Zhangye Rainbow Mountains Guide: Tickets, Shuttle, Best Light and Getting There

Plan two nights in Zhangye (张掖, Zhāngyè) if you can, and one if you are short on time. One night is enough to see the Rainbow Mountains, the striped hills of the Zhangye Danxia park (七彩丹霞, Qīcǎi Dānxiá, "seven-colour Danxia"), in the late-afternoon light, which is the main reason anyone comes here. Two nights add a second day for the window-shaped rock walls of Binggou Danxia or the cliff caves of Mati Temple, plus the giant reclining Buddha in town. Summer and early autumn are the best months, and the best time of day is the last two or three hours before the park closes, when the sun is low. Since 5 January 2026 a visit costs 70 yuan for the entry ticket plus 38 yuan for the shuttle bus you have to ride inside the park. One thing to know before you plan around sunset: this winter (1 November 2026 to 28 February 2027) the park is open 08:30–17:00, and even in autumn 2026, when it stayed open until 18:00, closing came before the sun went down. This guide covers how to get there by high-speed train, how the shuttle and the four viewing platforms work, how to get back to town in the evening, where to stay, and how Zhangye fits into a Silk Road trip.

How many days, when to go and what time to be at the park

How many days. One day works if you arrive by late morning, spend the afternoon at the Rainbow Mountains and take a train onward the next morning. Two days is better: the first afternoon at the Rainbow Mountains, the second day for Binggou Danxia, Mati Temple or the Giant Buddha Temple in town. More than two days only makes sense if you want both Binggou and Mati, or a second, quieter visit to the Rainbow Mountains at opening time.

How the area is laid out. Zhangye sits in the Hexi Corridor (河西走廊, Héxī Zǒuláng), the long strip of farmland between the Qilian Mountains (祁连山, Qílián Shān) to the south and the Gobi to the north that the old Silk Road followed. The city itself is the Ganzhou district (甘州区, Gānzhōu Qū). The Rainbow Mountains lie about 40 km west of the city, in Linze (临泽, Línzé) and Sunan (肃南, Sùnán) counties, and cover about 50 square kilometres. Binggou Danxia is about 45 km from the city, inside Sunan county, and only about 13 km from the Rainbow Mountains. Mati Temple is in the other direction, about 65 km south of the city in the Qilian foothills. The Giant Buddha Temple is in the city centre. So the two Danxia parks pair well on one side of town, and Mati Temple is a separate trip.

When to go. Summer and early autumn are the easiest months: long days, warm weather and the most reliable light. July, August and the first week of October (China's National Day holiday) are also the busiest, with long queues for the park shuttle. Late September and October are a good balance of light, temperature and crowds, but nights get cold. Spring is often windy, and on dusty days the colours look flat. Winter is very cold and the days are short, but the park stays open on shorter winter hours (08:30–17:00 from November 2026 to February 2027), and a thin layer of snow on the ridges is a look some photographers come for.

The colours are real, but how strong they look depends on the light and on moisture. Harsh midday sun makes the stripes look pale. Low sun in the late afternoon, or the first hours after opening, brings out the reds and oranges. A day after rain, when the rock is still damp, the colours are noticeably deeper. If you only have one visit, aim for late afternoon.

Getting to Zhangye: trains, flights and entering China

High-speed train. This is how almost everyone arrives. Zhangye West Station (张掖西站, Zhāngyè Xī Zhàn) is on the high-speed line between Lanzhou and Xinjiang, so it has direct trains to the other Silk Road stops. Lanzhou West is about three hours away, with 14 to 15 D trains a day in each direction. Xining, the gateway to Qinghai Lake, is about two hours away, also with around 15 trains a day. Westbound, Jiayuguan South is just over an hour away. From Zhangye West to Xi'an North there are around seven direct D trains a day, and the trip takes a little over six hours.

Dunhuang is the connection to plan carefully. Only two direct D trains run each way between Zhangye West and Dunhuang: from Zhangye West at 15:16 and 16:50, and from Dunhuang at 07:30 and 08:40, each taking a little over four hours. Those times come from the timetable for October 2026, so check 12306 for your date. If both are full, you can take one of the more frequent trains to Liuyuan South and change there for Dunhuang. Liuyuan South is well outside Dunhuang, so you finish the trip by bus or taxi.

