Heading West: Golmud

Westward Journey serial (unfolding along a timeline)

6Ddy Mangya Huatugou - Golmud 450 km. After a night's rest, we set off again. Along the Kunlun Mountains, we sped down the highway to Golmud at 180 km/h, feeling effortless. The power poles on both sides of the road were shaped like cats, some like antelopes, lined up one after another, standing guard with dedication, stretching for dozens of kilometers—truly spectacular. Unfortunately, because of the high speed, there was no way to capture it on camera. In the northwest in August, there was no snow on the Kunlun Mountains, but tornadoes were far from rare. At any time, we could see dust devils of various sizes rising from the yellow earth beside the highway, and sometimes they would cross the road and drift to the other side...

The highway leading to Golmud City—I dare say it's the "one and only" highway in the country. There were no hard barriers in the median strip, and the vegetation on both sides and the median—whether weeds or untrimmed greenery—grew vigorously by the roadside, serving as separation. Even more bizarre, an exit would suddenly pop out from the grass without warning (as if it were very easy for vehicles to enter and exit; luckily the northwest is sparsely populated and traffic is light).

Sleepy bugs (oil pumps) were everywhere along the road; we knew we would soon reach Golmud City. "Golmud" is a Mongolian word meaning "a place with many rivers." Golmud is a strategic fortress in Qinghai connecting Tibet, Xinjiang, and Gansu, and a transportation hub in western China. Three major highways—Qinghai-Tibet, Qinghai-Xinjiang, and Dunhuang-Golmud—intersect here; the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is fully operational; and the headwaters of the Yangtze River are located within its territory...

Golmud is extremely rich in natural resources. It has more than 50 kinds of mineral resources, including oil, natural gas, potassium, sodium, magnesium, lithium, boron, strontium, antimony, gold, and gemstones. More than 30 of these rank among the top 10 in the country, and the total reserves of potassium, sodium, magnesium, and lithium rank first in China. The Golmud Oil Refinery, located here, is the only refinery on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with an annual crude oil processing capacity of 1.5 million tons. It is the main supply base for gasoline and diesel products in Qinghai and Tibet.

When you come to Golmud, you have to taste its "freshness." Here, filling up a tank of freshly refined gasoline feels like you can "travel a thousand miles in a day"—much more powerful than the gas from ordinary stations.

Besides its rich mineral resources, Golmud is also famous for its plateau wild plants. Among them, sea buckthorn and red and black goji berries are well known for their nutritional value. As we drove along, we saw artificially cultivated goji berries on both sides of the road, and occasionally some "red apricots leaning over the wall“—goji berries that had broken through the wire fence and stretched out their branches for passersby to pick. (I wonder if these goji berries, which grow so well without anyone tending to them, count as wild.)

Dairy products from the plateau were also common here: dried milk curds, cheese, milk skin—rich in pure milk flavor, smooth and creamy, excellent for nourishing the body.

We arrived in Golmud City in the afternoon. The hotel we checked into faced the Kunlun Mountains in the distance. After nightfall, an unexpected northwest wind began to visit. The howling wind forced its way through the gaps into the room, lifting the heavy curtains high. It ran freely through the hotel corridors, slamming doors and windows. On the streets, people quickly wrapped their clothes tightly, clutched their collars, and disappeared from view. It felt like if you were a little slower, you would be blown away or hit by falling objects... According to the locals, this was summer, and what we saw was just a piece of cake. In other seasons, hurricanes and tornadoes came to greet almost at will, making the winters in the northwest particularly long and harsh.