Cypress Mountain

Cypress Mountain

Guide Standing on the street in Delingha City and looking north, you’ll see undulating mountains and overlapping ridges, like a crescent moon embracing this new city in the vast desert. The rugged mountain terrain is lined with steep cliffs, and ancient cypresses densely cover the hills, adorning the exposed ridges and valleys of the plateau with emerald ridges and dark peaks, resembling a coiled green dragon lying across the land, displaying a vast, rugged, and majestic green. This bold and profound expanse of verdant mountains is one of the scenic highlights of Delingha — Cypress Mountain. Introduction: Cypress Mountain lies to the west of the Bayin River and to the east of National Highway 315. It serves as a natural barrier for Delingha City, standing like a mighty guardian protecting this pearl of the plateau. With its elegant environment and captivating scenery, Cypress Mountain is an excellent tourist destination. From afar, the mountain is covered with proud cypress trees, where “the grass looks lush up close but seems to vanish at a distance.” Once you ascend the mountain, you’ll find ridges and valleys blanketed in lush green grass, with excellent natural pastures spread across the hills and slopes, presenting a magnificent view of “spring grass stretching for miles.”

“With bark like frost and rain-slick trunks forty spans around, / Their dark-green height strikes through the sky two thousand feet or more” (Du Fu, Tang Dynasty, “Ode to Ancient Cypresses”). The tall, straight cypresses, with their umbrella-like canopies, are the most spectacular sight on Cypress Mountain. Also known as Qinghai rock cypress, this tree is resilient, cold-resistant, and drought-tolerant, thriving whether among gravel piles or on sheer cliff faces. Thus, even in the arid mountains and valleys of the Qaidam Basin, it remains lush and vibrant. Among the cypress groves, patches of red willows and clusters of mountain flowers thrive, while butterflies flutter playfully up and down, making this a blessed land for the people of Delingha.

The Cypress Mountain Waterfall is another breathtaking highlight, widely renowned. Sheer cliffs, as if carved by a knife, channel crystal-clear spring water from high above, forming a large pool of shimmering, glistening water. The blue water swirls and ripples, creating a delightful interplay of sunlight, mountain hues, and green water. Behind the waterfall lies a huge recessed cave; sitting inside it, you can watch the silver curtain of the waterfall cascade down, making it feel just like entering a “water curtain cave.”

Among the dense cypress woods, you’ll also find Qinghai spruce, known as a “national treasure.” This ancient species from the Cretaceous period grows tall and lush, with some trees aged four to five hundred years old. Like the metasequoia and ginkgo, it is a precious “living fossil” plant. The highest peak of Cypress Mountain exceeds 4,000 meters in elevation, with steep and majestic terrain. Those who dare to climb to the summit can overlook the city of Delingha below, taking in all its splendid scenery.

Qinghai Delingha