Nirvana Restaurant & Bar

Gansu

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This inviting, bright restaurant serves Tibetan dishes, such as the popular yak hotpot (¥25) and tsampa (¥20), as well as western favourites and breakfasts (¥28). The welcoming, casual vibe makes leaving Nirvana difficult, as does the long booze menu, which includes imported beers (from ¥20), coffee, shakes, smoothies, cocktails (from ¥30) and hot toddy (¥40) for those cold nights.

The friendly, English-speaking Tibetan-Dutch couple who own the restaurant and Nirvana Hotel upstairs can also offer advice about Xiahe and Labrang Monastery.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • Labrang Lamasery, Gansu, China

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    0.42 MILES

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  • Snowland Art

    Snowland Art

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    Tucked away down the backstreets of Xiahe not far from Labrang Monastery, Snowland Art is a family-style fine art and handicrafts training school set up…

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    Milarepa Palace Buddhist Temple

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  • Gongtang Pagoda

    Gongtang Pagoda

    0.61 MILES

    With an interior splashed with murals and illuminated by a combination of yak-butter candles and electric lamps, the golden 31m-tall Gongtang Pagoda is a…

  • Ganjia Grasslands

    Ganjia Grasslands

    14.37 MILES

    The Ganjia Grasslands, 34km from Xiahe, aren’t as pretty as those at nearby Sangke, but there is more to explore. From Xiahe a bumpy road crosses the…

  • Sangke Grasslands

    Sangke Grasslands

    7.79 MILES

    Expanses of open grassland dotted with Tibetans and their grazing yak herds highlight a trip to the village of Sangke, 14km from Xiahe. Development has…

  • Barkhang

    Barkhang

    0.29 MILES

    The three-storey Barkhang serves as the monastery’s traditional printing temple. With rows upon rows of more than 20,000 wood blocks for printing, it’s…

  • Hall of Hayagriva

    Hall of Hayagriva

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View more attractions

Nearby Gansu attractions

1. Snowland Art

0.09 MILES

Tucked away down the backstreets of Xiahe not far from Labrang Monastery, Snowland Art is a family-style fine art and handicrafts training school set up…

2. Barkhang

0.29 MILES

The three-storey Barkhang serves as the monastery’s traditional printing temple. With rows upon rows of more than 20,000 wood blocks for printing, it’s…

3. Hall of Hayagriva

0.32 MILES

A repository of vivid and bright murals, the hall encapsulates a startlingly fierce 12m-high effigy of Hayagriva – a wrathful manifestation of the usually…

4. Labrang Monastery

0.42 MILES

With its succession of squeaking prayer wheels (3km in total), hawks circling overhead and the throb of Tibetan longhorns resonating from the surrounding…

5. Gongtang Pagoda

0.61 MILES

With an interior splashed with murals and illuminated by a combination of yak-butter candles and electric lamps, the golden 31m-tall Gongtang Pagoda is a…

6. Thangka Display Terrace

0.79 MILES

The best morning views of the monastery come from the Thangka Display Terrace, a popular picnic spot.

7. Hermitage Ruins

0.8 MILES

What remains of this hermitage are earthen walls overgrown with nettles, making the real attraction here the view of the town nestled into the mountains…

8. Nunnery

0.87 MILES

This nunnery is on the hill above the Tibetan part of Xiahe. The outer kora (pilgrim path) begins just to the left of here.