Qiankun Bay 乾坤湾

About Qiankun Bay

The bend itself. The Economic Daily's China Economic Net places Qiankun Bay in Qiankunwan town in the south-east of Yanchuan County, Yan'an, Shaanxi, facing Shanxi's Yonghe County across the water, and records that the five S-shaped bends the Yellow River makes inside Yanchuan run north to south as Xuanwo Bay, Yanshui Bay, Fusi Bay, Qiankun Bay and Qingshui Bay, with Qiankun Bay the sharpest of them. It gives the turn at Qiankun Bay as 320 degrees and reports that this is why the bay is called the finest bend on the Yellow River, and that it was rated by China National Geographic as one of China's ten most beautiful gorges.

The landform. The same report defines a meander as the snake-like landform a river cuts and says the meanders here are the most numerous and the finest. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's data service entry describes the site as the core area of the Yellow River Meander National Geopark, says the river here drops its violent manner and traces five S-shaped bends, and gives Qiankun Bay a curvature of 320 degrees. It adds that Qiankun Bay and Qingshui Bay among others together make up a rare meander landform group, an instance of what it calls the rejuvenation phenomenon in river evolution, which it says matters for the study of the Yellow River and the Loess Plateau.

The designation. A Shaanxi Daily report carried by People's Daily Online's Shaanxi channel records that on 6 February 2024 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice determining 21 scenic areas as national AAAAA-grade tourist areas, the Yan'an Yanchuan Yellow River Qiankun Bay scenic area among them, and that the area has a core area of 27.4 square kilometres. It describes the area as combining natural scenery, red culture, history and humanities, folk culture and leisure as five product systems, and says work to create the AAAAA-grade area began in August 2017, with the site upgraded against the national standard.

What stands on the ground. The ministry's entry lists Jusheguandao and Nüwa Peak among the natural sights and the Qiankun Bay museum and the Red Army Eastern Expedition memorial hall among the human ones, and says the local tradition is that Fuxi, the legendary first ancestor of Chinese civilisation, was inspired here to devise the eight trigrams. The China Economic Net report is more particular: an island in the channel to the left of the bay, shaped like a giant's footprint, is known locally as Shoe Island; and Qiankun Pavilion, given as the best place to view the bay, carries two lines on its pillars – 'Heaven and earth made Qiankun Bay; the emperor Xi deduced the diagram of the supreme ultimate' – behind which the local tradition is that Fuxi looked up at the sky at the bay and worked out the theory of the taiji and the eight trigrams. The report lists Huifeng stockade, the Eastern Expedition memorial hall, Qingshui Bay, a Yellow River plank road and old kilns among the sights around the bay.

What to look for

• The 320-degree turn at Qiankun Bay, which the China Economic Net report says is why the bay is called the finest bend on the Yellow River.
• Qiankun Pavilion, given in that report as the best place from which to view the bay, with its two inscribed pillar lines.
• Shoe Island, the island in the channel to the left of the bay that the report says is shaped like a giant's footprint.
• Jusheguandao and Nüwa Peak, the natural sights named on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's entry.
• The Qiankun Bay museum and the Red Army Eastern Expedition memorial hall, the human sights named on the same entry.
• The other bends of the same group that the report names: Xuanwo Bay, Yanshui Bay, Fusi Bay and Qingshui Bay.
• Huifeng stockade, the Yellow River plank road and the old kilns listed among the sights around the bay.

Location & getting there

Getting to Qiankun Bay

Confirm the visitor entrance and which boat or walking routes operate on your date. Rainfall, water levels and weather can change access.

• Search for 乾坤湾 with 延安市 and 延川县.