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A Journey of a Thousand Leagues by the Shores of Qinghai Lake — A Brief Report on the Visit Activities Held as Part of the Cultural Week of China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries
Release time：2026-07-07
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Artists from Portuguese-speaking countries in traditional costumes of China’s ethnic groups Artists from Portuguese-speaking countries in traditional costumes of China’s ethnic groups
Artists from Portuguese-speaking countries tasting plateau yak milk and barley cake Artists from Portuguese-speaking countries tasting plateau yak milk and barley cake
Visit to Qinghai Lake – photographic record (I) Visit to Qinghai Lake – photographic record (I)
Visit to Qinghai Lake – photographic record (II) Visit to Qinghai Lake – photographic record (II)
Group photograph of the artists Group photograph of the artists
Photograph of interaction between artists, local residents, and tourists Photograph of interaction between artists, local residents, and tourists



On July 6 2026, the 18th edition of the Cultural Week of China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries continued its complementary cultural experience activities. Artists from the eight Portuguese-Speaking Countries and Macao ventured into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, walked along the shores of Qinghai Lake, and experienced first-hand the unique character that Chinese civilisation had forged there over the centuries in the highlands.


From Xining to Qinghai Lake, the landscape of the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau unfolded like an endless scroll. First, ravines and gorges intersected. Then, verdant grass stretched out, where prayer flags, white stupas, and herds of sheep and cattle could be seen in succession. The twists and turns of the road revealed, astonishingly, the infinite vastness of the lake’s waters and the splendour of the mountains.


At the source of the Daotang River, the artists, dressed in their elegant traditional costumes of China’s ethnic groups, smiled amid the blossoming prairie. They tasted a bowl of fragrant and creamy yak milk and savoured a piece of barley cake, experiencing on their palates the everyday flavours of the people who live on the steppe.


By the shores of Qinghai Lake, they bent down to touch the clear, cold waters, while watching the seagulls gliding across the sky, and looked beneath the surface for the darting fish. Some, out of curiosity, tried riding yaks. Others attentively explored the handicraft fair featuring items characteristic of Tibetan culture.


Everyone listened to the history of Qinghai Lake’s transformations, from sea to land, and contemplated the traces of time left by climate change and by the advance and retreat of its waters. They also learned about the concrete practices and achievements made in the development of tourism around the lake and in environmental preservation.


The imposing mountains and flower-covered prairies offered radically different sensations to the artists coming from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. As these cultural messengers return to the Lusophone world, they take with them not only photographs, but, above all, an unforgettable memory of Qinghai.