Gansu Tour to Xiahe and Badan Jaran Desert with Zhangye Adventure

Today Our guide will meet you at Lanzhou Airport. And then send you to the hotel. You can take a stroll in Lanzhou by yourself, take a good rest and prepare for tomorrow's journey.

Let's start our Lanzhou in-depth tours today. As one of the important cities along the ancient Silk Road, Lanzhou has preserved many cultural heritages. With an early start today, we will visit the Bingling Temple. You will be driven to the Liujiaxia Dam and then you will take a fast boat to cross the gorge where you will enter the Bingling Temple Grottoes, which you will discover are above the water. These caves, which stretch for 200 metres, were built during the 3rd and 18th centuries. They are highly valued for their contribution to research into the history of Chinese paintings and the spread of Buddhism during that time. We will drive to Xiahe in the late afternoon.

Today we will arrange the English Speaking Lama guide you through the Labrang monastery, the most populous monks outside of Tibet. You will stay at Thangka Sunning Terrace that is one of a good place to view the monastery and surrounding scenery. Inside the monastery, apart from magnificent Buddha stupas and wall paintings, prayer wheels are also the must-see spot. The whole monastery is surrounded by wheels, walk along the corridor, rotate the wheels and pray for chasing away the troubles.

The view of yaks roaming in the Sangke Grassland amid green pastures is something to behold. In this area, nomadic people can still be found singing their traditional songs and this is often one of the highlights of any visit to Tibet. Then visit the Tibetan family and wear Tibetan cloth, drink milk tea and sample hand-grabbed mutton.

Enjoy your breakfast at the hotel, then pack your luggage and say farewell to this exotic village. We will drive you back to Lanzhou, catch a bullet train to your next stop Zhangye.

After breakfast, we will drive 1.5 hours to reach the Pingshan Lake Valley. It is so far the closest compound tourist attraction to the city in China, which integrates natural wonders, canyon exploration, geological scientific research, ethnic customs, and self-driving cross-country. It is one of the most beautiful landscapes in the Zhangye Geomorphological Landscape Grand View Garden. After that, we will drive to the Badain Jaran Desert for about 2 hours

With an early start of exploring Badain Jaran Desert with different scenery and activities. This desert is home to some of the tallest stationary dunes on Earth, with some reaching a height of more than 500 meters, although most average at around 200 meters. Its tallest dune is also measured, from base to peak, as the world's third tallest dune and highest stationary dune in the world. The desert also features over 100 spring-fed lakes that lie between the dunes, some of which are fresh water while others are extremely saline. These lakes give the desert its name which is Mongolian for "mysterious lakes". It is also crossed by one river, the Ruo Shui ("weak water"), which has formed an alluvial plain in the desert.

After lunch, we head for Zhangye Danxia National Geopark, it is situated in the north of Qilian mountains. The area includes the colour hills in Linze country, ice hills, Danxia GanZhou District and PingShan lake. The scenic Danxia, is a distance of 40 km from east Zhangye city, north from Linze county town by 20 km, this is the most typical arid area of northern China. We will stay overnight in the Zhangye Danxia.

This is the end of your trip today. We will send you to the airport and wish you a pleasant journey home.