China · Gansu
Where to Stay in Zhangye, Gansu
Where to stay in Zhangye
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Where you stay in Zhangye turns on the old town or the hills. The centre around the Drum Tower keeps the temples, the market, and the Buddha hall within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the city. The old tower marks the crossroads.
Rooms sit near the temple gates. Out toward the Danxia hills and the desert, the town gives way to bare colored ranges. A room by the hills trades the centre for the rainbow cliffs, the sunsets, and the quiet of the corridor.
The striped ranges rise past the edge. If you want the temples and the market, stay downtown; if you want the rainbow hills, take a room out by them. Either way, the oasis is close at hand.
About Zhangye
Zhangye is an oasis city of the Silk Road.
What is Zhangye known for?
It sits in the green Hexi Corridor between the Qilian mountains and the desert, and nearby the bare hills blaze in bands of red, gold, and grey, the famous Danxia landforms, while in the old town a giant reclining Buddha lies in a temple hall. Caravans once rested here. Rainbow hills and Buddha mark the city.
What are the main landmarks in Zhangye?
The rainbow hills blaze southeast of Zhangye. The Danxia hills rise in bands of red, gold, and grey, the emblem of the city, over the desert plain. A giant Buddha sleeps in the town.
The Dafo Temple holds a reclining Buddha thirty metres long, while the Matisi grottoes and the old Drum Tower mark the oasis and the hills around.
What is the history of Zhangye?
Zhangye guarded the road to the west for two thousand years. When the Han emperors pushed the empire out along the Hexi Corridor, they built a garrison town here, one of four that held the narrow road between the mountains and the sands. Caravans made it rich.
Silk, jade, and horses passed through Zhangye on the Silk Road between China and the west, and the oasis grew into a great market of the corridor. The faith of the west came with the trade. Buddhist monks carried their religion along the road, and they carved grottoes into the cliffs and raised a temple around a giant reclining Buddha, thirty metres long, that still lies in the old town.
Marco Polo is said to have stayed a year. The traveller rested in the city he called Campichu on his way to the court of the Khan, when Zhangye was a rich town of temples and trade. The Buddha still sleeps in his hall.
Zhangye keeps its temples and its rainbow hills in the corridor.
Where is Zhangye?
Zhangye lies in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu in northwestern China, between mountains and desert. The city sits in a green oasis watered by the streams off the Qilian mountains, on the old road west, with the striped Danxia hills to the southeast and the Gobi beyond. Snow peaks rise to the south.
The dry plain runs on to the desert.
What is the climate of Zhangye?
Zhangye has a dry desert climate. Hot summers and cold winters cross the oasis, and the air stays dry all year with little rain, cooled at night and warmed by day in wide swings. Dust winds blow off the desert in spring.
The oasis stays green by the mountain streams.
How do you get to Zhangye?
Zhangye lies in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu, on the old road west. High-speed trains and the highway run through the corridor from Lanzhou toward Dunhuang, and an airport links the city, while roads reach the Danxia hills nearby. Buses reach the oasis towns around.
Most arrive by rail along the corridor.
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Updated August 2026