Slower conventional trains (Z and T trains) also run between Zhangye and Lanzhou, taking about 4 to 5.5 hours. Zhangye has more than one station, so check which station is printed on your ticket.

Train tickets in China are sold in the passenger's real name, and you buy them with your passport. You can book on the official 12306 English website, which accepts foreign passports. With a foreign passport you go through the staffed gate at the station, because the automatic gates don't read passports. If you would rather book in English with a foreign card and app support, Trip.com sells the same tickets. Our guide to booking China train tickets with a foreign passport compares the two step by step.

From Zhangye West to town. The station is outside the city centre. A taxi or DiDi (滴滴, China's main ride-hailing app) is the easiest way into town; see our DiDi guide if you haven't set it up. City bus Xin 1 (新1路) also runs from the station towards the city's west bus station.

By air. Zhangye has a small airport, Zhangye Ganzhou Airport (张掖甘州机场), with a limited number of domestic routes. Check the current routes on a flight search before planning around it. For most Silk Road trips the train is simpler.

Entering China. You can't fly into Zhangye from abroad, so you enter China somewhere else first, usually Beijing, Shanghai or Xi'an, and continue by train or domestic flight. Gansu province, where Zhangye is, has no port on the list of entry points for the 240-hour visa-free transit, and it is not one of the areas you are allowed to travel to under that scheme. That means you cannot reach Zhangye on the 240-hour transit rules alone. Instead, check whether your passport qualifies for China's 30-day visa-free entry, which covers tourism for citizens of 50 countries; otherwise you need a tourist visa. Our guides to 30-day visa-free entry and 240-hour visa-free transit explain who qualifies.

The Rainbow Mountains: tickets, shuttle bus, platforms and the best light

The Rainbow Mountains are a national 5A scenic area and a UNESCO Global Geopark. You don't hike freely across the hills. You ride a shuttle bus along a fixed loop and get off at viewing platforms, where boardwalks and stairs lead to the viewpoints. Here is how it works.

Tickets: two parts, one day

Every visitor needs two tickets: the entry ticket, 70 yuan since 5 January 2026, and the shuttle bus ticket, 38 yuan per person, so 108 yuan in total for an adult. The shuttle is not optional, because the platforms are spread along a 29 km bus route. Discounts exist for children, students, seniors and some other groups under national and local rules; these are usually checked against Chinese ID documents, so ask at the window whether your passport or student card qualifies.

Both tickets are valid for one entry on the day you use them. If you want to come back the next day, for example for the late light one day and the morning light the next, you have to buy a new shuttle ticket at the ticket window after the park opens. Confirm at the window whether your entry ticket still counts for the second day.

Since 5 January 2026 you can buy tickets through the park's official mini-program, its partner online travel platforms, or at the windows in the visitor centre. Since May 2026 the visitor centre also has self-service ticket machines that switch to English, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Thai, and walk foreign visitors through choosing a ticket, identity check and payment; you then scan the e-ticket code at the gate. The park doesn't say which payment methods the machines take, so have Alipay set up or carry cash. Carry your passport. The park hasn't published exactly which documents its ticketing accepts, so have the passport ready rather than a copy. Outside holiday weeks you don't need to book days ahead; in July and August, buying the day before saves time in the queue, and around National Day, check the park's announcements for any booking requirements.

Three entrances: pick one and leave by it

The park has three entrances: East, West and North, and the North entrance is the main one. You are expected to leave by the same gate you came in. This matters for two reasons. Your driver needs to know which gate to wait at, and the order of the platforms depends on your gate. For most visitors the North entrance is the right choice: it is the main gate, the bus from town stops there, and the Danxiakou hotel area is close to it.

