Atlas of China
Zhangye 张掖Zhāngyè
Striped hills, a sleeping Buddha and Yugur grassland below the Qilian snows
About Zhangye
Zhangye, the old Ganzhou, was one of four Han commanderies in the Hexi Corridor, and its Dafo Temple, founded in 1098 under the Western Xia, shelters a clay reclining Buddha about 35 m long. South of the city the striped hills of the Zhangye Danxia and the red cliffs of Binggou rise towards the Qilian Mountains, where the Mati Temple Grottoes look over the grasslands of Sunan, home of the Yugur people. At Xiakou in Shandan, Han and Ming Great Walls run side by side.
What to eat in Zhangye
- Zhangye beef xiaofan (张掖牛肉小饭)
- Shandan chao bola (山丹炒拨拉)
Featured places in Zhangye
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Zhangye Danxia (Rainbow Mountains) 张掖七彩丹霞
Mountains striped red, orange and yellow like the layers of a painted cake
Listed sites in Zhangye
31 sites in Zhangye are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Biandukou 扁都口 4A scenic area · on the map
Biandukou, called Dadoubagu in the Sui, is a pass of over 3,500 m on the old route across the Qilian Mountains between Minle and Qinghai, linked by Chinese sources with Huo Qubing's army, the monk Faxian and Emperor Yang of Sui. - Binggou Danxia 冰沟丹霞 4A scenic area · on the map
The second major scenic area of the Zhangye Danxia geopark, opened in 2014 on the north bank of the Liyuan River in Sunan: in contrast to the striped hills of Qicai Danxia, it is a landscape of red sandstone cliffs, walls, pillars and spires. - Binhe Jiuliangye Distillery 滨河九粮液 4A scenic area · on the map
The Binhe distillery in the Minle eco-industrial park, maker of Jiuliangye baijiu, is open to visitors as a liquor-culture scenic area covering its starter-making, distilling and bottling halls, blending cellars and a large storage cellar. - Dafo Temple, Zhangye 张掖大佛寺 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The temple was founded in 1098 under the Western Xia, and its two-storey Great Buddha Hall shelters a painted clay reclining Buddha about 35 m long, often described as the largest indoor reclining Buddha in China, with his ten disciples standing behind him. - Dahuwan Scenic Area 大湖湾 4A scenic area · on the map
A lake and wetland leisure area in the Heihe valley near Gaotai, centred on the Chongwen Tower, a 41.7 m five-storey timber tower in southern Ming–Qing style built in 2011–12, with a lakeside plaza, boardwalks and bridges. - Danxiakou Tourist Town 丹霞口文旅小镇 4A scenic area · on the map
A modern tourist town built in old style near the north entrance of the Qicai Danxia scenic area, mixing grey-tiled Huizhou-style houses with the walls and gate towers of the north-west. - Ganquan Red History and Culture Area 甘泉红色历史文化旅游区 4A scenic area · on the map
A 50 ha district in central Zhangye that joins red-history sites, including the Gao Jincheng Martyr Memorial Hall and an exhibition on the Western Route Army's 1936–37 campaign in the Hexi Corridor, with the Ganquan spring, rebuilt traditional gardens, the Sanyuan Museum and two lakes. - Liushahe Scenic Area, Linze 流沙河景区 4A scenic area · on the map
A riverside park of about 230 ha on the south side of Linze town, with lakes including Swan Lake, a Danxia-style hill and square, a Journey to the West garden and a 'hundred stones' garden carved with poems. - Lushuiwan Scenic Area 芦水湾 4A scenic area · on the map
A chain of man-made lakes with lakeside parkland on the north-western edge of Zhangye, with bridges, promenades and the Shuitian Yise square, and sightseeing carts running between them. - Mati Temple Grottoes 马蹄寺石窟群 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A group of Buddhist cave temples in the Qilian foothills of Sunan, begun in the Northern Liang in the early 5th century and used into the Qing, spread over seven sites including the Mati North and South temples, the Thousand Buddha Caves and Jinta Temple. - Minle Silk Road Pastoral Park 民乐现代丝路田园综合体 4A scenic area · on the map
An agri-tourism park in northern Minle built around fruit-picking orchards, flower fields, a folk-culture village and street and a farming-culture study area. - Pingshanhu Grand Canyon 平山湖大峡谷 4A scenic area · on the map
A canyon of red sandstone and conglomerate cut into the desert hills north-east of Zhangye, opened to visitors in 2014, where trails and viewpoints lead along the ridges and down into narrow gorges of a 95 km² scenic area. - Qilian Mountain Deer Park 祁连山鹿文化生态旅游区 4A scenic area · on the map
An alpine valley on the Jinchang River at 2,700–3,500 m in Sunan where more than 600 farmed Qilian red deer (white-rumped deer) graze on high grassland below snow peaks, and visitors can see them at close quarters. - Wenshushan Grottoes 文殊山石窟 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A cave-temple complex in the Wenshu Mountains south-west of Jiuquan, spread over a front and a back hill, with over 130 caves recorded, including about 30 from the Wei and Jin to the Qing that keep more than 500 statues and some 1,200 m² of murals. - Western Route Army Memorial Hall, Gaotai 中国工农红军西路军纪念馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A memorial to the Western Route Army, the Red Army force of about 21,800 that crossed the Yellow River in October 1936 and was defeated by Ma clique forces in the Hexi Corridor over the following months; its Fifth Army was destroyed at Gaotai in January 1937. - Wulan Ancient Town 屋兰古镇 4A scenic area · on the map
