I have spent most of this week taking it easy and trying my best to simply enjoy the vacation. I have also finally been able to get to some books that I have had on my list for some time, something that I intended to do on this trip.

That said, I pulled up some links to the sites in Qinghai that we saw for background information, and more photos for those who are interested. Ta'er monastery is the same as Kumbum monastery so just click on the Ta'er links for that visit. This page also has a link to Bird Island and Qinghai lake, which we visited.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/qinghai/
http://www.chinavista.com/travel/qinghai/part1.html

Right now we are in the planning stages for the rest of my trip here. Mt Taishan is of primary importance to myself. It is the holiest of the 5 holy mountains in Taoism. Some info: http://www.linktrip.com/heritages/whl_tain.htm

Other than Taishan, we are planning at leat one more jaunt into Beijing to see the typical tourist sites: Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc.

This leaves a bit of time for other exploration, but I do not know where all we might consider. As always suggestions are welcome. :)