Zhangye 1 Day Travel Guide

Visiting Zhangye during summer is the best period to enjoy travel around the city, especially to the main destination Zhangye Danxia Geo Park.

A short intro about Zhangye

Zhangye (simplified Chinese: 张掖;) is a prefecture-level city in northwest-central Gansu province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north and Qinghai to the south.

Recommended transportation :

Hire a taxi for 1 day (08:00 - 21:00) to travel around including the main destination Danxia Geo Park (driver will wait), I paid RMB360 (good bargain in a private car) and he took me to best local noodle shop for breakfast and lunch, normally in between RMB400-RMB500/day (if include Mati Temple)

PS : I can recommend this nice driver and share his contact, please send me private email.

IS ZHANGYE WORTH TO VISIT?

YES !!, Zhangye was an important commercial port on the ancient Silk Road, and the main destination is a must visit place, Zhangye Danxia Geo Park, which you can see the magical landform in rainbow colours.

WHAT TO EAT ?

Noodle...noodle and noodle, becareful it's spicy!, even breakfast they will served with chilli!!

WHERE TO GO ? (recommended itinerary)

Please remember in Zhangye, during summer time, sunset is at around 20:30 - 20:45pm, and Danxia Landform colour is best to see during sunset.

First destination :

MATI SI 马蹄寺 (Mati Temple Grottoes)

Mati Si is also known as the Horse’s Hoof Temple is a Buddhist temple complex located inside the cliff. it's 1 hour drive from Zhangye city,  (it is not the same direction to Danxia Geo Park) so better start early in the morning, and you will spend at least 2 hours there.

According to the legend, a horse from the heaven once left a mark of horse hooves here, and thus the temple got its name. The legendary print of the horse hooves now exists in the Mati Hall, serving as an indispensable treasure of the temple.

How to Get to Mati Si Temple?

The most convenient way is to rent a taxi for 1 day, so this is include to Mati Si

Second destination :

Binggou (Ice Valley) Danxia Park,

From Mati Si to Bingguo Danxia Park is about 1,5 hour, you need to go back to the city of Zhangye and passed the entrance of Danxia Geo Park for another half hour.

Bingou has steep rocks, with fewer less-appealing colors.

There are 2 area inside the park, the 1st area, after you get off from the sightseeing bus, you have to walk around at the 1st area, and you need to hike up some steep stairs to go to the viewing platform.

And the 2nd area, you need to go back to the bus parking area, then you can take a small car to go there but you will feel all the view looks similar as the 1st area, and you have to hike some long path.

The elevation of the scenery area is between 1,500 m and 2,550 m.

Entrance ticket: 40RMB; Sightseeing bus: 20RMB.

Last Destination :

Arrived at 17:00 at the ticket entrance.

Zhangye Danxia Landform National Geological Park

China Rainbow Mountains are magnificent with gorgeous colors, which developed at about 200 million years ago. 

The best time to visit Zhangye is from June to September when the weather is comfortable, and the combination of strong sun and a little rain brings out the colors more.

The Danxia landform in Linze has 5 viewing platforms. If you have plenty of time, you can go to every viewing platform.  Go from the entrance the viewing bus will have the first stop at Viewing Platform No.1, then (No. 2 & 3 if you have more time) or No. 5 and finished at No.4 as the last stop before sunset, because No. 4 is the best area you can see the amazing colour during sunset (and the most crowded during sunset, so keep your best spot for taking photo before sunset and don't go anywhere).

Photo taken at Viewing Platform No. 1 :

Photo taken at Viewing Platform No. 5 :

Photo taken at Viewing Platform No. 4 :

Best Place to enjoy free fireworks at Hong Kong harbour

Hong Kong fireworks festivals are legendary, watching as thousands of bright lights explode over the world's most beautiful harbour is simply a mesmerizing experience, one you should not miss if you happen to be in Hong Kong during one of these occasions.

The most favourite spot to watch is from the Tsim Sha Tsui side with the Central Skyline in the background, you can watch all along the Promenade and the Avenue of the Stars from the Star Ferry Terminal to the New World Centre in the East.

Chinese New Year: The most popular of Chinese festivals, Chinese New Year falls on January or February in the Western calendar. Fireworks are an essential part of the celebrations and in Hong Kong the New Year is greeted with an extraordinary 25 to 30 minute production which can be seen from both sides of the Harbour.

