Qunke New District Yellow River Waterfront 群科新区黄河沿岸

About Qunke New District Yellow River Waterfront

The Qinghai provincial government portal's account of Hualong records that local Tibetans named this place 群科, meaning "the place where the Yellow River turns back", and describes Qunke New District as the new town rising there, with towers, modern buildings, wide level main streets and trees — paulownia, ash and ginkgo among them — planted along them. It records the aim of building the district into a western pastoral town, a plateau leisure water city and a green pearl of the Yellow River valley. Hualong lies in the south of Haidong on the north bank of the Yellow River, its terrain described by the Qinghai Daily as eight parts mountain, one part water and one part flatland, and the river runs 168 km through the county.

The Qinghai Daily reports that the county is one of the first places in the province to feel spring, and that apricot planting has produced a blossom landscape centred on Qunke New District with the surrounding villages as its extension and farm courtyards as its detail. Near the county seat it describes a 33.3-hectare apricot grove of more than 5,000 trees, one of the apricot green spaces closest to the county, and visitors walking a landscape boardwalk. At Andaqiha village in Qunke town, on the river bank, whooper swans come to winter; the report records that local people call the water the swans choose "Swan Lake", and gives the county's count as more than a hundred birds, up from a dozen or so. Whooper swans are second-class nationally protected animals. The county's forestry and grassland bureau moved 2,300 reeds to the riverbank in 2022, and under its plan for planting reeds along the Qunke New District section of the Yellow River shore, 1.33 hectares of reeds were to be planted on the riverbank at Andaqiha village between March and May 2024. Besides whooper swans, the bureau's monitoring records grey herons, ruddy shelducks, red-crested pochards, cormorants and goldeneyes among the birds on the riverbank, and once a flamingo.

What to look for

• The stretch of the Yellow River at Andaqiha village in Qunke town where whooper swans winter — the water the Qinghai Daily says local people call "Swan Lake"
• The reed beds the county's forestry and grassland bureau planned along the riverbank at Andaqiha village, 1.33 hectares to be planted between March and May 2024, after the 2,300 reeds it moved to the riverbank in 2022
• The apricot grove near the county seat — 33.3 hectares with more than 5,000 trees, described as one of the apricot green spaces closest to the county
• The landscape boardwalk (景观栈道) the newspaper describes visitors walking
• The trees the provincial portal lists along the new district's main streets — paulownia, ash and ginkgo among them

Location & getting there

Getting to Qunke New District Yellow River Waterfront

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

• Search for 群科新区黄河沿岸 with 海东市 and 化隆回族自治县.