Golmud is the Qaidam basin's front door: a high desert hub from which the Silk Road Express's Qinghai itineraries reach landscapes no day trip from Xining can touch. The train boards at Xining in the late afternoon of touring day one, runs overnight down the basin's eastern shore, and puts guests on the ground at Golmud the next morning for the salt-flat and yardang country. In the published 2026 shape of the five-day Splendour journey, this crossing was the spine of the middle days; the operator's 2027 page for that journey routes via Chaka instead, so the Golmud crossing now appears mainly in the longer Qinghai-Gansu shapes sold through licensed channels. We flag source level at every stage below.
Published by HHtravel and licensed channels for 2026 departures; the operator has not posted its own day plan for this segment, so treat it as the shape of the journey rather than a guaranteed schedule.
| Stage | What is published |
|---|---|
| Boarding, Xining | Morning at Kumbum Monastery with a dedicated guide (or the other Xining choice lines), welcome elements aboard, depart mid-to-late afternoon, dinner as the basin opens out |
| The night run | Roughly eight hundred kilometres down the Qaidam's rim; private cabins, all with en-suite bathrooms; breakfast served as the light hardens over the desert |
| Golmud day: the yardang and lake loop | By private vehicle: the photogenic U-shaped highway, Dongtai Jinnier Lake's milky turquoise shallows, and the Wusute water yardangs, a field of wind-carved towers standing in open water; some departures add a desert luxury camp evening with a bonfire instead of returning to the train |
| Chaerhan salt flat | The world-scale Qarhan salt flat by VIP vehicle: salt bridges running straight to the horizon, sculpted salt formations, the strange white light of the pan; re-board by afternoon and ride on toward Dunhuang |
Channels selling the train have also published a twelve-day Qinghai-Gansu circuit that uses the same crossing and strings the whole corridor together: Xining and Qinghai Lake, Kumbum, the overnight run to Golmud, the yardang-and-lake day, Chaerhan and on to Dunhuang for the Mogao Caves, then Jiayuguan's fortress, Zhangye's rainbow danxia, Wuwei and Lanzhou. It is a compelling shape for travellers who want the full corridor in one booking; it is not currently on the operator's own price list, so we quote it as indicative and confirm scope with the operator in writing before taking a booking.
Formation and cabin figures are checked against the published references below. Last reviewed .
