Yumenguan Travel Guide

 mke1963 Says:  Some 30km west of Yumenguan, on the road to Sanlongsha Yardan formations, is the Xihu National Nature Reserve, a 6,600 square kilometre reserve that includes the largets area of saline marshalnd and freshwater pools.The entrance to the reserve can't be missed, because there... 

 mke1963 Says:  Yumenguan - the Jade Gate - lies in a small dip in the land alongside wetlands of the Shulehe River that rises up in the Qilianshan Mountains and empties into the vast sand and gravel pans of the Kumtag Shamo and Lop Nur.Yumenguan is not particularly strategically located,... 

 mke1963 Says:  Although many visitors are content to jump out of the car and have a look at the Han Great Wall at Danggushu, few are prepared to make the 2 minute walk up to the beacon tower to the east. However, it is worth it, not so much because of the beacon tower itself, but because... 

 mke1963 Says:  Although the Han Great Wall extends in fits and starts from near Jiayuguan, it is at its most impressive out here in the Kumtage Shamo part of the Gobi desert. The dry climate has protected the structure and although eons of wind and rain erosion and the feet of many goats... 

 mke1963 Says:  11km east of Yumenguan, along an excellent road is the place known as Dafangpan, where a huge building sits alongside more marshes of the Shulehe river. Although much has been written down the centuries about the famed Yumenguan, very little was ever recorded about this much... 

 mke1963 Says:  Sanlongsha is commonly referred to just as Yardan, Yadan or Yardang - all of which are a bit meaningless because "yardan" is a geological term, and it's a bit like Mount Everest being called"Mountain" or Niagra Falls being called"Waterfall". But in Dunhuang, it's just called... 

 mke1963 Says:  The sandstone crags are several kilometres long, and just tens of metres wide, beautfully embossing the Kumtag Shamo. All around, isolated bluffs and ridges have been eroded into the most wonderful shapes. Many have been given names. Indeed it is absolutely necessary in... 

 mke1963 Says:  Deserts play strange tricks on the mind, and deserts play strange tricks on geology as well. A quick glace at satellite images of many deserts and drylands shows weird and wonderful patterns; on the ground these disappear to be replaced by endless expanses whose detail is... 

 mke1963 Says:  It is possible to stay at the management offices of Yumenguan, just by the entrance. Accommodation is extremely basic....a bed in room, no A/C, no heating and a very, very basic tilet shared with everyone else (and no privacy). However, you do get to see sunset and suntrise...