Panoramic Qinghai Gansu Tour: Golmud, Hexi Corridor, Gannan Tibetan

Today your flight will touch down in Xining. Upon arrival, be met and bring you to the hotel check in.

With the early start drive to Qinghai Lake to see it as vast as sea. The best time of touring the lake is in August, when rape flowers around are in full blossom. Light yellow flowers and blue water fitting in each other, seen most beautifully and peacefully. The lake is also unique for sunlight falling on it with sky in one at the horizon. The other side for tourists to explore is Tibetan culture about the lake. In Tibetan people’ belief, walking around the lake is the worship of holy spirit. Biking or ride the horse by the side of the lake. then we will drive to Chaka Salt Lake for sightseeing. Chaka Salt Lake means “the sea of salt” in Mongolian. It lies in the centre of the Chaka Basin, the south of Caka town, which is 15.8 kilometres long from the east to the west and 9.2 kilometres wide from the north to the south with a total area of 105 square kilometres. Chaka Salt Lake is a scenic spot of combining the scenery tourism with industry tourism, and the only national AAA beautiful zone related to the salt lake at present.  After visiting, transfer you to Wulan for overnight stay.

Enjoy the delicious breakfast, drive to Emerald Lake, located in the northeast of Yike Qaidam lake and ten kilometers northwest of Dachaidan town. The lake water is rich in minerals. It combines with the surrounding salt beaches to form a unique landscape. The lake water with emerald color reflects blue sky and white clouds. The lake water with Jasper color, pure salt and the snow capped peak of Qaidam mountain in the distance form a colorful landscape picture. After the trip, back to Golmud.

Today we will drive along the National Highway 315 and take you to visit the Dongtai Jinaier lake, located in Golmud City. Due to its high copper content, the lake water presents a bright green color, which is known as China's plateau Maldives. It's like holy water in heaven so that it becomes a top attraction to many tourists. After visiting the lake, head to Water Yadan to explore the only one water yadan landform on the earth. From dawn to dusk, the sun shines on Water Yadan in the water feeling like floating magic castles in the air. The fantastic tips ends up with driving to Dunhuang.

Full day sightseeing in Dunhuang, We will head to visit the Mogao Grottoes, this UNESCO World Heritage site is one of the great artistic and religious wonders of the world and it is famous for its exquisite murals and various sculptures inside the caves, which was built in different dynasties, spanning 1,000 years of Buddhist art.And then we will visit the Echoing Sand Mountaion&Crescent Lake. Echoing-Sand Mountain, known as Mingsha Mountain to the Chinese, it is famous for the constant sound of the moving sand.

At last, you will be visiting Shazhou Night Market by yourself. the most bustling place of Dunhuang at night, taste the local cuisine and buy some souvenirs for your family and friends.

In the morning enjoy your breakfast, will drive to Jiayuguan for its well-known pass. It is also called Jiayuguan Pass, which is a great militarily self-defence complex in Chinese ancient time. Chairmen Mao once visited it and shocked by its solid defend function and wrote a poem to express his ambition. It goes“Idle boast the strong pass is a wall of iron. With firm strides we are crossing its summit”. Next, pay a visit to the Great Wall on the Cliff, The wall here was built on the ridge with a gradient of 45 degrees. It is high in the air and it looks as if it fell down from the top of the hill. So people refer to this section of the Great Wall as the "Suspended Wall".

Early morning drive half an hour to Zhangye. Upon arrival, we will head to visit the Rainbow Mountain, for its ribbons of red, orange and yellow through the rock to create a rainbow vista contained only by the contours of the jagged mountain peaks. So many people also call it "Rainbow Mountain" for taking photos and hiking around.This is a stunning world, in the vast hills where almost no grass grows, it is like a palette of God. The colors are intensively intertwined, and the tones are like waves undulating along the mountain, or pouring down from the mountain, like diagonally laid colored strips of cloth, openly and unrestrainedly venting the ancient passion. After delicious lunch, head to Binggou Danxia for its unique stone castle complex on the mountain. The mail color is crasscok red. The panorama of Binggou Danxia is very impressive. we will head to Kaoshan Tent for overnight.

