rarified air

as expected, the air was thin on Qing-Zang Plateau with Xining City at an elevation of 2300m and Qinghai Lake at 3200m. Some of our tour group had headaches and did not feel too good during our first night there. I felt a slight headache but I was not sure if it was due to the anoxia or the lack of sleep before I left for the trip. our local tour guide got us some Rhodiola or "Hong Jing Tian" medicine especially for the high altitude symptoms.
the Rhodiola herb is harvested from the highlands of Qinghai and Tibet and is effective is relieveing high altitude sickness. the herb can be processed into capsule, tea or liquid forms. This is the liquid form of the herbal medicine. it was slightly sweet even without added sugar.
back in Xining City, we wander into a shop selling local produces. They were selling the herbal form of Rhodiola.
It looked like reddish colour roots
they were also selling the snow lotus plant which I had seen in Xinjiang before. In Chinese medicine and martial arts novels, the snow lotus had been attributed to be a miraculous Chinese medicine.
Ganoderma fungus or "Linzhi". after browsing this shop, we spotted two singaporean aunties at a convenience stall asking for altitude medicine. We guessed from their mandarin accent that they must be either from Singapore or Malaysia. We told her where we thought they could find the glucose that they were looking for. One of them told Robina that she speak mandarin like the locals.