Lanzhou

Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, is a major stop on the ancient "Silk Road" west of Xi'an. Situated on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, Lanzhou has been important for thousands of years because of the Hexi Corridor, or ?¡ãCorridor West of the Yellow River,?¡À in which early Chinese civilization began. About 3,000 years ago, in the Zhou Dynasty, agriculture began to take shape in the basins of the Jin and Wei Rivers that formed the corridor, marking the beginning of the great Yellow River basin civilization.

Starting in the Qin Dynasty, merchants and traders traveling from Xi'an to central Asia and then on to the Roman Empire, or the other way round, broke their long journey at Lanzhou. To protect this corridor and important communications hub, the Great Wall was extended under the Han as far as Yumen, in the far northwest of present-day Gansu Province.

Lanzhou became capital of a succession of tribal states during the turbulent ventures that followed the decline of the Han Dynasty. During this time of turmoil, people began to turn to ideologies that satisfied their need for hope. Taoism developed into a religion, and Buddhism became the official religion in some of the northern states. Buddhist art also flourished, and shrines were built in temples, caves, and on cliffs. From the fifth to the 11th centuries, Dunhuang, beyond the Yumen Pass of the Great Wall, became a center for Buddhist study, drawing scholars and pilgrims from afar. It was a period in which magnificent works of art were created.

The Yellow River flows across Lanzhou, a city that has a 2,000-year history and is capital of Gansu Province. With a population of 2.83 million people, it is one of the largest cities in the northwest, and this concentration has done little to improve the pollution that thickens the air and that flows downriver. Lanzhou was also in the past called the "Gold City", due to the precious metal that was found here. It was this discovery, along with the fact that the city was a significant fortress (for around 1,400 years) of the Hexi Corridor, an eastern and crucial stretch of the Silk Road, that led to a long period of great prosperity in the city.Major. attractions: Green Corridor along Binhe Road, five Spring Mountain, White Pagoda Mountain, Sun Yat-sen Bridge, Waterwheel Garden, Sculptures of the Mother River, Lanshan Mountain, Qiaomen Mosque, Sand-gravel land form at Tianfusha Palace.