BuildingMyBento

I'm thinking of paying a visit to Gansu, namely Dunhuang, Jiayuguan and Zhangye. Have been to Lanzhou, once...really dug the lamian.

Is this a familiar vague itinerary to anyone? Anyone have extra recommendations - say, parks, accommodations or food - along the way?

This would be for either the end of this July or early August.

Thanks,
BmB

JPDM

I really like Zhangye and Dunhuang but thought that Jiayuguan and it's fake Great Wall was a stop I vould have missed.
If you visit the Danxia landform in Zhangye, it is best to go late in the day. And it your are lucky, it rained in the days before your visit to make the colours outstanding.

KIXman

I did Jiayuguan-Zhangye a few years back.

For Jiayuguan I found the fortress pretty impressive, and also the big gorge right beside it. The Xuanbi Overhanging Great Wall a few km away is something that felt a bit too renovated for me, also avoid the Wei-Jin tombs, too small and uninteresting for an out-of-the way place.

For Zhangye, the Danxia landforms are an hour or two out of town. While there are buses it might be best to hire a car to take you back if you're going in the afternoon. When I went there I stayed at a little house right at the entrance to the Danxia but on the way back the next day buses were full and wouldn't stop to pick me up. Zhangye also has the Dafo temple, and going south from town for an hour or two, you come across Mati si temple, which is a temple complex built into the side of a cliff. The area feels a bit like Tibet so with the Jiayuguan-Zhangye-Matisi itinerary you get to see ancient China, "Tibet" and also natural wonders in one go.

jiejie from the China forum has a superb thread on this, it was great reference when I was planning my own trip.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...silk-road.html

moondog

I would try to figure out a way to fit Turpan into the mix (the train between there and Dunhuang is an easy overnight) because it is an exceptionally nice place IMO.

chornedsnorkack

Turpan is also fairly hot in July.
Liuyuan also has high speed trains to Turpan - travel time 3:32 to 3:33.

moondog

I didn't notice the July time frame in the OP. You're correct that July is pretty hot there, but I'd probably be willing to brave the heat myself if I was already in the area.

I do recall you mentioning HSR to Turpan, now that you bring it up. It was certainly not in place 10 years ago.

jiejie

Yes, you can refer to details from my Silk Road Trip, linked in post #3 above. This trip was in high summer--the heat can be worked around if you plan a break in the middle of the day to rest and rehydrate.

Main factual information that I know of for the areas you mention, that has changed since my 2012 trip:
--High speed rail is operating between Lanzhou - Zhangye - Jiayuguan - Liuyuan (for Dunhuang) - Turpan - Urumqi. This speeds things up considerably, if you can fit the timings into your schedule. [Note that from the Dunhuang in-town station, only east-bound trains are operating--westbound must go to Liuyuan by 2-hour road trip. This has not changed from my report.]
--Train tickets are purchasable 60 days in advance.
--Zhangye is much more well-known and likely will have more visitors. And I believe more upscale accommodation has come on line. At least in high season, there are now public buses going from/to central Zhangye to Danxia.
--Mogao Caves now require advance reservation, 1-7 days in advance for independent travelers. I believe the cost is now up to RMB 220 or 240. I hear that even the English language tours are getting fairly heavily subscribed. The online reservation website is not very user-friendly for foreigners, so try to arrange with your hotel to get in advance especially in summer. There is an in-town reservation/ticket booth where one can self-arrange.
--Entry fees at other locations may be higher than what I had in my report.

BuildingMyBento

Appreciate all of your data points/suggestions, folks!

Although I've seen in a few other posts that moondog recommends Turpan, seems I'd better make Xinjiang a separate trip...distances are too great, and the vacation time is too short.

Any local Gansu dishes to try, besides the lamian and dried fruits?

boxo

I was thinking about squeezing Danxia Landforms into my itinerary for 1.5 days/1 night October 14-15, between Xian and Beijing, but now I'm beginning to think it's not worth the travel time and additional cost for the limited time on the ground. The GS XIY YZY flight lands late afternoon and sunset at that time will be 6:30-ish.

I also did a Flickr search for photos taken every October 2012-2015 and the colors were dull browns and rusty reds. No rainbows.

For future reference, do any of you know if the crowd is significantly less during the week vs weekend?

jiejie

That timetable sounds pretty tight. If you can depart Xi'an on the evening of the 13th, a better plan (and cheaper) would be to fly MU 2329 to Lanzhou 20:40-21:50 and spend the night there. Then morning of the 14th, take one of the 08:00-ish D high speed trains Lanzhou West-Zhangye West, arriving by noon. You'd then have time to see the in-town sights like the pagoda, Reclining Buddha and explore a bit and lunch, then have a taxi take you mid-afternoon to Danxia and back for dinner. Overnight there. 15th morning get a car and go to Mati Si if you want. Flying back from Zhangye that evening via Lanzhou to Beijing is possible though expensive. You might want to check out cost/timing of high speed to Xining and flying nonstop from there to Beijing. For instance, you could take the D2704 dep Zhangye around 17:21 arr Xining 19:25, + late Xiamen Airlines or Air China flights XNN-PEK...you'd just get into Beijing late. Earlier options are available for getting into Beijing, if you want to truncate Zhangye morning of the 15th.

As for crowds weekday vs weekend: probably doesn't matter a lot. Zhangye isn't large enough where there would be much of a local tourism contribution. Chinese tour groups would be coming from a distance and their schedule could be on any day.

As for weather conditions--Zhangye is normally dry and there is no "rainy season." October isn't in sandstorm season either. While nobody can predict the exact weather conditions for a given day, odds are that you would have clear conditions. And if the 14th is not favorable for whatever reason, there is still the morning of the 15th as a backup.

But nobody can make this call for you on the time-cost-value matrix. Certainly if you go directly from Xi'an to Beijing, it streamlines your trip planning and there is no shortage of possibilities to use your time productively in BJ. Another option would be going to Pingyao Old Town between Xi'an and Beijing. You'd need high speed tickets Xi'an-PY and preferably the same for PY-Beijing. These tickets haven't yet been released but are about to be, and they sell out very quickly. So if you want to do the Pingyao option, make up your mind asap and get a ticket order in with an agent. This fits in perfectly with a 2 day, 1 night time frame.

boxo

Thank you for your opinions on this. I will give it some more thought and see how/if it can work without causing too much stress (on me). At the moment, I'm leaning more toward saving it for next time. But I appreciate you giving me more logistics options.