hkskyline's 2025 in LANZHOU, China

[hkskyline]

Lanzhou is an industrial city on the Silk Road route and high-speed train line between Xian and Xinjiang. It 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 materials 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.













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.



























For more photos, visit my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/silkroad.htm

[ColDayMan]

That bridge is awesome!

[hkskyline]

Just beyond Lanzhou's suburbs is a natural attraction well worth visiting. In fact, it was the main reason why I ended up including this city on the itinerary. Shuimo Danxia was formed about 150 million years ago during the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. The red sandstone was eroded into the colourful mountain landscapes we see today.

The site is vast but they have set up a lot of paths and routes so you will not be hiking in the wild.

The standard fare (80 yuan) requires you to change various types of transport and there are gaps in between where you need to walk, and you won't be able to see the full loop with a large section of the park not reachable at all. Even with the cheaper standard ticket, it was tough to even finish seeing the small designated quadrant of the park.













The long hike is along paved sections but there is a long staircase going down the mountain to the photogenic red Ruyi Bridge.









The path then flattens out and the boardwalk offers spectacular views of the mountains, which are a lot more closer to you now than up at the observation area. I only walked a short section of it and didn't bother to climb up the first mountain as the lunch hour was approaching and I needed to backtrack to explore the other sections of the park.

















There seem to be a lot of other adventure activities under construction. The zip-line was already open and you will fly parallel to the road.











By the time I finished, it was well past 2pm and I had a very exhausting half day trip. This park is immense and they try hard to make transport more difficult for standard ticket holders but the SVIP is unreasonably expensive and over 3 times the price, so I was still content with the views on the cheaper itinerary, albeit it was a lot of walking!

For more photos, visit my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/silkroad.htm

[muppet]

Crazy landscape. This shot is otherworldly:

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by muppet

Crazy landscape. This shot is otherworldly:

Yes. I'd recommend visiting Lanzhou just for this. The city itself isn't anything special to justify the trek otherwise.

[ColDayMan]

Just wow.

[geomorph]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

That ramp structure looks like the Vessel of China.