Gangca County 刚察县

Setting and landscape

Gangca has a dry high-plateau climate with long, severe winters, short cool summers and most of its rain in summer; the China Meteorological Administration figures cited by Wikipedia give a January mean of -13.5°C, a July mean of 10.9°C and about 380 millimetres of rain a year. Qinghai Lake's wetlands, of which Xiannü Bay in Gangca is an important part, were listed as internationally important in 1992.

What to see

The Shaliu River Naked Carp Home (沙柳河湟鱼家园景区), 2 kilometres from the county town, is where the Qinghai Lake naked carp (青海裸鲤), known locally as huangyu (湟鱼), swim upriver to spawn in June and July. In the shallows their dorsal fins break the surface like a fleet of sails, and the Haibei government describes the spawning stretch as 'half river water, half river fish' and calls it the only place in China to watch the carp's migration. A fish-release festival is held in Gangca in the same months.

Xiannü Bay (青海湖仙女湾景区), 16 kilometres from the county town at about 3,200 metres, is a meadow wetland where flocks of whooper swans rest in autumn and winter, and it also presents the local lake-worship tradition.

Nianqin Xiagri Mountain (年钦夏格日山, 4,385 metres) stands on the border with Haiyan (海晏) and is one of Gangca's three sacred mountains. Its Tibetan name describes an all-powerful, handsome white-faced mountain god, and legend makes it a dwelling of the Queen Mother of the West (西王母). On the summit a stone pillar more than 3 metres high rings like metal when struck, and the Kunlun Shrine (昆仑神祠) at its foot holds a statue of the Queen Mother and 13 murals.

At Tangqu village (塘渠村) in Hargai town (哈尔盖镇), 28 kilometres from the county town, a Przewalski's gazelle (普氏原羚) education base has a nine-storey lookout tower. Hargai, named China's home of the Przewalski's gazelle in 2017, is where the gazelle is most densely distributed, and it is known as the birthplace of 'Looking up at the Stars in Hargai', the poem that made the poet Xichuan (西川) famous.

Highlights

• Shaliu River Naked Carp Home 沙柳河湟鱼家园景区: Naked carp run upriver to spawn in June and July, 2 km from the county town.
• Xiannü Bay 青海湖仙女湾景区: Qinghai Lake wetland where whooper swans winter.
• Nianqin Xiagri Mountain 年钦夏格日山: Sacred 4,385 m mountain linked with the Queen Mother of the West; ringing stone pillar on the summit.
• Przewalski's gazelle base, Hargai 普氏原羚科普研学基地: Hargai, named China's home of the Przewalski's gazelle in 2017, has the gazelle's densest range; the base has a nine-storey lookout tower.