The Touming Mengke Glacier,the largest valley glacier in the Qilian Range,is 10.1 kilometers long and covers an area of 21.9 square kilometers. It can be found in Laohu Valley on the northern slope of Daxue Mountain in Subei County. Gansu Province. Its main peak is 5,481 meters above sea level. In Mongolian,Touming Mengke means high and vast.

Heading south from Yumeng, we crossed a "devil's land" of Yadan wind-eroded landscape before reaching the Changma Basin.Daxue Mountain came into view immediately.Under the clear blue sky,the feather-shaped glaciers seemed like dancing silver snakes,dazzling and fascinating, on a desert which seemed to have been devastated by fire.

At the terminus of the glacial lobe,Touming Mengke, for the first time,revealed itself fully before us. Stretches of serac forest stood in the quiet valley,like groups of sculptures made by the magic fingers of the legendary Queen of Ice and Snow. Between 20 and 30 meters high, they stood on a steep hill, forming a huge ice wall that almost blocked our view.

Touming Mengke is a large gentle slope. In terms of scale it can not compete with the Insukati and Tomur glaciers, but the well-known "July l" Glacier,Xinjiang NO.1 Glacier and Yulong Snow Mountain NO.1 Glacier are all only a tenth of the area of Touming Mengke.

On this quiet glacier I experienced a long trek that will live forever in my memory.

In 2001. when we climbed the 5,150-meter-high July 1 Glacier in the Qilian

Range, we reached the top with only one camp. But this time, as With the ascent of Muztagata Peak, the climbing team had to make camp three times before reaching the top.

There is a saying that on perilous peaks dwells beauty in her infinite variety. The

landscape on the ascent was soul-stirring:the frozen waterfall hanging like an upside-down Milky Way;the crisscross ice gullies,isolated ice mushrooms;mysterious ice caves...

Touming Mengke is an alluring, ever-changing scene. But it requires indomitable spirit and superhuman strength to climb the ice and snow and whilst doing so I had no time to take in the beauty along the way. The hardest but the most beautiful moment I recall was when the 1ead group ahead of me dwindled to the size of indistinct dots whilst the following members of the team lay out of sight behind me. Wind blew,snow flew. The space between heaven and earth seemed huge. Everything was quiet, pure and indescribably free as if in a world of illusion.

Touming Mengke is a double branched U-shaped glacier and we climbed only the eastern branch.  After reaching Camp 3 situated 5.1 80 meters above sea level, I did not follow my three teammates to the top for fear that, being totally exhausted 1 would hold them back. When l asked them later what they had seen from the top, they answered, eyes gleaming with curiosity, "Another huge glacier."

Once the Qilian Expedition Team carried out a surface blackening experiment on Touming Mengke;its purposes were to accelerate glacier melt and to utilize the glacier more effectively. But now there are deep concerns about the foreseeable melting of glaciers.Change is perhaps the way of the world. As for me,once I had envisaged the development of such tourist activities as skiing and gliding at Touming Mengke. But now,the more I know about it,the more I hope it will retain its ancient vastness and tranquility forever.