8 Days West China Tour: Xining, Zhangye and Dunhuang

Today your flight will touch down in Xining, the capital city of Qinghai. When you arrive at Xining you can meet your driver at the Airport, and then your driver will take you to the hotel to relax. Finally, I would like to wish you have a pleasant journey and Bon voyage.

Spend the morning to exploring Chaka Salt Lake, it is the largest saline in Qinghai Province, Chaka Salt Lake means "the sea of salt"  in Mongolian. It lies in the centre of Qaidam Basin, which was nominated by the national tourist geography magazine as one of the 55 places to go.

Thereafter, we will drive all the way to Guide County for overnight stay.

Continue our Qinghai journey, today our professional tour guide will meet you at the hotel lobby, and then our tour guide will bring you to trekking in Kanbula National Park to visit. Kanbula is well-known for the magnificent unique Danxia landform, and the landscape is mainly featured by wonderful peaks, precipitous, hills, caves, cliffs and many rock peaks, stone columns and stone walls. Meanwhile, it is also a world of natural plants and a paradise of wild animals. In summer, visitors can enjoy the shade and cool breezes and in autumn they can view a sea of red leaves and immerse themselves in the most spectacular landscape. They appreciate not only the fresh and tranquil natural environment but also the cultural inspiration drawn from the sites of the cultural interest.

Afternoon, we will go back to Xining and transfer to the train station to take an express train to Zhangye.

Morning we will visit Matisi Temple ( Horseshoe Temple ), The temple was named by the court as "Puguang Temple" in the 14th year of yongle Period in Ming Dynasty. It houses a saddle and one dragon gown given by some emperor in Qing Dynasty. 

After lunch, we will drive 3hrs to the masterpiece of nature Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park, which is situated in the north of Qilian mountains with a distance of 40 km from east Zhangye city. You will be marveled by the colorful layers of mountain ridges in the 4hr’s adventure to the different platforms.

After breakfast at the hotel, our professional tour guide will bring you to visit the Grand Buddha Temple, which is one of the important travel destinations of the Silk Road, where you can visit the largest indoor clay statue of Buddha in China and the exquisite mural sculptures plus the ancient buildings.

Then drive all the way to Jiayuguan, take you to the Jiayuguan Fortress. Standing among vast desert and surrounded by rolling mountains,it looks like a dignified general guarding the grand land. Thereafter, we are going to visit 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". 

Continue the sightseeing to renowned underground gallery Weijin Tombs. There we can enjoy lifelike and succinct wall paintings covering a wide range of subjects including politics, economies, culture, military affairs, folk customs, and science and technology during the Wei and Jin periods (4AD)

After lunch, 4hrs driving to Dunhuang to visit Echoing Sand Mountain, where you can ride the camels for 40mins to experience the beautiful desert scenery in the sunset.

After an extraordinary day, freshen up and enjoy a good dinner, we continue to appreciate the bustling Shazhou Night Market dotted with special commodities and souvenirs.

Today we are going to appreciate the Holy Center of Buddhism Culture and Art-UNESCO of Mogao Grottoes. First, you will watch two movies to get a rough idea of the history of the Silk Road and the Mogao Grottoes. Then take the sightseeing bus to the original cave area, where a professional expositor will lead you to visit seven caves.

Today you will end your enjoyable Gansu tour, we will book the train tickets from Dunhuang to Lanzhou for you. the driver will transfer you to catch the express train. Wish you have a pleasant journey home.