There are lots of interesting bus routes out of Xining and, at the time of writing, local prices only were being charged, which made all bus tickets out of Xining very cheap. In the direction of Xiahe , there is a bus to Linxia and another to the monastery town of Tongren, from both of which there are connecting services to Xiahe. There's also a bus to Zhangye in Gansu Province, via a spectacular ride north across the mountains. Finally, within Qinghai itself, there are buses to Golmud and also to Lenghu in the far northwest - from where it is possible, following very little-trodden routes, to travel north to Dunhuang in Gansu Province. An equally exciting possibility is a bus southwest to Maduo . From here, very close to the source of the Yellow River, you can continue by bus along a very rough route into Sichuan Province.