Travelers with the patience and money to endure the journey and entrance fees are well rewarded when they finally reach the Bingling Caves. Featuring a massive 27-meter statue of the Maitreya Buddha, fantastic frescoes, 183 caves and statues painted in strikingly vivid colors, Bingling is considered one of the top four Buddhist grottoes in the country. Travel to the caves is fairly involved but worthwhile. The trip starts with a bus from Lanzhou to the Liujiaxia Reservoir (Liujiaxia Shuiku, 2 hours, 70km). You're dropped off just to the left of the Yellow River Travel Service. This is where the boat leg of the journey begins. If you're lucky you'll be able to tag along with a group hiring one of the speedboats. These cover the 50-kilometer journey across the reservoir in an hour but the covered variety come in at a steep RMB 400, RMB 200 for uncovered boats. These can take up... more >>

If you only have time to see a single sight in Lanzhou proper, the Gansu Provincial Museum is a fine choice. Recently reopened after major renovations that conceal its Russian-designed origins, the museum hosts a collection as impressive for its quality as for its diversity. Among the items you'll find are samples of neolithic painted pottery from the 8,000-year-old Dadiwan culture. You'll also see evidence of Silk Road cultural diffusion (or maybe an as-of-yet undocumented Chinese trade missions to the Roman Empire?) in the form of a silver plate depicting Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, unearthed about 120 kilometers away from here. Add bronze vessels, replica woolly mammoth fossils, live pandas, monkeys, cranes and the museum's piece-de-resistance: a finely-crafted bronze statue of a horse launching itself into a canter from the back of a flying swallow (now a popular nort... more >>

Though Lanzhou's image has been tarnished by a reputation for heavy pollution, bear in mind that media coverage of China is often laced with hyperbole. Lanzhou sees blue skies fairly regularly, thanks to new environmental reforms, and the place to be on days like those is White Pagoda Park. The orginal pagoda is rumored to have been built in tribute to a monk who died on his way to an appointment with Genghis Khan. That pagoda toppled, but was rebuilt by the Ming Dynasty's first emperor, military genius Zhu Yuanzhang, with later additions coming in the Qing Dynasty. When you get to the park, take the lan che (chairlift) up to get a good look at Buddhist imagery on the pagoda's eight sides. The pagoda is quite photogenic taken against the mountainous backdrop, but the view of the city on a clear day is even better. And even on less-than-blue-sky days, the pagoda is a... more >>

A cool, leafy retreat just south of the downtown core along Heping Lu, Five Springs Park is the largest park in town, and a very accessible Lanzhou attraction. A chairlift to the top (May-Oct, one way/return, RMB 10/18) rewards visitors with views of the city, mountains and the host of paviliions, temples and groves that dot their slopes. The park's various halls and temples are joined by stone paths and steps, making self-guided explorations of the park's main features a cake walk. Pregnant couples may want to visit Mozi Spring, near Dizang Temple—where the Patron Buddha of childbirth is worshipped—and touch the sanctified stone there. Apparently, the stone's resident spirit can reveal whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.   more >>

One of Lanzhou's last remaining links to the past, the White Cloud Temple, a center of Buddhist study devoted to a popular local "immortal" ascetic, Lu Dongbing, has still got enough run-down Qing Dynasty charm to make it a worthwhile attraction. Friendly monks still study here accompanied by statues of the Jade emperor, an old opera stage and trees full of errant kites near the Yellow River. more >>

The Hui Muslims are considered peaceful, commercially-oriented citizens of the People's Republic, but that wasn't always the case. Lanzhou and some of the surrounding counties were areas of intense, bloody conflict between the independent-minded Muslims and the government militias and regualr troops. In the late Qing Dynasty, the hostilites exploded in a rebellion to Qing rule centered in Hezhou, Linxia County. The Muslim rebels fought with Han loyalists and the government for years, until finally agreeing to a ceasefire that drew lines of control between the Muslims and the Han that have remained to this day. Linxia has become the stronghold—the summer retreat if you will—for Muslims around Gansu and Lanzhou. The city never truly fell to government forces and although Hui and Han live as neighbors today, there is no question that this is a Muslim town and county.... more >>