Zhagana Camp Trek: 4 Days in Gansu's Stone City

Enter through the gorge on foot, the limestone walls closing overhead, and walk to the villages on the valley floor. The afternoon is easy on purpose — the altitude is 3,000 metres and the best acclimatization is a slow walk through terraces and prayer-flag country.

First night in a family guesthouse in one of the four villages: wooden rooms, a copper-pot dinner, and the sound of the river working its way down the valley.

Walk up the herder trails to the high meadow country behind the villages, the camp crew moving by a separate path. Camp goes up on wooden platforms at ~3,100 metres, facing the great wall of the stone city's western ramparts.

The evening light moves up the limestone like a slow fire. Dinner in the mess tent, stoves going; stars when the clouds allow.

The big walking day: up to the pass at ~3,600 metres with the full rampart system in view, prayer flags working loose in the wind, and the ranges of the Tao river highlands stacked beyond. Descend a different valley to a second meadow camp or, in poor weather, drop to the villages early.

Second camp night — and by now the kitchen crew has learned exactly how much rice you actually eat at altitude.

A short morning walk back through the villages — time for the village temple, the water mills, and the school if term is on — then out through the gorge to the road head. Transfer to Lanzhou by evening train or continue to Xiahe for the Labrang monastery.