Zhangye is the treasure city of Gansu.

Zhangye City is located in the northwest of Gansu Province, in the middle section of the Hexi Corridor. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Zhangye County here and named it Zhangye for "Zhangye, which connects the country's arm to the Western Regions". Zhangye in the Western Wei Dynasty was renamed Ganzhou. It is an important town on the ancient Silk Road and a thoroughfare of the new Eurasian Continental Bridge. It is known as "Jiangnan on the Great Wall" and "Golden Zhangye". Throughout its long history, this small northwestern city has witnessed the rise and fall of countless dynasties and left behind many precious cultural heritages. 🎉This time I spent a day checking in at several must-see attractions in Zhangye. Come and experience the charm of this treasure tourist destination with me! 1. Wooden Pagoda Temple A Buddhist building with a long history, the most famous building in the temple is the 32.8-meter-high wooden pagoda, which has 8 sides and 9 levels, each of which is decorated with wooden dragon heads containing jewels and hanging wind chimes. The tower body adopts the mortise and tenon structure of red pine logs, without any iron nails, which fully demonstrates the exquisite craftsmanship and outstanding creativity of the ancients. 2. Hsi Lai Temple Xilai Temple is the seat of Zhangye Buddhist Association. According to the "Ganzhou Prefecture Records", Xilai Temple was first built in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty under the name "Ciyu Jingshe". Xilai Temple is unique among the many temples in Zhangye. It is not only a Tantric temple (the vast majority of temples in Zhangye are of the Exoteric school), but also has a profound historical heritage and rich cultural connotations. Although it is open to the public for free, it is not well-known and has few tourists, making it a quiet place waiting for those who are interested to come. 3. Zhangye Museum The museum houses more than 11,000 historical relics, bringing together a large number of cultural treasures from ancient times to modern times, including grid-patterned double-eared painted pottery jars, bronze elks from the Warring States Period (also known as the four-legged beasts we call them), and tortoise and crane thousand-year-old bronze tobacco bottles, which are national first-class cultural relics. 4. Big Buddha Temple Built during the Western Xia period, the temple houses a gigantic statue of Sakyamuni entering Nirvana, which is 34.5 meters long and is the largest existing indoor reclining Buddha in China. The Big Buddha Temple has been the family temple of the royal family for generations. It is said that Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, was born in the Zhangye Big Buddha Temple, and his mother, Empress Dowager Beji, was also buried in the Big Buddha Temple after her death. In addition to the giant Buddha, the temple also preserves a Shanxi Guild Hall with a history of 300 years. The guild hall not only witnessed the era when Shanxi merchants in the Qing Dynasty started trade exchanges in Zhangye and promoted the economic prosperity of Zhangye, but also witnessed the historical changes and development of Zhangye culture.