Qinghai-Gansu Grand Loop – The Unique Landscapes of the Northwest

☞ Traverse the endless Gobi uninhabited zone! The U-shaped Highway on National Highway 315
Known as the "internet-famous road," the U-shaped Highway on G315 winds through rolling terrain, appearing like a skyward path straight to the heavens, earning it the nickname "China's Route 66." Whether you're traveling the Qinghai-Gansu Grand Loop or the Haixi Loop, this route is a must-see!

☞ Watery Yadan: Where Gentleness Meets Solitude
The fusion of yellow Yadan landforms with blue lakes creates an incomparable beauty of desolate grandeur—no description can capture even a tenth of what the eyes behold.
If one day this 2,700-meter-altitude lake vanishes, it will leave behind another kind of lonely spectacle. So, let’s cherish it now and etch its beauty into our memories.
A chance encounter with a small, fleeting tornado passing by—my first close-up experience—filled me with both excitement and fear. Wind meets sand, blazing and free.

☞ The Geological Clock of the Yadan Devil City
The wind-eroded mounds of the Yadan Devil City loom like slumbering beasts, their shadows intertwining as if they might shift at any moment. Stepping on the weathered, crumbling rock layers, the sand cascades instantly, as if the earth itself is sighing softly.
Hundreds of thousands of years of wind erosion have sculpted this place into a fossil of time, while we are but specks of dust in its long memory.
Yet, on the edge of this desolation, clusters of reeds sway in the wind. They wrest life from the harsh salt-alkali soil—nature, after all, understands perseverance far better than humans.

☞ Come and marvel at the unique landscapes of the northwestern Qaidam Basin!

Post by Benjamin.Bell.79 | Jul 4, 2025