Zhangye, Gansu. A charming little city to have a break.

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I liked Zhangye. It’s a charming little city with many pedestrian streets lined up with colorful old-looking buildings. It combines modern shopping malls and ancient temples. People there were very welcoming and helpful and the fact that Zhangye is so close to Ma Ti Si and Dan Xia Landform (photos to come) tells me I will definitely be back here.

Unfortunately on my first night in Zhangye I must have eaten something bad because I was sick all night and spent the following day wandering the city like a zombie… I had no energy, no strength. I was empty. Too much cycling the previous days? Exhausted? Or simply bad food?... The weather also turned grey and rainy so I took an extra day off to rest before heading to Dan Xia Landform, 45km out.

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Photos

Visiting Zhangye and DaFo Si
home of the longest reclining Buddha in China

The city was formerly known as Ganzhou (甘州), a name retained both in the municipal region seat Ganzhou District and the Gan of the province of Gansu. In The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo describes spending a year in a city called Campichu,
Zhangye became the garrison headquarters after General Huo established control of the Hexi Corridor. Originally known as Ganzhou, the town was part of the Western Xia dynasty until conquered by Kublai Khan in 1227. Although the city is not a tourist destination as such, it serves as good place to make stop when passing through the Hexi Corridor. Zhangye currently has a population of around 1,250,000.

The fearsome Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan is said to have been born in the Dafo temple, also the site of the longest reclining wooden Buddha in China.
The temple was built in 1098 and has been restored on many occasions

Dafosi, home of the largest reclining wooden Buddha in China.
the Buddha is 35-meter long

Drum Tower at Zhangye
Check out all the swallows

outside Zhangye
farmers build walls to create shade for the crops

Welcome to Dan Xia!
A unique type of petromorphic geomorphology found only in China, these landforms were included on the list of World Heritage sites at the 34th meeting of the World Heritage Committee on August 1, 2010.

Comments

[Nina AMADO]

Impressionnant l'architecture de ce temple!!!

[Nina AMADO]

Ah mon pauvre!!!J'espère que tu te sens mieux, mais si ça peut te rassurer tu as l'air en pleine forme sur la photo, on ne dirait pas que tu as été malade...Aller courage!!!!

[Alyssa]

Wow...look at all those vases!! Beautiful! How much were they?