Best of Lanzhou Day Trip to Gansu Provincial Museum, Xiguan Mosque, Waterwheel Garden, Iron Bridge of Yellow River and White Pagoda Mountain

Tour begins at Gansu Provincial Museum, the biggest comprehensive museum in Gansu province. It is one of the best sights in the city and a visit is well worthwhile. Built in 1956, the museum covers a total area of 18,000 square meters (about 4 acres). The museum is divided into two sections-natural resources and historic exhibits. It houses collections of various color-painted potteries of Neolithic Age and treasures of ancient grottoes. In addition, the museum is home to precious linen and silk fabrics, books, wooden and bronze vessels, a great many bamboo slips for writing from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220), frescos and so many other items. A 4-meter-tall Mammoth fossil replica is stored in the museum whose remains were excavated from the Yellow River basin in 1973. Aside from the prehistoric presentations, there are also rare animal exhibits, such as pandas, golden monkeys and red -crowned cranes.

After salat prayer at Xiguan Mosque, you will be transferred to the Waterwheel Garden. Built in 1994, the garden is located by the Yellow River. It covers an area of 1.45 hectares (3.58 acres) and is comprised of two waterwheels, a cofferdam, the recreation area and a house of water mill. In the garden, tourists can experience crossing the river on a sheepskin raft, which is the most primeval ferrying tool in the northwest region of the Yellow River. A visit to the Waterwheel Garden will provide an insight into the irrigation tools of ancient times.

Visit Iron Bridge of Yellow River. The late Qing Government built this first iron bridge over the upper reaches of the Yellow River in 1907 under the proposal of local officers in Lanzhou and Gansu and with the help of a Germany businessman. All materials, even the rivets, were transported from Germany to China using ships, trains, carts and any other means possible. The bridge was completed in 1909, and named ‘Lanzhou Iron Bridge over the Yellow River’. The name of the bridge was changed to Zhongshan Bridge (Zhongshan is the Chinese name of Dr. Sun Yat-sen) in 1942, to commemorate Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

White Pagoda Mountain, famous for its white pagoda built during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), is located at the northern bank of the Yellow River in Lanzhou. Legend has it that the White Pagoda was built in honor of a well-known Tibetan Lama who died of an illness in Lanzhou when on his way to Mongolia as representative of the leader of Sakyapa in order to meet Genghis Khan. The white pagoda, 17 meters high, has a round foundation and seven floors. Its eight sides contain many statues of Buddha. The mountain where the park is located also boasts the elephant-skin drum, bronze bell and redbub tree, which are the so-called “three treasures of Lanzhou.” Tourists enjoy an excellent bird-eye view of Lanzhou from the park.