It is May, when all things burst into life. Namtso, long sealed in ice, has shed its heavy coat of frozen armor. In the distance, the snow-capped peaks of the Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains stand in silence; nearby, brown-headed gulls skim over the water and take flight, while surging white waves lap against the lake shore. Amidst these vast landscapes, the 2026 Namtso Hiking Conference begins.

Namco, located in the heart of the Tibetan Plateau at an elevation of 4,718 meters, is the world’s highest large saline lake. What does it truly feel like to hike here? Is it the endless rocky path beneath your feet? Is it the fierce plateau wind rushing past your ears? Or is it the quickened, utterly real rhythm of your own breath?

On May 19th, Namtso welcomed its annual "lake opening day." The most breathtaking scenery of the year arrived as scheduled. The following day, the 2026 Namtso Hiking Conference was held at the Tashi Peninsula of Namtso. A 4-kilometer eco-friendly route unfolds along the lakeshore, connecting a series of landscapes where the thawing ice reveals the opening lake.

As the hikers gradually reached the finish line, Namtso continued to lie quietly at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. Amidst their journey, the participants grew close to nature, came to know themselves through the challenges in the plateau, and between the lake and the mountains, they saw Xizang and came to understand it as well.