Lanzhou: where the Yellow River meets the Silk Road

The only major Chinese city directly traversed by the Yellow River, Lanzhou was for centuries a mandatory crossroads of the Silk Road.

The center can be comfortably visited on foot along the river.

The Zhongshan Bridge, the first iron bridge ever built on the Yellow River in 1907, remains a symbol of the meeting between Western technology and Chinese tradition.

A few steps away, the Statue of the Yellow River Mother, a sculpture depicting a mother and child, celebrates the river as the cradle of Chinese civilisation.

Continuing along the bank you visit the Gansu Provincial Museum, which holds remains from the Silk Road, including the famous 'Flying Horse of Gansu' in bronze.

As evening approaches, restaurants in the centre serve the famous lamian beef soup, a dish originating from Lanzhou and now widespread throughout China.

The Flying Horse of Gansu, a second-century bronze statue depicting a horse galloping over a swallow, was discovered in a tomb near Lanzhou and remains today the official symbol of Chinese tourism.

Lanzhou, positioned in a narrow corridor between mountains, was for centuries the only mandatory passage for Silk Road caravans heading toward Central Asia.