These are some of the best outdoor free spots to watch the fireworks in Hong Kong:

Here the photo was taken at the Hung Hom ferry pier which has less crowds than at Tsim Sha Tsui area. We arrived at Hung Hom ferry pier after the fireworks had started for 10 minutes, and we still can see this view below.

Stone Forest from Kunming - Journal Day 7 of 8

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It is very easy to go to Stone Forest from Kunming. 

We started from our hotel at around 09:00 am, taking a taxi to Kunming Eastern Bus Station (昆明东部汽车客运站), then you can see the big sign at the entrance "Stone Forest Express Bus Ticket Hall". Make sure to buy the ticket to the new Stone Forest Bus Terminal (which is only 300m away to the Stone forest ticket entrance). Normally you need to wait for around 10 - 30 minutes to catch the bus.

The bus ticket is RMB34/person. Travel time from Kunming to Stone Forest is about 1 and half hour (depend on traffic).

Stone Forest 

Known since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) as the 'First Wonder of the World. An old local saying says that 'If you have visited Kunming without seeing the Stone Forest, you have wasted your time.' Truly, the site is one of the most important attractions of Yunnan. 

Major Stone Forest, Minor Stone Forest and Naigu Stone Forest, all of which feature stones in various formations. Animals, plants, and even human figures can be found here. Some are elegant, some are rugged, and each is lifelike with its own distinguishing characteristics. 

In the heart of the Stone Forest, there is a very special stone called the Ashima stone. Legend has it that this stone was once a beautiful woman named Ashima, which literally translates as “more precious than gold”.

Many beautiful legends originate in this magical place, passed along by the native people known as Sani, a branch of the Yi ethnic group. Yi people were one of 56 of the nationalities in China. One particular story about the faithful love of Ashima, a beautiful, clever and warm-hearted Sani girl, is the most popular and has been told for thousands of years. The Sani people celebrate their national festival - the Torch Festival - every lunar year on June 24. 

Ashima, Folktale from the Yi people of Yunnan

Once upon a time, a girl was born in a poor Yi family. The parents hoped the girl would be as beautiful as flowers and as shiny as gold. They named her Ashima.

When Ashima grew up, she was very beautiful. Many young Chinese men were attracted by her singing and dancing. But Ashima was in love with Ahei, who was a brave and wise young man. They were engaged to each other at one of the torch festivals for Yi people.

One day, when Ashima was on the market, she met the son (Azhi) of the village leader. Azhi thought Ashima was very pretty. He wanted Ashima to marry him instead of Ahei. Azhi was very rich, and Ahei was very poor. Still, Ashima loved only Ahei and wanted to marry him.

When the fall came, Ahei had to leave the village to work in the field. When he was gone, Azhi kidnapped Ashima and forced her to marry him. Ashima cried and insisted she loved only Ahei. This made Azhi very angry. He whipped Ashima until her whole body hurt. Still, Ashima believed Ahei would come to rescue her.

When Ahei heard about Ashima’s kidnapping, he rode his horse home without delay. When he got to Azhi’s door, Azhi would not let him in to see Ashima. Then, Azhi proposed a song contest with Ahei. The contest lasted for three days and three nights. Ahei won the contest, and Azhi had to open the door for him.

After the contest, Azhi asked Ahei to stay overnight in his house. He promised to let Ahei leave the next morning and take Ashima with him. However, it was a trick. During the night, Azhi unleashed three tigers to kill Ahei. But Ahei was ready for the attack, and killed the three tigers with three arrows. The next morning, when Azhi found all the dead tigers, he allowed Ashima and Ahei to leave together.

But Azhi did not give up. He wanted to kill Ashima since he could not keep her. When Ashima and Ahei were playing by a river, Azhi used his power to flood the river. Ashima was drowned. Ahei could not find her. He kept calling Ashima’s name, but he heard only his echo.

Ashima was turned into the river stones. Later, whenever Ahei missed Ashima, he would face the stones and call out Ashima’s name and talk to her. He always heard the echo of a response. In this way, Ahei lived with his beloved Ashima forever.

