Silk Road Photo Gallery - Lanzhou

You might have heard of this place from the beef noodles bearing its name in overseas Chinatowns. Lanzhou is an industrial city on the Silk Road route and high-speed train line between Xian and Xinjiang.

Lanzhou has that typical big Chinese city feel. With a history dating back to ancient Chinese dynasties, I actually arrived not to explore the city sights, but to do a day trip to a natural attraction in the outskirts. Nevertheless, I tried to hit a few highlights.

Let's start with a grand view of the city from the mountains just to the south. Lanshan Park has several viewpoints and I went for the highest one - the 3rd, although the 2nd one a little downhill had a commanding view already.

Zhongshan Bridge was built at the turn of the 20th century by the Qing imperial government using maerials imported from Germany. This was the first proper bridge across the Yellow River, with floating bridges made of ships tied together used previously to make the crossing. In 1942, the bridge was renamed in memory of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary hero that founded modern China.

On the other side of the river is Baitashan Park, which has a viewpoint on top of the hill for another panoramic view of the city. I chose the higher Lanshan Park spot instead so didn't climb this one.

Today, there are a couple of bridges across the Yellow River in the city centre, although the metro network hasn't yet.

While Didi rides around the city are cheap, there is a lot of traffic so I also made good use of the metro network, which primarily runs east to west along the main tourist sites, connecting to the western train station where high-speed trains to Xian stop.

In recent years, many Chinese cities have re-created historic streetscapes into a shopping mall. Lanzhou's "old street" has a weird English name, All Park. It is a beautifully-landscaped area with canals, boats, and temple-looking buildings although they are home to lots of retail and restaurants.