Don't just take a trip; join our community.

The Rooftop Of The World

Colorful lights outline the buildings of Yushu as the last rays of sun fade over the mountains.

Passengers walk across the tarmac to board their aircraft at Yushu Batang Airport (elevation 12,700ft).

Snow-capped mountains tower over green foothills.

Prayer flags flutter at a Buddhist stupa beneath snow-capped mountains.

Snow-capped peaks stretch unbroken to the horizon.

Homes, shops and offices fill the river valley westward to the horse racing grounds.

A family of yak graze early summer grass as clouds roll past overhead.

A red panda explores its environment at the Panda Breeding Center in Chengdu.

Tibetan dancers in traditional costumes celebrate the horse racing festival in Yushu.

A frozen waterfall cascades beneath prayer flags in the hills above Lhasa.

A river winds past nomad houses and pasture on the high Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

A Tibetan family herd their yaks as a young calf adorably hurries to keep up.

Jiegu Monastery overlooks the Batang River as sun rises in Yushu.

Nothing celebrates the warm days of summer like a picnic with friends on the grasslands.

A friendly yak stops by to investigate a summer picnic on the grasslands.

Prayer flags stretch across the headwaters of the Yangtze River.

Colorful lights illuminate stupas at the Mani Stones site near Yushu.

Mountains tower over a partially frozen winter lake while two birds wait for their next meal.

A woman prays through her prayer beads next to a large prayer wheel.

A row of prayer wheels stretches in the distance. Buddhist worshipers can spin these wheels full of written prayers and earn merit for praying all the prayers in the container.

Fortiterre Expeditions facilitates small group travel to communities in the Three Rivers Source region of Qinghai Province in western China.

This region of China provides a unique combination of austere natural beauty, traditional high-altitude lifestyle, historic religious architecture, good transportation and an openness to foreigners.

Our Home

More importantly, this region is home. We've lived and worked in this region as expats for many years. By engaging in this place so radically different from our own culture, language and religion, we have ended up knowing ourselves and our beliefs better.

We invite you and your group to join us for a few days or weeks. See the best scenic spots, then hang out at our favorite restaurants. Enjoy a picnic on the grasslands. Enter into life in this place. We invite you into the community here even as we ourselves have been welcomed.

We promise you'll leave not only with a deeper appreciation of Plateau life, but with a better understanding of yourself.

What To Expect

We'll spend each day exploring a new site of historic, cultural or natural significance. We'll hike through a national park, explore a cliff-side monastery, chat with local government officials or spend a morning milking yak with nomads.

Each evening we'll debrief over dinner to discuss what we've learned about Asian culture as well as about ourselves. What have we seen that seems so different and yet proves we are indeed all one family under heaven?