Operation Menu12Sept Xi’An — Lan Zhou Trip
I went to Lan Zhou city over the Mid autumn holiday with a friend.
“Lanzhou (simplified Chinese: 兰州; traditional Chinese: 蘭州; pinyin: Lánzhōu; Postal map spelling: Lanchow) is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China” –from wiki.
From the airport, we travelled in the mountain range for about 40 minutes before the city appeared in the valleys. The majestic yellow river organises the 8 counties along its embankment. The counties hardly found any buidable land in the mountain ranges. However, the entire lanzhou city was highly developed ‘out of nowhere’ in the vast west.
We walked along the river bank for 2 days and had the cheapest and best La Mian for meals. The night market at 正宁路 and the pubs along 甘南路 reminded me of the old taipei 西门町。
On the surface, the chinese culture dominate the boulevards or the main street, however, any turn of the corner was dotted with muslim culture. I am not exactly sure that I am in china at times when I saw some middle eastern look locals boarding a bus or queing to buy Wumule 拉面。
It was amazing to see part of 5464 km of yellow river charges through the cities of Lanzhou. This powerful river and the omipresent mountain range spell out how small and vulnerable we actually are in the present of nature.
9/13/2011 @ 8:11 pm
Neo, envy you! Hope someday I can come to Lanzhou.
9/15/2011 @ 4:28 pm
Many tourists give Lanzhou a miss as it was too remote and not really a tourist city. Thanks for the comment. elinor.