Zhangye and China's Rainbow Mountains

We arrived in Zhangye in the evening. We arranged a driver to take us with some other tourists to both the Rainbow Mountains and to Mati Temple. 

We left pretty early in the morning and made it to Mati Si (Horse footprint temple) around when it opened. It's a Buddhist temple carved into the side of a cliff. We went to go up to it and see it. 

Just inside there was a huge cave with a giant Buddha statue and you could walk around the sculpture. There was a really peaceful recording of some chanting playing inside the cave. It felt surprisingly spiritual for a tourist site. 

We continued exploring and found out that there are several floors. Each has small corridors and small shrines in every nook. 

On the very top floor is the most impressive shrine.

After we explored the temple, we climbed the mountain just next to it. 

It actually ended up being a pretty big mountain - stairs all the way up!

But the views at the top were totally worth it. Unsurprisingly, we were the only people who went on the little hike. 

There were also two more sites, which I didn't think were as interesting or impressive.

The last site was small, but had really intricate decorations. I think it also was a site, which was mentioned in the famous work Journey to the West.

We went back to Zhangye and had a few hours between our mini day trips. We ended up eating lunch and watching a Chinese movie at a cafe, which may or may not operate as a brothel. Our main clue was that there were pictures of naked women hanging in both the ladies' and men's restrooms. 

After our strange break, we were driven to the Rainbow Mountains. We got into the park and then the buses in the park took us to the first viewing platform. We were immediately blown away. I have never seen anything like it. It was unbelievable. The only way my brain would process what I was seeing was by thinking that someone had painted the mountains. 

We went to the second viewing platform and got a panoramic view of the Rainbow Mountains.

While we were standing there, we were watching a storm roll in. When it arrived the winds were really strong and people mostly cleared out. 

When the storm passed, we got the most incredible view - a full rainbow appeared over the Rainbow Mountains! 

We were shocked at how lucky we were. We hadn't gotten any rain or clouds the whole trip, and now the only time we did, it actually made the weather even better. 

We went to the final viewing platform and got probably the most stunning view! The lines are incredible and they lined up over several ridges.

As we walked up the mountain to get a better view, on the other side was one of the best (and least polluted) sunsets I ever saw in China. 

Right before the sun set, the staff started clearing people out, because the park was closing. Just before we got on the bus, I did get one really great picture of the golden sunset!

This was such a crazy and beautiful day! This is one of the best days we had on this trip. 

That night, we gathered our things at the hostel, had a quick dinner of instant noodles, then headed to the train station for a late-night (and eventually delayed) overnight train to Dunhuang.