[2024 Madoi Attraction] Travel Guide for Niutou Monument (Updated Nov)
Monuments
Address:
Maduo County, Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province
Opening times:
Opening hours TBDTemporarily Closed
Recommended sightseeing time:
0.5-2 hours
53-Day Self-Drive Tour of the Qinghai-Tibet-Xinjiang-Gansu Grand Loop.
From September to October 2024, I completed a self-drive tour of the Qinghai-Tibet-Xinjiang-Gansu Grand Loop. The journey took 53 days and covered 18,100 km. It included the Sanjiangyuan area, Bingchacha, Medog, the southern border area of Shannan, Qiangtang G216 Geze-Minfeng, Altay, the northwest border area, and the Hexi Corridor. I experienced sunny, cloudy, rainy, foggy, and snowy weather, dirt roads, stone roads, washboard roads, cliffside roads, canyon roads, snow-capped mountains, glaciers, deserts, lakes, mountain passes, the Ancient Tea Horse Road, Silk Road cultural relics, northwest border posts, and border guard posts. I never stopped moving forward. I will continue to prepare to visit more places and experience more of the dialogue between nature, culture, and history!
Dominic Dickinson
Monument of the Yellow River Source (Maqin County)
The Niutou Monument is about 90 kilometers away from Maqin County, with the last forty kilometers being unpaved roads. The total driving time is roughly two and a half hours. Although bumpy, it's all worth it when you stand on the summit of Mount Cuori Gaze, leaning against the Niutou Monument and overlooking Eling Lake
The dirt road up the mountain is quite winding, with nine turns and eighteen bends, as specifically shown in Figure 7 navigation image. Fortunately, the slope of the mountain is gentle, so it's not too difficult if you're careful. Standing next to this rough, resolute, and majestic monument, you can feel the thrill and happiness of touching the source of our mother river. Overlooking the outrageously beautiful Eling Lake, the weather after the rain clears up, under the contrast of the blue sky and white clouds, the lake reflects a dazzling array of colors due to different depths and other reasons, under the sunlight, making it endlessly fascinating and longing
To see Zhaling Lake, you need to cross over three or four more hills on the other side, but you can only see a corner of it. How much further you need to go to see the whole picture, I do not know
During the trip, I also saw a lama walking on the mountaintop, exuding a sense of solemnity, devotion, and vastness; not far away on the hillside, a Tibetan woman sat casually on the ground, letting the breeze mixed with raindrops blow freely, quite comfortable
The entire area of the two lakes and one monument is part of the Yellow River Park of the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve. Due to ecological protection considerations, it is not open to the public and lacks any tourist facilities, preserving its pristine state. We were able to enter because of work reasons. The scenery is indeed stunningly beautiful, no wonder the uninhabited areas are so attractive, after all, the more remote and poorer the place, the more beautiful the scenery However, the inconvenience of transportation, serious altitude sickness, and lack of supporting facilities are also quite troublesome. It's better to leave this pure land in peace.