Gansu Longnan Travel Guide

Longnan is a prefecture city in the southern tip of Gansu Province, northwest of China. 400km away from Gansu’s provincial capital Lanzhou, Longnan is strategically located at the junction of 3 provinces: Gansu, Sichuan and Shaanxi. It sits at the metrological line that divides north and south China. 

As early as 7000 years ago, people began to settle in place of nowadays Longnan. Many consider Longnan one of the oldest settlement in China and home to Qiang people, the ancestor of many Chinese ethnic groups. It is now home to about 1 million people. The city consists of 1 administrative district and 8 counties. Longnan is considered a remote corner of a land locked province. Tourists might skip this region for its remoteness, but Longnan has much to offer to travelers with its abundant tourism resources.

● What to do and where to go in Longnan

Longnan city is a place where you could experience culture and climate that of a mixture of  north and south of China. Longnan holds many tourist and cultural festivals annually, such as the peach blossom festival which often takes place in April, and tea picking festival around the Qingming Festival(often in early April), as well as tourist festivals in Qianba Grassland and Wanxiang Cave.

There is also an old branch of Tibetans, the Baima Tibetans, living in Tielou Tibetan village some three kilometers (1.9 miles) west of Wenxian County. The Baima Tibetans are renowned for their singing and dancing. They lead simple lives, inhabiting traditional houses, wearing beautiful costumes and following their own folkways. They shepherd, keep bees, grow hemp and weave cloth for a living. In July, there is a tourist festival held there to show the unique way of life of Baima Tibetans.

Longnan is rich in natural parks and dense forests. It is home to many rare flora and fauna. Different to conventional thinking that Panda is unique to Sichuan Province, Longnan is also home to Giant Pandas. In fact, Giant Panda distributions are found in 3 provinces in China: Sichuan, Shannxi and Gansu. The Panda population in Gansu is concentrated in Baishuijiang Natioanl Nature Reserve.

Baishuijiang National Nature Reserve is located in Wenxian County, south of Gansu Province. The whole preservation zone is in the shape of a ribbon, with 110 kilometers long from the east to the west and 20 kilometers wide from the south to the north. Covering an area of 213,750 hectares, Baishuijiang National Nature Reserve features verdant and lush forest and a great variety of plants and animals. It was established in 1978 and mainly protects giant pandas, other rare wildlife and their ecosystem.

Heaven Lake in Wenxian (one of 8 suburb towns of Longnan) is one of the three great pools in China named for their other worldly beauty. This lake is like an emerald inlaid among mountains.

Lying in the Tianwei Mountains (tian wei shan) at an elevation of about 2, 400 meters and seated about 100 kilometers north of the county, it is one of the four famous heavenly lakes in China. Its depth is 87 meters which is shaped like a bottle gourd and has a circumference of about ten kilometers. It has nine large crooks and 108 small ones. The lake itself is a byproduct of an earthquake long time ago. Rivers were blocked during the quake and formed this massive lake after long time of accumulation. This beautiful alpine lake is surrounded by fantastically shaped peaks and dense forests where live many rare animals such as sub-nosed monkeys, leopards, antelope, musk deer and golden pheasants. 

● What to eat in Longnan

Local specialties in Longnan are Mianpi, Mutton, olives, tea, gingko tea, wild pepper, and Langya honey. As for daily meal, noodles are not to be missed. As a city in northern province (although Longnan is more south meteorologically), noodle is a common sight on dinning table. Jiangluo doufu mian (tofu noodle from Jiangluo) is a popular local delicacy. It is a kind of pulled noodle, it is often served with diced tofu as dressing.

● Access

Despite being a small city sitting in a remote corner of a land locked province, government invested hugely on its transportation. Longnan Chengxian airport was put into service in 2018. Several airliners operate routes that connect Longnan with 8 major cities in China. Several national highways (G212, G247, G316, G345 and G567) pass Longnan city. Being a mountainous region, driving in Longnan involves a lot of mountain road ride and deep valley ride. It is worth mentioning that the world famous Jiuzhaigou National Park in Sichuan is only 120km away from Wenxian county, Longnan city. It is workable to add Jiuzhaigou to your travel list while visiting Longnan region.

● Longnan Climate

In meteorological terms, Longnan region is divided into 3 climate zones: north subtopic zone, warm temperature zone and middle temperature zone. In general, it enjoys a relatively mild weather system as opposed to the harsh and dry desert weather that often dominates most regions in Gansu province. Summer and autumn are the best seasons to visit Longnan.