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: Mirarepa Buddhist Monastery
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Zhagana (3000m)

  After breakfast, starting from Lanzhou, we go all the way to Mirarepa Buddhist Monastery, which is mainly dedicated to Mirarepa Buddhist, the most legendary and well-known among Tibetan people. The nine storey building is dedicated to the founder of various schools of Tibetan Buddhism, mainly Milarepa and his disciples. There are 1720 Buddha statues, Bodhisattvas, Dharma protectors and other Buddha statues of simi Mahayana, mainly King Kong. This Buddhist Pavilion is one of the famous Tibetan Buddhist temples in Anduo, with magnificent architectural momentum and resplendence. Later, we will have lunch in the Hezuo city, and then enjoy the pastoral scenery of lush grassland water and grass, and flocks of cattle and sheep all the way through Gahai Lake. Gahai Lake is called "jiangtuocuoqin" in Tibetan, which means "alpine lake", and the local herdsmen call it "plateau God Lake". At an altitude of 3200 meters, the lake is the largest freshwater lake on the Gannan plateau, an important wetland in the east of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and a pearl on the plateau. After the tour, go to zhagana, a paradise with lower altitude.

  

  Mirarepa Buddhist Monastery

  

  Mirarepa Buddhist Monastery
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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.

  

  Huahua Lake

  

  The First Bend of the Yellow River
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  Day 5: Tangke - Langmusi (345km, 6hrs driving)

  Attractions: Niangma Temple, Awancang Wetland
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Langmusi (3300m)

  After breakfast, leave Tangke and go to Niangma Temple. In the temple, the Sutra turning cylinder is about 50m high and weighs about 300 tons. The body of the Sutra turning cylinder is made of titanium, with embossed Buddha statues inlaid on the outside, patterns pasted with pure gold and gold foil of 1160m2, and about 110000 scriptures inside. It is the most representative building in Gannan Tibetan area, At present, we are applying for the Guinness record of the world's largest Sutra transfer tube, and then go to Awancang Wetland, which has beautiful scenery and unique scenery. Wetlands and lakes glow, snow mountains and the Yellow River coexist. The masculinity of the northern land is integrated with the beauty of the water town in the south of the Yangtze River. It is an ideal place for explorers, travelers, photographers and writers and a summer resort for tourists. Majestic and beautiful mountains and rivers, like legendary scenery, harmonious and peaceful pure land, forthright and simple folk customs, brilliant and colorful culture and broad and profound Sanskrit sound, this is not an illusion in a dream, but a real gongsaierkamudo. Then go to Langmu temple town for overnight.

  

  Awancang Wetland

  

  Niangma Temple
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  Day 6: Langmusi - Linxia (270km, 4hrs driving)

  Attractions: Sangke Grassland, Labrang Monastery
  Meals: Breakfast
  Hotel: hotel in Linxia (1900m)

  After breakfast, keep traveling northward to Xiahe of Gansu Province from Langmusi 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.

  

  Sangke Grassland

  

  Labrang Monastery
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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.