Places on the Yellow River

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Lanzhou (34 hours by train from Beijing) is the largest city on the Yellow River and one of the most polluted cities in China if not the world (See Pollution). In the old days it was regarded as one of the gateways to the Silk Road, the last major place to change to buy provisions before heading to Turkestan and Central Asia.

Today is a dirty, industrial city filled with smoke and air-borne chemicals from petrochemical factories and brickyard kilns trapped inside a long, narrow Yellow River valley, flanked by mountains. The air pollution is so bad there has some discussion about blasting a hole in the mountains to allow the dirty air to escape.

Lanzhou is home to about 2 million people. It was described The New Yorker as “an assemblage pf rusting machinery, slag heaps, and landfills; of chimneys, brick kilns, and belching thick smoke; of concrete tenements whose broken windows are held together with cellophane and old newspapers.”

Tourist Office: Lanzhou Tourism Administration, 14-1 West Xijin Rd, 730050 Langzhou, Gansu, China, tel. (0)-931-233-9473, fax: (0)- 931-233-1902 Web Sites: Travel China Guide Travel China Guide Map: China Map Guide China Map Guide Hotel Web Site: Sinohotel Sinohotel Budget Accommodation: Check Lonely Planet books; Getting There: Lanzhou is accessible by air and bus and lies on the main east-west train line between Beijing and Urumqi. Travel China Guide (click transportation) Travel China Guide Lonely Planet (click Getting There) Nnnn Lonely Planet

Bingling (six hours from Lanzhou) means “thousand Buddha” in Chinese and “10,000 Buddhas” in Tibetan. Situated in Xiaoji Mountain, 20 miles southwest of Yongjing County, it is where people have been carving statues and niches into two-kilometer stretch of steep cliffs above the surging Yellow river for more than 1000 years. There are 183 caves, 694 stone statues, 82 clay figures and 900 square meters of murals preserved here. The tallest statue is 80 feet high and the smallest is 20 centimeters. Two thirds of the sculptures which are set up along four tiers were made over 1000 years ago. Web Site and Getting There: Lonely Planet Lonely Planet

Yinchuan (24 hours by train from Beijing) is the most important city in Ningxia, and was once the home of the mysterious Xia civilization. The main tourist sight is the Nanguan Mosque, built around 400 years ago and restored in 1981 after being damaged in the Cultural Revolution. To enter the mosque you go through a wonderful green tiled archway. The mosque itself is composed of two levels, topped by three slightly onion-shaped blue domes, the largest of which sits in the middle and is 70 feet high. The upper level contains a prayer hall with enough room for 1000 people. The bottom level houses bathing halls and residences for the imams.

Yinchuan lies on the Yellow River. The city has long depended on the river for water but these days its often little more than a narrow channel. On the northern side of Yinchuan is Haibao Pagoda, a strange, square-looking brick-and-stone structure that has 11 stories and reaches 160 feet into the air. If you feel adventurous there is a wooden ladder by which you can climb to the ninth floor. The ladder may or may not be open. Guesthouses can arrange camel rides through sand dunes and along the banks of the Yellow River.