Gansu-Qinghai-Ningxia Road Trip (18) National Geopark - Ashigong Colorful Peaks

Travel Together Season 16 - Gansu-Qinghai-Ningxia Road Trip (18) National Geopark - Ashigong Colorful Peaks Hainan, Qinghai - Haidong Sep 13, 2023 Sunny, 8-23°C, max altitude 2,850m. In the morning, we strolled around Guide County. For the first time, we saw the Yellow River without its yellow color. The Yellow River flows slowly through the north of Guide County, quiet and clean, with rippling green waves. It is known as "the Yellow River in Guide is clear". If it hadn't rained in the past two days, the river would have been even clearer (Photo 1). The Wheel of Fortune is located on the south bank of the Yellow River. It is the only Tibetan-style prayer wheel in the world that uses the Yellow River as its power source. The prayer wheel is 27m high, 10m in diameter, and weighs 240 tons, making it the largest and most unique prayer wheel in the world (Photo 2). Guide Ancient City is located in the center of the county. It is a Ming Dynasty architectural complex with a history of over 600 years. The earthen city walls are basically intact, and the Jade Emperor Pavilion is a landmark of Guide (Photo 3). According to the staff, the ancient city is currently being replanned, integrated, and renovated. In the afternoon, we visited Ashigong Scenic Area. Guide National Geopark - Ashigong Colorful Peaks Scenic Area (4A) is composed of seven Danxia canyons with different colors and shapes. Its Danxia is not as colorful as Zhangye Danxia (Photo 4), and its peaks are not as deep as Tianshan Canyon (Photo 5). The core scenic area is just over 1km long, a small but exquisite scenic area (Photo 6). We left the scenic area after two hours and took National Highway 310 to the next stop. The whole journey was almost all mountain roads, crossing two mountains with a height difference of nearly 800m and a maximum altitude of over 2,850m. It took nearly two and a half hours to cover 90km. There were many surprises along the way. After leaving the scenic area, we crossed Ashigong Yellow River Bridge and went around to the back of the colorful peaks, where we found the Yellow River flowing quietly at its feet, with clear reflections. We took this photo of the peaks and the Yellow River together (Photo 7). After crossing the mountains, we entered Kanbula National Forest Park. The surrounding mountains are undulating, and the forest is dense. We shuttled through clusters of peak forests (Photo 8), sweeping away the drowsiness of winding roads. The sudden appearance of a pure blue water area surrounded by mountains extinguished our last bit of drowsiness. It was Lijiaxia Reservoir in Jianzha County (Photo 9). In the evening, we finally arrived at Hualong County, Haidong. Tomorrow, we will head to Linxia via Huangnan.