The Heihe passes Zhangye’s urban district, where wetland ground meets the oasis city. Ganzhou’s public profile lists the Heihe wetlands alongside the Giant Buddha Temple and the Heishuiguo archaeological site, placing river ecology within the city’s everyday geography. The river supports irrigation and wet ground in a region where water determines where vegetation can take hold. This is a different landscape from the exposed rock bands of the Linze–Sunan hills: here, the defining features are water, reeds and lowland habitat.
From the journal
Wetlands along the Heihe
Zhangye’s Heihe river corridor links urban wetlands in Ganzhou with a national wetland park in Gaotai. Reeds, open water and managed ecological flows shape this green edge of the oasis.
In the same city · Zhangye ↗Water beside the city
Two named wetland parks
Municipal materials identify two national urban wetland parks in Zhangye: the city-north park, named in 2009, and the Gaotai Heihe Wetland Park, named in 2012. They lie in different counties along the same river system. A city management measure assigns protection within each area to the relevant county or district, with municipal guidance for planning. The paired parks make the river corridor visible across administrative boundaries, linking the urban edge in Ganzhou with the wider wetland landscape in Gaotai.
Care for a living river
A 2025 notice from the Zhangye Heihe Wetland National Nature Reserve administration calls the wetland park an important part of the city’s protected-area system and describes inspection, ecological water replenishment, and monitoring of water quality and wildlife. Those tasks show what protection means on the ground: maintaining flows and watching how habitats respond. The wetland is both public green space and ecological infrastructure. Its story follows the river through the oasis, where water supports city life, agriculture and habitat in the same landscape.