A modern tourist town built in old style at Gucheng village in Jiantan, east of Zhangye, whose centrepiece is the Jiuqu Huanghe lantern maze: a 2.4 km labyrinth laid out on the nine palaces and eight trigrams, with 365 lanterns, nine halls and more than 700 walls decorated with themes from traditional cosmology and Hexi history. - Yanzhi Mountains 焉支山 4A scenic area
A forested outlier of the Qilian range south of Shandan, rising to 3,978 m, which the Han general Huo Qubing won from the Xiongnu and where Emperor Yang of Sui is said to have received envoys from 27 states in 609. - Yueya Lake Park, Gaotai 月牙湖 4A scenic area · on the map
A town park on the western edge of Gaotai, built since 1992 around a natural reed-marsh lake that was long counted among the county's ten sights as 'the lake reflecting the crescent moon'. - Yugur Culture Corridor 裕固风情走廊 4A scenic area · on the map
A 27 km scenic road through the Qilian foothills around Kangle in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, home of the Yugur, a people of about 15,000 who speak Turkic and Mongolic languages and mostly follow Tibetan Buddhism. - Yugur Folk Culture Resort, Sunan 裕固族民俗度假区 4A scenic area · on the map
Sunan's county town, Hongwansi, and its surroundings form this scenic area, which includes the Yugur Fengqing Yuan cultural park, ethnic villages, a red-history theme park, the Xiliugou folk-culture street and the Solangge racecourse. - Zhangye National Desert Sports Park 张掖国家沙漠体育公园 4A scenic area · on the map
An 18 km² park in the desert dunes 13 km south of Zhangye, laid out for outdoor sport, sightseeing and children's play, with a motorsport circuit that has staged a round of the China Rally Championship nine years running. - Zhangye National Wetland Park 张掖国家湿地公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A wetland park on the northern edge of Zhangye, where boardwalks wind through reedbeds, ponds and stands of tamarisk and oleaster, and lotus ponds bloom in midsummer. - Han and Ming Great Wall at Xiakou, Shandan 山丹汉明长城 National heritage site · on the map
In Shandan county two Great Walls run side by side along the narrow 'waist' of the Hexi Corridor, often only 10–80 m apart: the Han wall to the north, mostly trenches and beacon towers, and the Ming wall of rammed earth to the south. - Heishuiguo Ruins 黑水国遗址 National heritage site · on the map
The 'Black Water Kingdom' is a 16 km² spread of ruins in the sands north-west of Zhangye, where the eroded rammed-earth walls of a southern and a northern town still stand among dunes, with Han bricks, Han–Jin tombs and prehistoric finds scattered around them. - Luotuocheng Ruins 骆驼城遗址 National heritage site · on the map
The rammed-earth walls of one of the largest Han–Tang town sites in the Hexi Corridor stand in farmland west of Gaotai: built here after an earthquake destroyed the earlier county town in AD 180, it became the seat of Jiankang commandery under the Former Liang and, in 397, the first capital of the Northern Liang. - Tongzi Temple Grottoes 童子寺石窟 National heritage site · on the map
A small cave-temple site on two cliff faces east of Minle, first cut in the Northern Wei: the southern caves have murals of Journey to the West stories, and the northern ones Bodhisattvas and a thousand-armed Guanyin. - Xilai Temple 西来寺 National heritage site
A working Chan (Zen) Buddhist temple in the lanes of Zhangye's old town, said to date back to the Tang and rebuilt under the Ming, which took the name Xilai Si after a Qing restoration in the Kangxi reign. - Xusanwan Ancient Fort and Tombs 许三湾古城 National heritage site
A small rammed-earth fort standing alone on the gravel plain west of Gaotai, with corner towers and a square barbican outside its south gate; the area belonged to the Han county of Biaoshi, and the fort was reused as a Ming–Qing outpost before being abandoned. - Yuantong Temple Pagoda 圆通寺塔 National heritage site · on the map
A Tibetan-style stupa of brick and earth about 23 m tall at Liuba in Minle, said to have been founded in the Northern Song and restored several times under the Ming and Qing, when a Qianlong-era rebuilding raised it by more than 3 m. - Zhangye Drum Tower 张掖鼓楼 National heritage site
Zhangye's Drum Tower, also called Zhenyuan Tower, rises 28 m at the crossroads in the middle of the old city: a brick-faced platform pierced by four arched passages carries a two-storey timber pavilion under a pyramidal tiled roof. - Zhangye East Granary 张掖东仓 National heritage site · on the map
A Ming state granary founded in 1392 in Zhangye's old town, whose nine surviving storehouses, with ventilation and rat-proof holes at the foot of their walls, make it one of the more complete old granaries in China.
Getting to Zhangye
Train, flight and driving times from the cities most visitors come from, with stations, fares and how many run a day; each opens the full comparison.
Trips with Zhangye
- The Silk Road by train: Xi’an to Dunhuang, Turpan and Ürümqi 11 days · Xi'an, Zhangye, Jiayuguan, Dunhuang, Turpan and Ürümqi
On the map
Open Zhangye on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Zhangye on the map