New Year's eve in Kunming - Journal Day 6 of 8

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We were taking the morning flight from Shangri-La to Kunming.

It's only 15 minutes drive by taxi from Dukezong Ancient Town to Diqing Shangri-La Airport (DIG).

It's not a big airport, but it's not small too, there are souvenirs shops and restaurants that we can have our breakfast there.

New year's eve in Kunming

There were no much things to do to spend new year's eve in China, especially in Kunming, (do not expect fireworks....) and even some hotels don't have any special events, so we went to the Green Lake that night which had one event at The Park Bar and Grill with live music until new year's countdown.

Location The Park Bar and Grill 

Green Lake Park (Cui Hu Park)

Telp : 15368171162

There are a lot of food stalls and drinks with the famous Yunnan's special Shangrila beer stalls outside the bar that we can choose while enjoying the live music. 

Live music starts from 7:30 till 12:30 pm. 

And the good things was free entry to enjoy the music during new year's eve!

Shangri-La "the Eden in Dream" - Journal Day 5 of 8 - Songzanlin Monastery, Potatso (Pudacuo) National Park

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Songzanlin Monastery 

Songzanlin Monastery or The Ganden Sumtsenling Monastery, it is at elevation 3,380 metres has another alias - 'the little Potala Palace ', so named because the whole monastery is in the traditional style with mysterious atmosphere.

The entrance ticket is RMB115/person, and to get to the Monastery, you need to take free yellow bus for about 15 minutes near the ticket office, or you can take public blue bus no. 3 from the city.

Built in 1679, the monastery is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan province. Located in the capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, it is also the most important monastery in southwest China.

The Monastery was the highlight of the visit to Shangri-La. Be prepared for a climb to the top - there are many stairs. It is very interesting to walk through the Monastery at the summit, and the view across the plain is worth the effort. Although it was not easy to climb a few hundreds steps in high altitude with low oxygen.

If you have time, take a walk around the lake, which you can see the wooden path near the lake in front of the Monastery entrance, where you can get some amazing photos of the monastery reflecting on the lake. It only takes about 30 min to walk around the entire lake.

Potatso (Pudacuo) National Park

In Sanscrit, "Pota" means the same as "Putuo" in Buddhism, while "Cuo" means "lake" in Tibetan language. "Potatso" therefore means "a lake which releases living beings from suffering".

It located about 13.5 miles (22km) southwest and 40 minutes drive from Shangri-la downtown area. It is renowned for well-preserved primitive landscape, which is endowed with lakes, wetlands, forests, meadows, streams, brooks, rare plants and animals. 

The ticket fare is RMB258 (including RMB138 admission fee and RMB120 sightseeing bus fee). 

In the park, there are three main scenic areas open to visitors: Shudu Lake in the north, Bita Lake in the south, and Militang Alpine Pasture in the middle. The sightseeing buses run among these scenic spots and stop at fixed stations. Passengers can get on and off freely with one ticket.

Shudu Lake is the first stop of sightseeing bus, It is about almost half hour bus ride from the sightseeing bus stop from the park entrance. The lake was frozen when we came there in end of December.

 

At Militang Alpine Pasture, people are only given 10 minutes for shooting and viewing the grandeur grassland while bused on route from Shudu Lake to Bita Lake. Militang in Tibetan dialect means "Buddha's-eye grassland". It is a famous highland pasture in Shangri-La.

The last stop of the travel route is Bitahai Lake, which is located in the south part of the park. It is the key scenic spot of this park. The altitude of the lake surface is 3, 539 meters above sea level.

Giant Prayer Wheel

We arrived at the old town in the afternoon, and after finished dinner near the old town, we went to The giant prayer wheel just next to the Dukezong Ancient Town. And it is time for us to say good bye to our nice driver as she will return back to Lijiang, and we could walk back to our hotel and exploring the old town by ourself that night.

An eye-catching 24 meter (80-foot) tall golden prayer wheel sits on a hill. It has become an authentic building because local Buddhists now climb the hill to spin it to submit their prayers. When we got down to the carpark, there was very little time left to explore the ancient town. We went back to our hotel and explored the old town and found that most shops had closed.  So we directly go to our hotel, turned the heater in our room,  have a good sleep to prepare another journey to Kunming the next morning.