Touming Mengke Glacier Viewing Route 透明梦柯冰川开放观景线路

About Touming Mengke Glacier Viewing Route

The 2017 closure is recorded by a Xinhua dispatch dated 5 December 2017 and credited to Guo Gang and Chen Bin, carried by the CCTV news channel. It reports that a large sign reading that unapproved visits and tourism activities are not permitted in a nature reserve was put up at the Laohugou checkpoint of the Gansu Yanchiwan national nature reserve, and it reads that sign as ending glacier sightseeing tourism at what it calls Gansu's largest valley glacier. The glacier it describes is 透明梦柯冰川 at 老虎沟 in 肃北蒙古族自治县, 酒泉市, in the western Qilian mountains; the dispatch says the name is a Mongolian transliteration meaning a tall and broad snow mountain, and that the area is regarded as one of China's six most beautiful glaciers. Citing positioning and monitoring data from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it says the Daxueshan area around 老虎沟 holds 159 km² of glacier, of which this one is numbered 12号, 10.1 km long and 20.4 km² in area. Warming and visitors climbing, it says, have caused serious melting: the terminus retreated more than 400 m in the roughly 60 years to 2017 compared with the late 1950s, with a volume loss of 150 million m³, and the retreat rate has been accelerating. From May 2017, the dispatch says, the glacier, lying inside the Yanchiwan national nature reserve, was closed to climbers, and the reserve's management bureau then shut the glacier experience and sightseeing route completely; the visitor reception centre, footpaths, public toilets and rubbish bins built there have all been removed, road checkpoints and a check station have been set up to turn visitors back, and the glacier is fully closed to protect it. The dispatch also says the glacier is an important groundwater source for the western Hexi Corridor and feeds Dunhuang, Subei, Guazhou and Yumen.

The open route is described in a travel feature in the Lanzhou Morning Post, dated 8 July 2020, credited to reporter Huang Peng and republished by the state-run China Gansu Network. It draws the distinction between the two glaciers directly, saying that the one closed to visitors is the 透明梦柯12号冰川 at 老虎沟 in Subei county while the 透明梦柯29号冰川 at 大扎仔沟 was still normally open and was then the only glacier in the province open to visitors. It places the 29号 glacier in 大扎仔沟 south-east of 马场村 in 党城湾镇, 肃北蒙古族自治县, 酒泉市, 61 km from the 肃盐 highway and less than 200 km from Dunhuang. It gives the glacier as nearly 6.3 km long with a total area of 7.1 km², an average elevation of 4,300 m and a summit at 5,568 m, with an average summer temperature of 3.1 °C, and repeats the Mongolian meaning of the name. On access it says the road from Dunhuang or Subei is asphalt throughout, that the scenic area entrance is at 3,400 m, that a four-wheel-drive vehicle takes about half an hour to reach the main viewing area at 4,600 m, and that nearly 2 km of gravel viewing path has been built there. It gives ticket prices of 210 yuan with a 50 yuan shuttle bus and about two hours for the main area, and it describes the glacier surface as changing and bizarre, with jagged peaks, interlacing ice valleys, ice caves, ice walls, ice mushrooms, cirques, ice falls and crevasses. Its safety notice excludes people with heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma or colds and those who have been drinking, bans shouting because of avalanche risk and disturbance to wildlife, bans walking onto the ice and any contact with marmots, and tells visitors to stay in the designated area and not to enter undeveloped ground alone. It lists grassland, wetland, Gobi, danxia, snow mountains, glacier, river and gorge in the surrounding landscape and blue sheep, argali, wild yak, Tibetan gazelle and snowcock among the wildlife.

A Xinhua photo feature carried by the China Network's government channel, dated 5 August 2020 and credited to photographers Guo Gang and Ma Xiping, supplies independent confirmation of where the 29号 glacier sits: its captions place 透明梦柯29号冰川 in 党城湾镇, 肃北蒙古族自治县, 酒泉市, Gansu. The page carries no text report beyond the captions, so it adds location and nothing else.

On designation, the Gansu provincial A-level tourist attraction register as of 31 December 2025, republished on the Jiuquan culture and tourism bureau's site and credited to the Gansu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, lists 556 attractions in the province, of which 8 are 5A, 161 are 4A, 332 are 3A, 54 are 2A and 1 is 1A. Its two Subei county entries are 雪域紫亭文化生态景区 at 党城湾镇柯鲁克东路 1号, rated 4A, and 肃北县党河峡谷民族文化风情园景区 at 党城湾镇马鬃路 3号, rated 3A. A search of the whole cached page for the strings 冰川, 梦柯 and 透明 returns no hit, so the glacier viewing route carries no A-level rating in that register; that is a statement about the rating list only and says nothing about whether the route is open. The register is a rating list rather than an operating register, and its count of 556 is a count, not a ranking.

The operational detail in this record comes from July 2020 and is not confirmed by any later source found in this round: the ticket and shuttle prices, the two-hour visiting time, the four-wheel-drive transfer and the walking route are reported as that article's 2020 figures. No source found in this round states the current opening status of the 29号 route, gives its opening season or hours, names its operator or gives a booking channel, and none reopens or reconfirms the 12号 closure after December 2017, so both the closure and the open route are stated as of their respective reports. The catalogue's caution that mountain roads, cableways and footpaths change with the weather and that only permitted routes should be walked therefore stands unchanged.

What to look for

• The main viewing area of the 29号 glacier at about 4,600 m, reached by a four-wheel-drive transfer from an entrance at 3,400 m, with nearly 2 km of gravel viewing path
• The glacier surface the 2020 article describes, among the features it lists: jagged peaks, interlacing ice valleys, ice caves, ice walls, ice mushrooms, cirques, ice falls and crevasses
• The surrounding landscape the same article lists, among them: grassland, wetland, Gobi, danxia, snow mountains, glacier, river and gorge, with blue sheep, argali, wild yak, Tibetan gazelle and snowcock among the wildlife
• The 老虎沟 site of the closed 12号 glacier route, where the 2017 dispatch records a checkpoint sign, removed visitor facilities and a check station turning visitors back
• The Daxueshan glacier area around 老虎沟, which the 2017 dispatch says holds 159 km² of glacier

Location & getting there

Getting to Touming Mengke Glacier Viewing Route

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 透明梦柯冰川开放观景线路 with 酒泉市 and 肃北蒙古族自治县.