I started in Beijing with a performance of the Peking Opera and then flew to the capitol city of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In Hohhot I learned about the history and culture of the Mongol peoples at the fabulous Inner Mongolia Museum. After a train ride to Lanzhou, the capitol city of Gansu Provence, I visited their wonderful museum and viewed the historic Yellow River, I then traveled by bus to Xiahe and the Labrang Monastery. Beginning at Xiahe the landscape, the culture and the people are all an extension of Tibet. An interesting overnight train ride from Lanzhou to Dunhuang took me to my camel ride and to the wonderful Mogao Grottoes, the interiors of which cannot be photographed.