Private day tour in Zhangye with Mati Si

Mati Si (Horse’s Hoof Temple) is a group of Buddha grottoes located in the Linsong Mountain in the Gansu Province. Thousands of grottoes are grouped together in seven clusters, and each group of grottoes is no more than a mile or so from another. Human-made tunnels link the various grottoes.The history of Mati Si is so ancient that it is shrouded in mystery and legends. Legend has it that Long Ma (a winged horse with dragon scales in Chinese mythology) descended from the heavens and left a hoof print on the place where the temple was established.

Located in the middle of Hexi Corridor, Zhangye City dominates one area and five counties: Ganzhou Area, Linze, Gaotai, Shandan, Minle and Su’nan counties. It’s an excellent tourism city of China and national historical and cultural city now. Zhangye was called as Ganzhou in ancient time. Zhangye is long in history, splendid in culture, beautiful in landscape and honest in social mood. There is the wetland park nearest to city—Zhangye National Wetland Park; the biggest indoor wood stuffed and clay sculptured lying Buddha of the world, rare treasure – Zhangye Golden Sutra, treasure of cave art – grotto group in Mati Temple of Su’nan, Jinta Temple and Manjushree Temple, the most beautiful colorful Danxia of China, the best preserved and ancient capital of Northern Liang of China – ancient ruins of Camel City, and the largest royal stud farm of the world – Shandan Horse Farm.

The Zhangye National Geopark is located in Sunan and Linze counties within the prefecture-level city of Zhangye, in Gansu, China. It covers an area of 322 square kilometres (124 sq mi). The site became a quasi-national geopark on April 23, 2012. Known for its colorful rock formations, it has been voted by Chinese media outlets as one of the most beautiful landforms in China. Zhangye Danxia is known for the unusual colours of the rocks, which are smooth, sharp and several hundred meters tall. They are the result of deposits of sandstone and other minerals that occurred over 24 million years. The result (similar to a layer cake), was tilted by the action of the same tectonic plates responsible for creating parts of the Himalayan mountains. Wind, rain, and time then sculpted extraordinary shapes, including towers, pillars, and ravines, with varying colours, patterns, and sizes.