Kunlun Pass Roadside Viewpoint 昆仑山口正规公路观景点

About Kunlun Pass Roadside Viewpoint

The Qinghai News Network report carried on the China Daily website describes the pass as standing at 4,768 m, reached after 160 km and four hours of driving south from Golmud, and as a place the Qinghai-Tibet highway and railway must both cross, a choke point where many travellers stop. From it the eastern and western Kunlun lie in view, the Yuxu peak (玉虚峰) stands alone above the snow to the east, and between the two ranges the Kunlun river runs, dividing the railway from the highway. The China Tibet magazine feature gives the pass as 4,767 m and describes the Kunlun range as about 2,500 km long with an average altitude of about 5,000 m, long called the ancestor of ten thousand mountains, with the pass more than 160 km from Golmud treated as the gateway into the Kunlun.

The magazine feature describes what has accumulated at the pass: on the left of the road a stele forest of more than twenty stone slabs carved with praise of the Kunlun and accounts of climbing it; south of the forest two red-brick incense-burning towers built by local Tibetans for worship, with a white boulder the size of a desk beside them carved with the characters 昆仑神山, which many passing drivers touch for good fortune; and on the slope behind, a map of China about 100 m long and 50-60 m wide laid out in white stones, with polished granite posts at each provincial capital's position that visitors seek out to pile a stone on their home province's marker. On the right of the road stands the 'Kunlun Pass' monument built by Golmud city in October 1995, with the date and the altitude carved on it and a stone qilin and stone eagle at its sides; the 14 November 2001 magnitude-8.1 Kunlun earthquake destroyed its main stele, leaving only the two characters for 'pass'. The China Daily report adds that a 6.86 m red sandstone monument stands on the pass's south side, its base carrying a figure of the conservationist Sonam Dargye holding a rifle and cradling a Tibetan antelope, unveiled on 5 September 2013. Neither page describes a designated viewpoint area at the pass; the catalogue's label 正规公路观景点 is an editorial description of a road crossing, not a designation either page gives.

What to look for

• The Yuxu peak (玉虚峰), which the China Daily report describes standing alone above the snow to the east of the pass
• The 'Kunlun Pass' monument built by Golmud city in October 1995, whose main stele the 14 November 2001 magnitude-8.1 earthquake destroyed, leaving only the two characters for 'pass'
• The stele forest of more than twenty carved slabs on the left of the road, described in the China Tibet magazine feature
• The map of China laid out in white stones on the slope behind the stele forest, with granite posts at each provincial capital position
• The 6.86 m red sandstone monument on the south side of the pass, unveiled on 5 September 2013, whose base carries a figure of the conservationist Sonam Dargye with a rifle and a Tibetan antelope

Location & getting there

Getting to Kunlun Pass Roadside Viewpoint

Check weather, trail access and the last return service. A mountain or forest area is not one entrance, and a map’s central pin may be far from the trailhead.

• Search for 昆仑山口正规公路观景点 with 海西蒙古族藏族自治州 and 格尔木市.