Itinerary Details

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  Day 1: Arrive in Lanzhou

  Attractions: No
  Meals: No
  Hotel: hotel in Lanzhou (1500m)

  After arriving in Lanzhou airport or train station, you will be transferred to your reserved hotel in Lanzhou. The rest of the time is free for you to have a good rest. At night, you can also explore this northwestern historical city on your own, go to taste local cuisine and snacks in Zhengning Road Night Market.

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  Day 2: Lanzhou - Zhagana (480km, 7hrs driving)

  Attractions: Guomang Wetland, Langmu Temple
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Zhagana (3000m)

  After breakfast, starting from Lanzhou, we go to Langmu Temple. On the way, we will pass Guomang Wetland which is the birthplace and water source conservation area of the Yellow River, the largest tributary of the Yellow River. It is an important habitat for black-necked cranes waiting for birds to hibernate. The famous Tangyu Ancient Road, Tea Horse Ancient Road and Silk Road have passed by.

  Constructed in 1748, Langmu Temple belongs to Tibetan Buddhism. After years of extension and development, the temple today is composed of ten affiliated temples and two ashrams. One of the main pagodas of the temple lays the human body of the fifth Living Buddha, which is the best preserved one with longest time, though after more than two hundred years the skin of the Living Buddha is still elastic. What’s more, there are pagodas made from thousands grams of gold, silver, pearl, etc. to remember other Living Buddhas.

  After the tour, go to zhagana, a paradise with lower altitude.

  

  Guomang Wetland

  

  Langmu Temple
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  Day 3: Zhagana day tour

  Attractions: Zhagana
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Zhagana (3000m)

  Today's trip is very easy. You can get up early and go to the top of the inn to see Zhagana sunrise and morning fog (morning fog is zhagana's unique feature, you can take many beautiful pictures). In the east of sunrise, the sky is white with fish belly. The morning light slowly illuminates the clouds, and the hazy morning fog gradually dissipates. The top of the mountain in the West becomes golden due to the gift of the sun, which is the true freehand brushwork of "Sunrise Jinshan". You can also go to the Rock viewing platform and fairy beach to see the panorama. This is the recording place of the fifth season of "where's dad going", known as "little Switzerland in the East". Zhagana village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and forms a natural stone city. White clouds, distant mountains, Mai Lang and Banpo villages set off each other. Mani prayer flags flutter in the wind, with great visual impact. The simple Tibetan people are bathed in the holy light of Buddhism. Explorer Joseph Rock once came here. He said: it's like the garden of Eden. I've never seen such beautiful scenery in my life. In the evening, on the premise of good weather, you can wait for a sunset and see the sunset. The starry sky at night is also very good.

  

  Zhagana

  

  Zhagana
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  Day 4: Zhagana - Tangke (200km, 3hrs driving)

  Attractions: Huahua Lake, the First Bend of the Yellow River
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Tangke (3900m)

  After breakfast in the morning, go to China's most beautiful wetland: Huahu Lake, where the water color is pure and beautiful. The lake is colorful because it is full of all kinds of gorgeous flowers, especially enchanting. Go to Zoige Grassland for lunch at noon.

  In the afternoon, arrive at the First Bend of the Yellow River in the afternoon. If the weather is good, you can wait for the sunset here. When the sunset turns red and falls towards the mountain, the whole valley is shrouded in golden yellow.

  

  Huahu Lake

  

  the First Bend of the Yellow River
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  Day 5: Tangke - Hezuo (280km, 5hrs driving)

  Attractions: Sangke Grassland, Labrang Monastery
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Hezuo (2960m)

  After breakfast, keep traveling northward to Hezuo and make a midway visit to Sangke Grassland which is a natural pasture of Tibetan nomads. The grass is lush like a blanket in summer and the cattle and sheep are herding in groups under the blue sky and white clouds. What a pastoral scenery. Every year on July 13th of the lunar calendar, the seven tribes of Sangke region will gather at Sangke Grassland and hold a horse racing festival here.

  After about 3 hours' driving, you will get to Labrang Monastery. Spend the rest of today visiting this most famous Esoteric Tibetan Buddhism in the world which is also one of the six great monasteries of the Gelug (Yellow Hat) school of Tibetan Buddhism, the most influential outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is also famous for having the most complete Tibetan Buddhism teaching system in China. The monastery is large in scale and magnificent in architecture style, enshrining a lot of huge Buddha statues and various exquisite sculptures, murals, and magical instruments. Its pilgrimage corridor has over 2000 prayer wheels, as the longest of its kind in the world. In the southwest corner of Labrang Monastery, there is an ancient wooden bridge. Walking crosses the bridge and walking up to the hill, you can enjoy a panoramic view of Labrang Monastery and surrounding.

  

  Labrang Monastery

  

  Sangke Grassland
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  Day 6: Hezuo - Linxia (100km, 1.5hrs driving)

  Attractions: Meiren Prairie
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Linxia (1900m)

  After breakfast, head to Meiren Grassland, which is the unique alpine meadow grassland landform of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The terrain here is gentle, the scenery is unique, and the styles are quite different. Standing in the environment, you can feel the vast and vigorous plateau grassland. After enjoying yourself, head to Linxia for accommodation, and at night, you can stroll around Bafang Thirteen Alleys,. From the Tang Dynasty up to now, around the eight mosques, eight religious workshops and thirteen streets have been formed, hence the name "Eight Houses and Thirteen Alleys". It combines Hui brick carving, Han wood carving, and Tibetan color painting, integrating ethnic characteristics, leisure tourism, green ecology, and humanities, science, and education, presenting a picture of Muslim life. It is a business card of Hezhou ethnic folk culture, and a "Grand View Garden" of ethnic architectural art. You can also taste the most authentic Linxia cuisine.

  

  Meiren Grassland

  

  Meiren Grassland
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  Day 7: Linxia - Lanzhou (160km, 4hrs driving)

  Attractions: Liujiaxia Bingling Temple
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Lanzhou

  Today you will drive back to Lanzhou. On route, take a side trip to visit the Bingling Temple, a Buddhist cave with a long history of over 1,600 years. First, you will drive about 1.5 hours to Liujiaxia Dam, a big national hydroelectric reservoir on the upper Yellow River. From the dock, you need to take a speed boat to get to Bingling Temple. During the 40-50 minutes’ boat ride, you can see a different section of Yellow River, very limpid and clear unlike the muddy sights seen in Lanzhou, and layered, red-colored huge Danxia landforms along the riverside, without coverage of any plantations.

  After getting off from the boat, walk several minutes to the entrance of Bingling Temple. The temple is actually a site of Buddhist grottoes filled with ancient Buddhist frescoes and sculptures caved into the rocks, along a long narrow valley of Yellow River. Dating back to West Qin Kingdom, the cave preserves about 183 caves, 694 stone statues, 82 clay sculptures and more than 900 square meters murals. You will tour the most spectacular Lower Temple Area, seeing the 27-meter giant sitting Buddha, many colored Bodhisattvas in different gestures and remaining murals from Wei, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Though some figures have been damaged by earthquakes, erosion, these relics are unquestionably outstanding Buddhist artworks revealing previous Buddhism prosperity and remarkable architecture and carving art of ancient China.

  Lastly, leave Bingling Temple and drive about 2.5 hours back to Lanzhou.

  

  Bingling Temple

  

  Bingling Temple
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  Day 8: Lanzhou Departure

  Attractions: No
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: No

  Today, we will see you off in the airport or train station and wish you happy safe journey back home. Welcome to travel with us again for your next adventure.