14 Days in Lanzhou

Land, settle, and take the evening riverside walk to the 1909 bridge; laozao at the night market, famous since a 2012 TV feature, closes the day.

1. Zhongshan Bridge
2. lanzhou zhengning road night market

Cross the roughly 234-metre iron bridge of 1909, climb to the Yuan-era pagoda rebuilt in the mid-Ming, then the museum halls at the hill's foot under Jinchengguan.

1. Zhongshan Bridge
2. lanzhou white pagoda hill

A full session with the 34.5-centimetre Bronze Galloping Horse unearthed in 1969 — a tourism symbol since 1983 — plus the Silk Road and Buddhist-art galleries in a second pass.

1. lanzhou gansu provincial museum

Walk or cycle the roughly 40-kilometre riverside line from the 1986 Mother sculpture, pausing on Reader Avenue, named for the magazine founded in 1981.

1. lanzhou yellow river mother sculpture
2. lanzhou yellow river style line

In Yuzhong County about 45 kilometres out — twin peaks near 2,500 metres, the Yunlong bridge, and halls that sheltered the relics of Genghis Khan from 1939 until 1954.

1. lanzhou xinglong mountain

Downstream about 100 kilometres — courtyards, an academy and water-flue-tobacco merchants' houses in a river town that grew rich on the downstream trade.

1. lanzhou qingcheng ancient town

Morning under pear trees older than 300 years in the great bend at Shichuan, an easy afternoon with the Ming-style wheels and a beef-noodle dinner in the 1915 style.

1. lanzhou shichuan pear orchard
2. lanzhou waterwheel garden

Northwest into Yongdeng County for the early-Ming hereditary magistrate's compound — painted halls, ancestral courts and the best-preserved tusi offices of the northwest.

1. lanzhou lutusi yamen

A canyon day in the same Yongdeng direction, spruce slopes and granite walls, with village lunches on the road back.

1. lanzhou tulugou forest park

The old ferry lanes where the Zhuanglang River joins the Yellow River, then boardwalks among the ochre ridges for the low afternoon light.

1. lanzhou hekou ancient town
2. lanzhou ink danxia

Honestly labelled neighbouring-prefecture day — the stone forest is in Jingtai County under Baiyin, roughly 150 kilometres out; sand towers shaped over about four million years above a river bend.

1. baiyin yellow river stone forest

Temple courts and five springs under the Huo Qubing legend, then the cable car to the 2,129-metre Lanshan lookout for the whole river valley laid out below.

1. lanzhou wuquan mountain park
2. lanzhou lanshan park

Honestly labelled neighbouring-city day — about 90 minutes by HSR to Tianshui for 221 caves and more than 10,000 clay sculptures begun under the Later Qin (384-417), Silk Roads World Heritage since 2014.

1. lanzhou maijishan grottoes

A market breakfast — beef noodles again, in the 1915 Ma Baozi tradition — a last riverside stroll, then the train or the 70-kilometre ride to the airport.

1. lanzhou yellow river style line