Yang Xiao took a break from the Red Rock project in September. Together with a team from Tianjin TV, he organized jeeps to explore the area where the Yellow and Lancang rivers rise.

The journey began in Xining, capital of Qinghai Province. This is the road between Lake Eling and Maduo County Town. Two wolves were spotted along this stretch of dirt track.

This event was organized by a “living Buddha” in Wenquan Xiang, Xinghai County. Local Tibetans gathered to make hundreds of tsatsa, small objects formed from clay, imprinted with Buddhist iconography and placed at a site of religious significance.

Completed tsatsa.

Bayankala Pass, on the border between Yushu and Guoluo prefectures. At 4,824 meters above sea level, this was the highest point on the main road during the journey.

This gentleman is named Rejia. He was attending a small horse-racing festival in Shanglaxiu Xiang, Yushu County, two days’ drive from Xining.

Festival attire in Yushu.

Yushu Prefecture’s No.1 strongman, Tseren Dawa, meets Tianjin TV’s No.1 strongwoman, Kathy Yin. Tseren saw off his rivals at this event by picking up a 330-jin (165 kilo) bag of stone and sand and carrying it around the ring.

The road between Zaduo Country Town and Angnao, more than 4,000 meters above sea level. Altitude sickness was a problem for the team, whose members frequently ignored Yang Xiao’s instructions to take things slowly and not talk so much.

Wangqing Duojia takes his 7-year-old son to school, half an hour’s ride away.

Camp No.1. The yak and tents belong to Wangqing Duojia, Party Secretary of Angnao Village.

Wangqing Duojia’s sheep finish off the team’s dinner.

Wangqing Duojia (2nd from left) and his neighbours erect the family tent.

It took two hours to get this tent up. The interior covers around 40 square meters.

The team’s camp on Wangqing Duojia’s pasture, 4,700 meters above sea level.

A pilgrim to Lhasa on the Xining-Yushu road. Such pilgrims prostrate themselves every step, hence the leather protection they wear (below), and only progress 5-7 kilometers a day.

The pilgrimage begins in Xining at the temple to Princess Wenchang, the Chinese girl sent by the Tang Emperor to marry the King of Tibet and seal a peace deal between the two states.

Stuck in the mud on the Qingshuihe – Eling Lake road.

The Huiga “living Buddha” blesses water from one of the sources of the Lancang River in Zhaqing Xiang, Zaduo County. Every spring for the past five years, this environmentally-friendly monk has organized a “Green Lancang Eco-Ceremony” to educate the region’s herders about environmental protection. He instructs them about care of the source waters, for example telling them not to throw litter around or do their laundry in the streams. Huiga also campaigns against outsiders coming in to develop mining and agricultural projects that could pollute the waters.

Eling Lake, which Yang Xiao termed the “first filling station” of the Yellow River.

Sunset over Eling.

Camp by the Qingshui River in Chengduo County, Yushu.

Moyun Xiang, Zaduo County. The main source of the Lancang River is located in this xiang; the team failed to reach it, however, as the trail runs into dangerous bogs close to the spring.