Decision Making: A Design Problem

Photo: Sander, a 17 year old senior at Green Mountain Union High School, at home.

Sander wanted to travel to Tibet, Mongolia, and China. But traveling into all three put them beyond our reach financially. This posed a design problem (an exercise in creative problem-solving). So we explored other regions that supported Tibetan, Mongolian, and Han cultures. That was when we stumbled upon Amdo, a region of Greater Tibet in China that included Qinghai Province and parts of Sichuan and Gansu. Following a little research, we quickly learned that the Tibetans of Amdo have been more successful in retaining their traditional culture than many in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Additionally, the Mongols of Qinghai can still be found herding on the steppes and living in yurts. Unlike the Mongols of Mongolia (who use the Cyrillic alphabet), many in Qinghai still use traditional Mongolian script. After realizing that we could experience traditional Tibetan and Mongolian cultures in China, and save a lot of money in the process simply by focusing our travels in Amdo, Sander enthusiastically agreed that we should head straight for Qinghai.

Qinghai Province is centered between Gansu Province to the north and the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region to the west and Sichuan Province to the east.

We will fly from New York City to Seoul to Hong Kong. From Hong Kong we plan on taking a train to Guangzhou and then another on to Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province.