14 Days Drive from Chengdu to Gansu through Primitive Tibetan Area Tour

Transfer to your reserved hotel after arriving in Chengdu airport.

Stay overnight in Chengdu

We will start our driving today. First drive to the Panda Breeding and Research Center to see the Giant Panda and then drive to visit Sanxingdui Museum on the way. We will explore the mysterious ancient civilization of Yangtze drainage in Sanxingdui Museum (Three Star Garden Museum). Every excavated ware is a marvelous art craft for us. Then drive further to Mianyang.

Stay overnight in Mianyang

After breakfast, drive to Jiuzhaigou. We will have lunch in Pingwu, a nice small county with an ancient temple. If the traffic is fine, we will arrive in Jiuzhaigou in the late afternoon.

Stay overnight in Jiuzhaigou

We will explore scenic areas of Jiuzhaigou to the full: Mirror Lake, the Pearl Shoal Waterfall, the Five Colored Pond and the Panda Lake. At the end of the visit, you cannot agree more with the old Chinese saying, which goes: 'just as one will find it worthless seeing a mountain after he has already visited the Yellow Mountain and he will also come to the conclusion that every lake is dull after he has seen the lakes in Jiuzhaigou'.

Stay overnight in Jiuzhaigou

Drive to Huanglong (Yellow Dragon) National park in the morning in about 3 hours. Small ponds, waterfalls and dense forests scatter in a spectacular canyon, which is between 3,000 m-3,500 m (9,843 ft-11,483 ft) above sea level and interspersed with colorful flowers in Spring. Then drive to Songpan old town.

Stay overnight in Songpan old town

You will have a two-day horse-riding trip in the beautiful mountains surrounding by Songpan. Visit Muni Valley, where there are some peaceful lakes and an elegant waterfall. The horses are tame but the slopes are sometimes quite steep. You can do this trip even if you don't have experience with horse-riding.

Camping

The first half of the drive is in mountainous area, and then we will climb over to the high altitude grassland, where the jade like Yellow River and the Flower Lake located. The Flower Lake is a wetland located in the center of the Ruoergai grassland, a good place for wild bird-watching and sunset-watching. (the best time to explore grassland is from June to August)

Stay overnight at hotel in Ruergai county

The highlight of today is the tour to Langmu Monastery, located on the border of Sichuan and Gansu, a long-hiding village and temple where the time seems stand still. This village is unique for it is a mixture of Christianism, Buddhism and Islamism in their villager’s life and architecture.

Stay in Langmusi hotel or the similar

Huagai mountain is the highest mountain around Langmusi and also the sacred mountain for Tibetan people from Gansu Sichuan and Qinghai province. We will hike on this mountain and its Fairy Valley near the Monastery called Namo. Standing on the top of the mountain, you will see yellow river and big grassland.

Stay in Langmusi hotel or the similar

Today’s driving is long, but you will see yaks, herd and beautiful landscapes on the way. We may be invited to a nomad’s tent to drink the fresh yak milk on the way. Arrive in Xiahe in Gansu province and spend a half day visiting the Labuleng Monastery and the grassland around. Stay in the best hotel in the small town.

Labuleng Monastry is one of the biggest Yellow Head Sect Monasteries in China. We will hike onto the top of the hill to have a bird view of the whole Monastery. We would watch the impressive gathering of the monks (at 12:00 everyday) in the courtyard of the monastery with the call of “alphorn”. Once the monks are doing their chanting, they will walk the Kora, surrounding the whole monastery complex and count the prayer wheels you are turning. We would also explore the village of Xiahe with local shops and the grassland around Xiahe, where nomad families live in tents.

Stay in Xiling Hotel or the similar

The high way makes the drive much easier and faster. Visit Bingling Caves at the Yellow River, where we will first take a boat and then pass muddy trail to reach the site of unique Buddhist Caves, sculptures and paintings hiding from most of the tourists.

Stay overnight in Lanzhou

Transfer to the airport for the flight to Beijing or Shanghai and then take the flight for home.