Traveling the Tang-Tubo Ancient Road, see the emerald green Yellow River at Longyang Gorge Scenic Area

2025 Autumn Western Self-Driving Tour
📆2025-09-28

Today we start on 🛣️G214: Tang-Tubo Ancient Road
This is a very famous ancient traffic route in Chinese history, serving as the transportation avenue between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo, with a history of 1,300 years.
There is a well-known scenic spot:
📍Daotang River
While all rivers in the world flow east, this river flows west
🏠 Location: Daotang River Township, Gonghe County, east shore of Qinghai Lake, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province
📝 Reverse cause: Due to the uplift of the Riyue Mountain crust blocking the original eastward flow path, about 130,000 years ago it changed course to flow west into Qinghai Lake.
📝 Legend: According to Han Chinese legend, this river is formed from the tears of Princess Wencheng missing her homeland. According to Tibetan legend, the Dragon King's youngest daughter needed 108 rivers to create the Western Sea, but was short one, so she reversed a river from Riyue Mountain to complete it.

📍Longyang Gorge Scenic Area
✅ Famous for its magnificent canyon scenery and the first dam on the Yellow River.
✅ Must-visit spots: Longyang Grand Canyon, Earth Forest Geological Park, and Longyang Lake.
Longyang Grand Canyon 💰 Ticket: 30
The first two pictures show the rare emerald green Yellow River
The third picture shows the Earth Forest landscape.

🌃 Overnight: Xinghai County