Kumbum monastery in xining or Labrang monastery in xiahe?

Labrang in Xiahe, hands down, is IMO the better experience. I thought Kumbum was rather soulless and had some rather arrogant/obnoxious monks (yes, unusual). Physical attractiveness of Xiahe and surroundings is better and the English language tour offered by the Labrang monks is worthwhile. You are focused on getting to/from Lanzhou but what is the context of the rest of your trip itinerary before/after Lanzhou? There may be alternatives that increase efficiency, that you haven't thought of/aren't aware of.

Labrang easily.
It's a functioning monastery town. Aside from a few solar water boilers and a retrofitted electrical system in some areas it looks pretty much exactly like it did in the 19th century.

Kumbum is historically significant, but is not as beautiful, lacks the atmosphere, and sees too many tourists.

Labrang is worth it.

I totally agree, Labrang is the far better experience. One of the most amazing places I have been to in China. Kumbum on the other hand was a bit disappointing, for me it lacked atmosphere, was soulless and its gets a lot of visitors.

I visited Labrang in May and there nearly no tourists there.
We took the tour with the only English-speaking monk. To say that he speaks English was a bit of an overstatement. He is apparently self-taught. After a while we told him to just speak Mandarin and my girlfriend was translating for the rest of the group.

Agree with above, and the scenery around Xiahe and en route is grand. That is, it's more than just the monastery.

I think it depends very much on the circumstatnces of the day. We had a particularly difficult experience at Labrang, with a monk whose English was very poor and whomspent most of the time talking about money. He suddenly cut off the tour and we felt that we had seen very little. The town was full of monks in cafes playing with their mobiles and the kora walk was very noisy. Maybe it was just the peak tourist time. I went somewhat reluctantly to Kumbum because of all the comments about tourist numbers and found, on the day I went, it was fine. A couple of very quiet, sweet monks were particularly helpful and we had a great day. It's not without its difficulties getting out there but I really liked Xining and also found an interesting Tibetan museum with a great collection of tanka.

I'll likely be howled down by people who think their own experience must be correct, but I think you can never guarantee a good experience. A lot of things combine to make or break it. If you decide to go to Xiahe, it is worth stopping in Lanzhou at the very good museum there.

Thanks for many replys!
Actually my plan is just 4 day trip from Japan...(just on the plane on the 1st and 4th day, departing Japan in the morning, connecting either shanghai or beijing and arriving Lanzhou or Xining at night)
so 2 days in the middle are the days only I could be free in China.

There're some personal reasons why I'm planning such a tight schedule trip, but I'm interested in minorities in China and the ticket to lanzhou or xining is exordinary cheap. (about $300, almost same price flying to Beijing)

Does anyone know how long does it take to Xiahe from Lanzhou bus terminal?
If I to go to Lanzhou, I want to take the very first bus on the 2nd day, and back to Lanzhou with the last bus from Xiahe..

I went to both these monasteries and found them both to be compelling. I do think that Xiahe is inconvenient. When I went (not sure if it has changed since then), you had to get a bus in Lanzhou and Xiahe was the terminus. From Xiahe, I don't think you could go anywhere except back en route to Lanzhou. Because of this, I would NOT recommend sleeping in Xiahe. My recommendation would be to get the first bus to Xiahe, drop your luggage at a local hostel or even the monastery itself (this is what I did and it was no problem), walk around the town, take the English tour, and then get back on the bus and sleep in Linxia. This positions you to return back to Lanzhou the following day with ease as it takes less time to get back to Lanzhou from Linxia than it does from Xiahe.

And the big bonus of staying in Linxia is you can see Bingling Si, which is going to be more memorable than Labrang monastery anyway.

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