5 Days Zhangye Xining Tour of Danxia Landform and Qinghai Lake

Day-by-day Itinerary

1. Day 1: Zhangye Arrival (No meal )

   Upon your arrival at Zhangye airport/train station, our local driver will pick you up from the exit gate by holding a welcome board with your name and transfer to local hotel for check-in. Free and easy on your own for rest of the day.

   Accommodation: Overnight in Zhangye

2. Day 2: Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park Tour (B, L)
   The Rainbow Mountain Scenic Area, The Ice Valley Mountain Scenic Area

   Today you will fully enjoy the highlight Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park. The Danxia landform earns the most spotlight for Zhangye City. Rated as one of “10 Wonders of Nature in the World” in 2011 by National Geographic News, it does deserve the reputation. There are two main scenic area of the Zhangye Danxia with different features.

   Firstly, come to visit The Rainbow Mountain Scenic Area which locates in Linze County, features in its bright color and is better to enjoy sunset which chosen by most travelers. Seen from the high platform, the rising layers of mountains in beautiful red with different saturation is bathed in rosy sunlight, depicting a gorgeous picture for the visitors who trudged a lot to here.

   In the afternoon, move on to The Ice Valley Mountain Scenic Area, read Binggou Mountain in Chinese, earns its fame mainly with its graceful shapes. Usually, people come here for sunrise scenery. Although the color of hills here are not as bright as Rainbow Mountain, the unique form here easily excites people’s imagination to enjoy the natural masterpiece in another way.

   Accommodation: Overnight in Zhangye

   

3. Day 3: Zhangye-Xining Tour by High-speed Train (B, L)
   Zhangye Giant Buddhist Temple, Matisi Grottoes

   After breakfast, you will further explore Zhangye by visiting two of the most important temples. The first one is Zhangye Giant Buddhist Temple. Built in Western Xia Dynasty, the Giant Buddhist Temple had survived from the vicissitudes and stands on Silk Road for 900 years. There is a gigantic sleeping Buddha statue of Sakyamuni with the largest scale in Asia inside the temple, hence the name. The beautiful woodcarving, paintings and statues as well as the underneath culture and history impresses travelers a lot.

   

   After that, continue your visit to Matisi Grottoes. Joined with Mogao Caves and Yulin Grottoes in Dunhuang, is famed as “Three Artistic Grottoes of Hexi Corridor”. You will amaze at the incredible combination of Buddhist temple and mountain grottoes here: the large elegant temple stands against the hill where plenty of grottoes were engraved. Another luminous point of Mati Temple is that it embraces both Han Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism at meantime which you will discover in the visit here.

   Finishing the sightseeing, you will head to Zhangye train station for afternoon high-speed train to Xining. The train rides around 2 hours, you can take this chance to rest on the train. Upon arrival at Xining, there will be our local driver to pick you up and transfer to local hotel.

   Accommodation: Overnight in Xining

   

4. Day 4: Xining Tour (B, L)
   Qinghai Lake

   After breakfast, drive around 2.5 hours to the amazing Qinghai Lake.

   You must have heard the fame of Qinghai Lake before you go. It is indeed hot for tour to Qinghai and the whole Silk Road. Why? The co-existence of different views collected at the meantime at Qinghai Lake push its fame higher and higher: massive sea-like lake, vast desert, lush meadow-grass and yellow sea of rape flower. A single one of the four elements would attract people as a “wonderful place”, however, the mix of the four at Qinghai Lake makes it a “must-go” place. Each summer (June and July), it ushers in the annual peak when the blossom of rape flowers and round-the-lake cycle track here.

   The birds island in the lake is the paradise for many kinds of birds. Each summer thousands of birds fly to Qinghai Lake to escape from hot summer and the ground of grove will be covered with birds’ stool. And in August the lake area will be covered by golden rape flowers. You could optionally take a cruise ship to have some exciting time there. And if you are photography lovers, the Qinghai Lake area will be a great place to take some wonderful photos.

   Finishing the sightseeing, drive back to your hotel.

   Accommodation: Overnight in Xining

   

5. Day 5: Xining Tour & Xining Departure (B, L)
   Ta’er Monastery, Dongguan Mosque

   Today you will further explore the amazing Xining! The first site will be Ta’er Monastery. As one of the “Six Great Monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism Gelug Sect”, Ta’er Monastery is another site in Xining, Qinghai Province, sharing the same popularity with Qinghai Lake. Ta’er Monastery has profound historical origin that it’s the birthplace of famous Tsongkhapa, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism Gelug Sect. Not only bearing the divine position in religious followers, the monastery is a Tibetan Buddhist institution of higher education. Beneath the glorious decorations on surface fascinating your eyes, the rich accumulations in history, culture, religion and arts of Ta’er Monastery excites your souls deeply especially when meeting those devout followers trudged for pilgrimage here.

   After that, continue your visit to Dongguan Mosque, which is the largest mosque in Qinghai Province, gain the title of “Four Greatest Mosques in Northwestern China” together with Xian Great Mosque, Lanzhou Qiaomen Mosque and Etigar Mosque in Kashgar. Built in Ming Dynasty, the Mosque has stood in Dongguan District of Xining for 600 years, badly experienced wars and reconstructed in 1998. The beautiful calottes and gorgeous pillars and praying hatted Muslims forms a bright scenery line here.

   Finishing the sightseeing, you will head to Xining airport / train station for departure.

   Accommodation: N/A