Mountains and Monasteries: 2 Weeks in W. China

This is the first post of a weeklong series recapping my August trip to the western Chinese provinces of Gansu and Qinghai.

Ancient China's westernmost fort, Jiayuguan

Only a month after getting back to Changsha, I have finally finished updating the site to include everything from my August trip to western China. In celebration, a week (!) of posts recapping the trip.

First off, the full itinerary: We covered quite a bit of territory on this trip — more than 3,000 km — and spent a lot of time on trains and buses. Unfortunately, that’s just the nature of traveling in this part of the world. Even if you only need a day to visit all the sites in one city (ahem, Dunhuang), you may have to spend two if you want to avoid consecutive nights on forms of transportation. This itinerary should give you an idea of how quickly you can realistically move through this part of China.

Day 1 — Morning arrival in Lanzhou; Visit to Bingling Si

Day 2 — Day train to Jiayuguan (7 hours)

Day 3 — Sightsee Jiayuguan; Predawn train to Dunhuang (4 hours, 30 minutes)

Day 4 — Sightsee Dunhuang (other than Mogao Caves)

Day 5 — Mogao Caves; Bus to Liuyuan (2 hours); Overnight train to Lanzhou (13-14 hours)

Day 6 — Visit sights in Lanzhou

Day 7 — Bus(es) from Lanzhou to Langmusi (9 hours, give or take)

Day 8 — Begin hiking trek in Langmusi

Day 9 — Hike back to Langmusi

Day 10 — Bus to Xiahe (5 hours)

Day 11 — Visit the Labrang Monastery

Day 12 — Day trip to the Ganjia Grasslands

Day 13 — Bus to Tongren (2 hours); Visit the Rongwo Gonchen Gompa

Day 14 — Visit Wutun Si; Afternoon bus to Xining (4+ hours)

Day 15 — Day trip to Youning Si and the Dalai Lama’s Birthplace

Day 16 — Visit city sites in Xining (mosque, provincial museum, market); Evening flight back to Guangzhou

Check back every day this week for more tales from the trip. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed for more tips and stories about traveling in China.

Related posts:

1. Budgeting a Western China Adventure
2. Getting to Langmusi and Xiahe
3. Q&A: A Month in China
4. Heading west
5. Top 5 Foods of Western China

Tagged as: Gansu, itinerary, Qinghai, Western China (Aug. '09)