The shuttle loop and the four platforms

The standard visit stops at four viewing platforms. Their official names are Xianyuan (七彩仙缘台, "fairy encounter"), Yunhai (七彩云海台, "sea of clouds"), Jinxiu (七彩锦绣台, "brocade") and Hongxia (七彩虹霞台, "rainbow glow"). From the North and East entrances the order is Xianyuan, Yunhai, Jinxiu, Hongxia. From the West entrance it is Yunhai, Jinxiu, Hongxia, then Xianyuan. Xianyuan and Hongxia are transfer stops, where you may change buses. Buses run every 20 minutes, and one trip round the loop takes about 40 minutes.

The platforms have names, not numbers. Older guides talk about "Platform 1" to "Platform 4" and say "Platform 4 is the best"; the park itself uses only the names above, and the order changes with your gate, so a number from a blog post may not match your route. Use the names when you ask staff or your driver.

At each stop you get off, walk the boardwalks and stairs to the viewpoints, and queue for the next bus. The bus runs in one direction only and you have to queue to board, so at busy times the wait grows. Allow about three hours for all four platforms without rushing, and four on a holiday weekend.

The park's core area has seven viewpoints in total. The other three are on a separate "deep tour" (深度游) route that goes through canyons before joining the four main platforms. That route is sold separately; ask at the visitor centre for the current price and how to join it.

The best light, and where to be when the park closes

The park doesn't name an official sunset platform. Our recommendation is to save Hongxia for last if you enter from the North or East gate, since it is the last stop on your loop and a transfer stop, so you are not stuck at the far end of the loop at closing time. In practice, any of the four works in the late afternoon, because low sun lights up the ridges everywhere in the park.

The bigger question is time. This winter (1 November 2026 to 28 February 2027) the park closes at 17:00, and in autumn 2026 the published closing time was 18:00, earlier than sunset. So arrive at least three hours before closing, ride straight to the platforms, and ask staff when the last bus back to your gate runs. The park changes its hours with the seasons: summer hours start earlier and run later, and winter hours are shorter, but in no season should you count on being inside at sunset. Check the official notice for the season of your visit; for any changes, the park's official WeChat account is the source it points visitors to.

Rules that get people in trouble

• Stay on the boardwalks. The park's protection regulations ban stepping on, climbing, scratching or marking the Danxia hills.
• Drones. The park runs its own sightseeing flights, and visitors may not fly drones while those flights are operating. In practice, ask at the gate before you take a drone out.
• Pets. Pets can't go in, but there is a free pet-minding point at the park.

For questions on the day, the park's information line is +86 936 5623666. Staff answer in Chinese, so ask your hotel to call for you if needed. The city government's Rainbow Mountains page (in Chinese) describes the platforms and the deep-tour route.

Getting to the Rainbow Mountains and back to town

Getting there is easy. Getting back to town in the evening, after the park closes, is the part to plan.

Public bus. The park's own travel guide lists a bus from Zhangye West Bus Station (张掖汽车西站, in the city, not at the train station) to the North entrance car park: departures on the hour from 09:00 to 12:00, then at 15:30 and 16:30, about one hour each way, 15 yuan. That timetable dates from 2022, so check the current times at the bus station. To reach the bus station from Zhangye West train station, take city bus Xin 1 to Tianyuan Xiaoqu (天源小区) and walk about 350 metres, or take a short taxi ride. The bus is fine for getting there. It doesn't solve the return: the last bus out leaves at 16:30 and return times aren't published, so plan on a taxi or DiDi back.

Taxi or DiDi. The drive from town to the North entrance takes roughly 40 minutes to an hour each way. DiDi works in Zhangye and you see the fare before you confirm. Getting a car out to the park is easy; finding one at the gate at closing time can take a while, because many drivers don't want to drive out empty. Ask your outbound driver to wait or come back at an agreed time, and agree that before you set off.

Car with driver for the day. If you are visiting more than one place, this is the easiest option. Hotels and guesthouses in Zhangye and at Danxiakou arrange drivers for the Rainbow Mountains plus Binggou, or Mati Temple. Agree on the price, the stops, which gate and the return time before you leave, and write them down. If you would rather book in English in advance, Klook lists Zhangye day tours and private cars that include the Rainbow Mountains in the late afternoon; check that the tour visits the main park, not only Binggou.

