Lanzhou
Lanzhou is a long thin city squeezed between hills along the Yellow River, and the place the Silk Road routes west begin. Come for a night on the way to Dunhuang or Xining, eat the noodles, walk the river, and see the museum.
- Region
- Gansu, Northwest
- Best months
- May–Oct
- Airports
- LHW
- Suggested stay
- 1–2 days
Overview
Nobody calls Lanzhou beautiful, but it has a river and a bowl of noodles that both matter. The Yellow River runs brown and fast through the middle of town, crossed by the 1909 iron bridge and ridden by sheepskin rafts, and the beef noodle shops open at six and are the best in China.
The Gansu Provincial Museum holds the galloping bronze horse from Wuwei and a Silk Road collection that sets up everything you will see further west. The night market on Zhengning Road is where the city eats after dark.
Lanzhou is dry, high and dusty, with cold winters. Spring brings sandstorms; autumn is clear.
Getting there
Lanzhou West is the high-speed station: Xi'an in about three hours, Xining in an hour, Zhangye three. Trains to Dunhuang take seven to eight hours by day or an overnight sleeper. The old Lanzhou station in the centre serves slower trains. Zhongchuan (LHW) airport is 70 kilometres north; the airport rail link to Lanzhou West takes about 45 minutes.
Rail tip. Your passport is your ticket. Book on 12306 or Trip.com, then go straight to the gate. See Getting around.
Where to stay
Chengguan centre
城关The river, the bridge, the night market. Where to stay for a night.
Between Zhangye Road and the river. Business hotels of every grade; the noodle shops and the night market are within a walk.
Qilihe and the west station
七里河·兰州西站Practical for early trains. Nothing else.
Hotels around Lanzhou West station on metro line 1, twenty minutes from the centre.
Things to do
Zhongshan Bridge
中山桥The first permanent bridge over the Yellow River, German iron from 1909. Walk it at dusk.
Gansu Provincial Museum
甘肃省博物馆The bronze Flying Horse, Silk Road finds and painted Neolithic pots. Free with a booking.
Sheepskin rafts
羊皮筏子Inflated sheepskins lashed to a frame, the river's transport for two thousand years. Ten minutes downstream.
Zhengning Road Night Market
正宁路夜市A street of stalls: lamb skewers, cold noodles, and the famous milk and egg pudding.
Baita Hill
白塔山The hill on the north bank with a Yuan-dynasty white pagoda and the city view.
Bingling Temple Grottoes
炳灵寺石窟Buddhist caves in a canyon of red cliffs, reached by boat across a reservoir. A full day.
Eat
Beef noodles, called niuroumian here and never Lanzhou lamian: a clear broth, hand-pulled noodles in the thickness you ask for, radish, chilli oil and coriander, for a few yuan, before ten in the morning. Then niangpi cold noodles, roast lamb, tianpei fermented oat dessert and the night market's milk and egg pudding. Hui Muslim cooking runs the city.
From travellers in Lanzhou
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