Enjoy your breakfast then to visit 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. And then, we will go to Mati Temple known for horse foot prints on the walls, which are said to be left by a heaven horse so named after by legendary. It becomes the treasure of temple culture integrating with Buddhist images, Qilian mountain scenery and Yugur customs. You can ride the horse to the inside of the park. At night, we suggest to have a walk around Zhangye. It is a nice and quiet city.

Morning drive to Xining and Visit Arou Monastery. From a distance, Arou Great Temple is located on the hilly grassland in Qilian County. August is the most beautiful season in Qilian Mountains. Due to the cold climate on the plateau, it was only in August that her spring began. Large tracts of highland barley are as green as a carpet, and the flowers are as bright as brocade, covering the fields and hillsides. The barley grass and the rape blossoms are blue and yellow, changing various shapes under the flickering clouds. The green is deep and the yellow is heavy, and the yellow is dazzling. Qilian Mountains are dreamlike.The surrounding green grassland is very beautiful. There are quiet temples, few tourists, old lamas, mottled red walls... all of these make people feel like a world away.

Today we will drive to Tongren to pay a visit to Wu Tun Monastery, which has the collected many Rebkong fine artworks. The murals, embroideries, paintings and sculptures are lively, colorful and exquisite, which well present the fluency and rhythm of the painting lines.

Long Wu Monastery is one of the major monasteries in Amdo Tibet, "Longwu" bears the Tibetan meaning of "place of farming". First funded as a Sakya Monastery at the beginning of 14th Century and later in 17th century it became a Gelugpa monastery.

The journey will begin from driving to Luqu and visit Ganjia Grassland. The Ganjia Grassland is located 20 kilometers northwest of Xiahe County. It is not only as beautiful as the Sangke Grassland, but also more peaceful. The grassland is surrounded by mountains and is a typical plateau grassland, an ideal pasture. In summer, the entire grassland is verdant and green, like a large green carpet, with flowers in full bloom and blooming like brocades.

Hiking in the Natural Wonders of Zhagana, located in Diebu County of Gannan, known for green mountains, clear water, layers of ridge stacked chapter, flying springs, waterfall, holy lake, slope peaks, and grand passes. There are four villages in Zhagarna. Villages are full of forests, minerals, water energy, grassland, rare animals and plants. Zhagarna is a rare treasure house of green resources in Gansu Province, with beautiful mountains and waters, outstanding people, beautiful scenery, wide forests and lush paddock. Afterwards, transfer to Diebu for overnight stay.

One more exciting day to experience the scenery, culture and lifestyle of locals. Stroll around the village and climb the surrounding mountains for a different view of the village.If Tibet represents holiness and Xinjiang represents paradise, then Gannan Zhagana can make you feel the beauty of Xinjiang as well as the sacredness of Tibet.The beauty of Tibet needs to be worshipped, the beauty of Xinjiang can be integrated, and the beauty of Zagana is suffocating...

Today we will drive to Langmusi for sightseeing. Langmusi is a small town at the junction of Sichuan and Gansu provinces, surrounded by grasslands, woods, hills, and red stone cliffs. It has a beautiful environment and is known as the "Little Switzerland of the East".Afterwards, transfer to Xiahe county and rest.

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. Then proceed the tour to Sangke Grassland, located on the west side of Xiahe County, Gannan. There are small hills and hills on the grassland, as well as open wilderness. In summer, there are green grass and wild flowers all over the country, which is very beautiful. When you go to the Sangke Grassland, you can also rent horses and ride there, and go to the collectors to experience various traditional folk customs such as tsampa, butter tea, and Tiaoguo Zhuang. The grassland is only about 11 kilometers away from Xiahe County. You will spend a night in Linxia county.

It is the last day of the trip. With fully enjoyment, visit Linxia Ba Fang Shi San Xiang, an ancient street with Hezhou ethnic customs. It combines Hui brick carvings, Han wood carvings and Tibetan color paintings to show people the life of Muslims. When arrive in Lanzhou, you will be transferred to the airport and catch the flight back to your sweet home.