Ledu is a district city in Haidong Prefecture about 60 kilometres east of Xining, sitting in the valley of the Huangshui River on the main rail and road corridor toward Gansu. It is a quiet, largely agricultural city that sees few tourists, but it contains two cultural sites that justify the short trip from the capital.
The Qutan Monastery (Qutansi) is the more impressive of the two: a Ming dynasty Buddhist complex built between 1387 and 1427 that is sometimes called the "little Forbidden City of the northwest" for its scale and state of preservation. The monastery was established by an imperial edict and funded by the central court, which explains the quality of its construction. The walls are covered with colourful murals that have been studied by art historians as important examples of early Ming religious painting. The courtyard layout and the ceremonial axis connecting the main halls closely follow the format of imperial palace architecture in Beijing.
The Liuwan Ancient Painted Pottery Museum, opened in 2002, is the largest collection of painted Neolithic pottery in China. The ceramics come from a major burial site excavated nearby in the 1970s and include thousands of vessels with geometric and figurative designs — animal motifs, human figures, and the dance-basin images that have become iconic in discussions of Chinese prehistoric art. The museum covers over 5,000 square metres and holds genuine scholarly interest beyond its status as a tourist attraction.
Ledu is easily reached from Xining by local bus or by commuter train in under an hour. It can be done as a comfortable half-day trip, perhaps combined with a stop at one of the other towns in the Huangshui valley.