Stay at Danxiakou. The simplest way to avoid the evening ride back is not to go back to town at all. See "Stay in town or at Danxiakou" below.

Is Binggou Danxia worth it?

Binggou Danxia (冰沟丹霞, Bīnggōu Dānxiá) is a different park, not a part of the Rainbow Mountains. It is known for tall sandstone walls worn into shapes that look like windows, columns and palaces, rather than for coloured stripes. The stripes in most photos of "Zhangye Danxia" are at the Rainbow Mountains. Binggou is higher up, between about 1,500 and 2,550 metres, and it gets far fewer visitors.

Is it worth it? If you like rock shapes and quieter boardwalks, yes. If you came only for the colours and have one afternoon, skip it and spend the time at the Rainbow Mountains. With a car, you can see both on the same day, since they are only about 13 km apart: Binggou around midday, when harsh light matters less for shapes than for colours, then the Rainbow Mountains in the late afternoon. By public transport the combination doesn't work.

Tickets are cheaper than at the Rainbow Mountains: entry is roughly 40 yuan plus a shuttle of about 20 yuan, so confirm the current prices and opening hours at the gate. Day tours sometimes sell the two parks together, so check which one your tour visits in the late afternoon.

Mati Temple and the Giant Buddha Temple

Mati Temple (马蹄寺, Mǎtí Sì, "Horse Hoof Temple"). This is a group of Buddhist cave temples cut into sandstone cliffs in the Qilian foothills, about 65 km south of Zhangye, in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, home of the Yugur (裕固族) minority. The first caves were cut more than 1,600 years ago, under the Northern Liang kingdom; today there are more than 70 caves and niches in seven groups. The best known is the "Thirty-Three Heavens" (三十三天) cave, a stack of shrines on several levels in one cliff face. Inside, you climb narrow stairs and tunnels between levels, which some visitors find tight. The setting is part of the appeal: grassland and mountains instead of desert. Allow half a day including the drive, and go by hired car, because public transport out there is slow. It is higher and cooler than Zhangye, so bring a warm layer even in summer. Check the current ticket price and opening hours before you go.

Giant Buddha Temple (大佛寺, Dàfó Sì). This is the easiest sight to fit in, because it is in the city centre at 28 Minzhu West Street (民主西街), on city bus routes 1, 4, 5, 18 and 23. It is the largest surviving royal temple of the Western Xia (西夏), a kingdom that ruled this region about a thousand years ago. Its main hall holds Asia's largest indoor reclining Buddha, made of clay over a wooden frame. The temple also keeps a complete early printing of the Ming-dynasty Buddhist canon. It is open 07:00 to 18:30. Last entry is usually earlier than closing, so arrive by about 17:30. One to one and a half hours is enough, so it fits on the morning before an afternoon at the Rainbow Mountains, or before an evening train. Check the ticket price at the gate.

Pingshanhu Grand Canyon (平山湖大峡谷). A red sandstone canyon in the desert about 56 km from town, also a national geopark. It is worth it only if you have a third day and a car; on a two-day visit, Binggou or Mati is a better use of the time.

Stay in town or at Danxiakou?

Stay in Zhangye city if you are arriving and leaving by train, want more choice of restaurants, or plan to see the Giant Buddha Temple. Hotels in town are mostly business hotels and mid-range chains, easy to reach from Zhangye West, and the evening food streets are close by. The cost is the drive to the Rainbow Mountains, about an hour each way, and the evening taxi problem described above.

Stay at Danxiakou (丹霞口), the hotel and guesthouse area by the North entrance, if you want to stay until closing without worrying about the ride back, or want to be at the gate when it opens for the morning light. Choice is smaller, there is less to do in the evening, and you still need a car to get to Zhangye West for your next train.

Our suggestion: for a one-night stop with an afternoon at the park, Danxiakou makes the day much simpler. For two nights, one in each, or both in town with a driver for the park day, both work well. Whichever you choose, make sure the place you book accepts foreign guests; most hotels do, but some small guesthouses can't register foreign passports. Our guide to booking hotels and registration rules explains why. You can compare places in Zhangye and at Danxiakou on Booking.com; before you pay, message the property to confirm it can register foreign guests.

