be a very slight difference if you add everyday, as I stopped the watches not simultaneously everyday.
It was a pilgrimage for us as well, and we felt so joyful after we finish, although we both had sun burns on faces, noses and necks, but feel extremely blessed to be able to finish the journey together.