The countryside around is beautiful the views stretch away to distant mountains, and you can ramble through hills of wheat, pastures dotted with cattle or horses, and over ridges and passes strewn with wild flowers. Apart from the large numbers of Han Chinese tourists, the people you meet here are mainly Tibetan horsemen, workers in the fields who will offer an ear of roasted barley by way of hospitality, or pilgrims prostrating their way around the monastery walls.

Kumbum Monastery was built in 1379 during the Qing Dynasty and now occupies an area of over 400,000 square meters (99 acres). Its grounds include many temples-representing both Tibetan and Han architectural styles-scattered on both slopes of a valley of Lotus Mountain. Of all these, the largest and most famous is the Grand Gold-Tile Hall, located in the center of the monastery. It has exquisite and glittering green walls and golden tiles, and as a complex that includes other buildings, represents a unique blend of Han and Tibetan building techniques. At the center of the Grand Gold-Tile Hall, there is an 11-meter-high Grand Silver Tower where it is said that Tsongkhapa was born. What's more impressive is that all the sculptures are carved out of yak butter, which is a uniquely Tibetan art tradition that goes back 1300 years.