Sun and Moon Mountain

Chinese name: 日月山（Ri Yue Shan）
Location: 40km southwest of Huangnan County, Xining, Qinghai Province.
Ticket: Entrance ticket CNY25.00
Estimated tour time:1 hour
Recommended time to visit: May-Oct.
Nearby attractions: Qinghai Lake, Ta’er Monastery, Mabufang’s Residence, Dongguan Mosque, etc.

Riyue Mountain( also called Sun and Moon Mountain), is located in the Huangyuan Prefecture of east of Qinghai Province, the northeast of the Qinghai Lake and it belongs to the offshoot of the Qilian Mountain chains. known in Tibetan as Nyima Dawa La, is actually a mountain pass situated in Huangyuan County, Xining, Qinghai Province, China. The mountain pass is 3,399 m above sea level and separates the Qinghai Lake endorheic basin from the Huangshui River basin, a tributary of the Yellow River. The Daotang River  flows west from the pass into Qinghai Lake.

Riyue Mountain is an important geographic divisional line in the geography of the country. The scenery in both sides is totally different: there is the rural scenery of the highland on the east side whereas vast grassland scenery on the west. Two kinds of scenery with vast differences within a mountain is very rare in China. The average height of this mountain is about 4,000 meters. To the east of Riyue Mountain is the Huangshui Valley, to the northwest is the Qinghai Lake and to the southwest are continuous rolling mountains, vast grassland and scattering tents.The lakes and mountains here are very beautiful like a picture and like an unpolluted precious place out of the Great Wall.

From ancient times many mythology stories were spread by the people, most legends are concerned with Wencheng Princess who married the Tibetan king in Tang Dynasty. It is said that when Wencheng Princess passed here, she broke the lovely the sun and the moon mirror, the succeeding named the mountain "the sun & the moon mountain" from "Chi Ling" in order to miss and thank Wencheng Princess.

The rivers with different dimensions of Chinese continent are all flowing from west to east or from north to south like the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Pearl River of Lingnan, but the sun and the moon river is very special, it flows from east to west, what's more, it is quiet and clear like a precious mirror.