Dry air, wind and how fit you need to be

Zhangye is dry, sunny and often windy. The platforms have almost no shade, so bring sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat and plenty of water, plus a scarf or buff for dust. Even in summer it gets cold once the sun goes down, so carry a warm layer for the late afternoon. The boardwalks involve some stairs, but the bus does the long distances, so anyone who can manage a few flights of steps will be fine. Mati Temple's cave stairs are steeper and narrower.

One day or two: sample plans

One day (arrive in the morning, leave the next day). Arrive at Zhangye West by late morning and drop your bags. See the Giant Buddha Temple around midday, then drive to the Rainbow Mountains by mid-afternoon and stay until closing. Go back to town with your pre-arranged driver, or sleep at Danxiakou. Take a morning train onward.

Two days (recommended).

• Day 1: Arrive, check in, see the Giant Buddha Temple. Rainbow Mountains from mid-afternoon to closing.
• Day 2: Either Binggou Danxia (pair it with a second, shorter look at the Rainbow Mountains with a new shuttle ticket) or a half day at Mati Temple. Then an afternoon or evening train. If you are heading to Dunhuang, remember the direct trains leave Zhangye West in the afternoon, which fits a morning trip to Binggou.

What to eat

Zhangye food is northwestern wheat-and-meat cooking. Try cuoyu noodles (搓鱼面, cuōyú miàn), short hand-rolled noodles shaped like little fish, usually stir-fried or in soup; chao bola (炒拨拉, chǎo bōla), chopped beef or lamb and offal fried on a hot iron plate with peppers; and niurou xiaofan (牛肉小饭, niúròu xiǎofàn), small pieces of dough in beef broth. Ganzhou Market (甘州市场), a food market in the city centre, is the easiest place to try several dishes in one evening, and pointing at what other people are eating works fine.

Continuing along the Silk Road

Most visitors pass through Zhangye on the Silk Road route through Gansu: Lanzhou, Zhangye, Jiayuguan, Dunhuang. Lanzhou, Zhangye and Jiayuguan are on the same high-speed line; Dunhuang is on a branch, with only two direct trains a day from Zhangye West.

• West to Jiayuguan: just over an hour by D train, with about 13 trains a day. Jiayuguan Fort, at the western end of the Ming Great Wall, makes a good half-day stop before Dunhuang.
• West to Dunhuang: only two direct D trains a day, leaving Zhangye West in the afternoon and taking about four hours. Book these early. Our Dunhuang and Silk Road guide covers the Mogao Caves and the dunes.
• East to Lanzhou: about three hours. See the Lanzhou guide if you are starting there.
• From Xi'an: a little over six hours direct to Zhangye West, or break the trip in Lanzhou. Our Xi'an travel guide covers the start of the route, and the Silk Road route from Xi'an to Dunhuang lays out the whole trip day by day.
• From Xining and Qinghai Lake: about two hours by train. You can also drive over the Qilian Mountains from Xining, a long day on high mountain roads with grassland and snow peaks along the way; it is worth it only with a hired car and good weather. Start with our Xining and Qinghai Lake guide.

Money and internet

Mobile payment covers almost everything in Zhangye, from tickets to taxis and food stalls, and visitors can also use bank cards, cash and digital yuan. Set up Alipay with your foreign card before you arrive; check our Alipay guide for which card networks it currently accepts. Carry some cash for small guesthouses and drivers; Chinese yuan cash is legal tender and businesses may not refuse it.

Mobile data is good in town and patchy in parts of the park and on the road to Mati Temple. An eSIM is the simplest way to stay connected and to reach apps that are blocked on Chinese networks. Airalo sells China eSIMs you can install before you fly. Our internet and VPN guide explains the options.

FAQ

If something goes wrong

Call 110 for police and 120 for an ambulance; both are free and need no area code. Inside the Rainbow Mountains park, the park's rescue line is +86 936 5623999. Save these numbers before you go, and see our emergency numbers guide for what to say and who speaks English.

Last updated: November 2026