Nagqu Top Things to Do

Highlights of Nagqu

1. Get a taste of the northern Changtang at the turquoise waters, snowy peaks and nomads’ tents of stunning high-altitude Lake Nam-tso.
2. Visit Nagqu Horse Racing Festival experience the Tibetan culture with local people.

what to see

Lake Namtso: The local Tibetan people often refer to the plateau of northern Tibet as Changtang (or Qangtang), which is mostly located in Nagqu. An old folk song sings: "The mysterious Changtang is so wild and desolate when you are here the first time; it becomes your lovely hometown when you get to know more."

Changtang Grassland: Changtang Grassland is a culturally rich land as well as a paradise for the wild animals and plants. On the vast grassland, yaks and sheep can be seen everywhere. The nomadic people here have created their own colorful, fascinating and long-standing nomadic culture characterized by ancient rock paintings, the Ruins of Yamtung (or Zhangzhung) Kingdom, long epic about King Gesar, Nyima Mound, prayer flags and ancient towers, etc, adding mysterious color to Changtang Grassland and making it irresistibly attractive.

Nyainqentanglha Mountains: The 7,117-meter Nyainqentanglha, located on the south of Lake Namtso and 100 kilometers to the north of Lhasa, is the highest peak in Nagqu Prefecture. Wreathed by cloud and mist all the year round and frequented by wrathful lighting and peals of thunder, the snow-capped Nyainqentanglha stands mysteriously tall and upright over plains, gorges and other snow mountains. Nyainaentanglha is believed by many religious followers to be a Buddhist guardian. It is also the major deity in the grasslands to the north. Followers of the Bon religion and Buddhism hold it to be the place where various Buddhist masters practiced Buddhism.

Yangpachen: Surrounded by the glaciers, lush primeval forest and snow-capped mountains, Yambajan are located in a basin covered with verdurous meadow and beautiful flowers, endowed with picturesque scenery. Driving down the windy and snowy Nyainqentanglha Mountains and near the entrance of the basin, visitors will feel heat puffing right on their face, warm and comfortable.

Purugangri Glacier: Purugangri Glacier (elevation 5620-5860m) originally lies at 89.00°--89.20°east longitude，and 33.44°--34.03°north latitude. But now the glacier area has been expanding around and develops into more than 50 glacier branches, totaling 423 km2. The top flat area occupies 150km2. Looked from miles away, the endless ice field seems to stretch to the horizon. Set off by the blue sky and the white clouds, the glacier is so abrupt and amazing. If you climb up to elevation 6200 m or so, you’ll find the glacier area is actually formed by steps of plat field with different height (scores of meters height difference between each step). And each step of plat area is made of several tops of the ice caps. You can find plat areas in the middle, east and south of the ice field. The ice side gradient is zero, so maybe it is the ideal place to drill for the ice core. There are two basic requirements for the form of the glacier: the whole mountain should be a slight incision level side; secondly this incision level side should be above elevation 5800 m.

Nagqu Horse Race Festival: This festival always happens on August every year.When the day comes, the romands people would gather in Nagqu, grandly dressed. Tents of any kind scatter across the grassland like flowers bloom.In the days, such games as horse racing, yak racing, wrestling, stone lifting, riffle/arrow shooting on horse back, and talk - show, show of the art of horse riding will be held.

What to buy

Cashmere is a rare special animal fibers, is a precious textile raw materials, foreign called “fiber to the diamond,” “soft gold.” As the Kashmir region of Asia has historically been exported to the European distribution center of cashmere, cashmere, said it used internationally as “Kashmir Cashmere)”; China with its homonym for “cashmere.” Cashmere is combed from the goats to take down the hair, which the goat’s hair mass produced for the best is a goat shed every spring occasion, with a special iron bars on the crawl from goat hair body, called the original down. Primary washed down by carding, removing the original fabric of the coarse, dead hair and dander obtained the cashmere, known as the Wu Maorong. Cashmere white, blue, purple three colors, of which the most precious Cashmere.

North Tibet Hsueh- Lien-Hua (also called Snow Lotus Flower): Hsueh-lien-hua, grows at an elevation between 4,800 and 6,000 meters in the gaps of the everlasting snow covered rock, is kind of medicinal herb in composite family. The natural pure wild Snow Lotus Flower is an antipyretic and detoxicating medicine It has lots of medicinal functions, such as eliminating cold, fortifying yang, warm the womb and so on, mainly cures the rheumatic arthritis, the back sour lumbago, the kidney empty sexual impotence, the abnormal menstruation, the womb is cold and the flesh wound hemorrhage and other symptoms

What to eating

Northern Tibetans mostly eat livestock products and master more than 200 kinds of cooking methods, with boiling, grilling, broiling, stir-frying and steaming as the main. It is said that northern Tibetans have several major-three’s: three nutritious foods (meat, yak butter and cheese), three staple foods (highland barley, wheat and pea), three beverages (tea, milk and Tibetan barley beer) and three sweet foods (brown sugar, white sugar and honey). Salt and water are indispensable in any food.

Amdo Tea House: Amdo Tea House is located on Zhejiang Lu, Town of Nakchu. It provides sweet tea, yak butter tea and steamed buns.

Xiaquka Tea House: Xiaquka Tea House is located on Liaoning Lu, serves mainly local food, such as yak butter tea, tsampa, sweet tea, etc. At present, there is no Tibetan-specialty restaurant in Nagqu Prefecture, only with some small restaurants serving Sichuan food in Nagqu Town and other towns.