After months looking like this....

...the new roof is finally finished:

Fúlóng Píng (伏龙坪) is a poor Hui area, perched on the clay hills to the south of Xiguan Shizi.

Píng (坪) doesn't have a concise translation. The definition in the dictionary says it is a "mountainous or hilly area" (山区或丘陵地区). 

You get glimpses of the ramshackled sprawl from Jiěfàng Mén (解放门) and also from the trains heading out of the city towards Xining, but you only realise the scale when you follow one of the winding paths up, and lose yourself in the narrow alleys.

On this walk I only touched the surface.

I started out from the southwest corner of the Xiguan Mosque, crossing under the flyovers (still heading southwest) and up under a sign to the 金岛旧车市场. 

UPDATE (27 AUG)
There is an alternative (probably better) start to this walk, from the Taiqing Gong (太清宫) Daoist temple at Jiěfàng Mén.

Get here by walking 100m west from Xiguan Mosque.

Take the market street to the right of the temple, then look out for the steps winding up on your left, about 50m along.

Back to my original route...
I followed some steep stairs leading up past some precarious houses, which levelled off next to a kindergarten:

This was my first chance to get a good view up into the area:

I followed the alley along, until I came to an opening, which looked down towards Jiěfàng Mén:

Finally, I worked my way to the centre of Fúlóng Píng. Traffic can drive up via a road from Āndìng Mén (安定门), at the south end of Zhōngshān Lù (中山路). It felt like a small country village up there.

Now on the 'main' road, I was able to continue upwards, heading sometimes south and sometimes east, along the hillside that eventually arrives at Lanshan.

The sign reads: "Raising people's morals, building a harmonious Chengguan."

Chengguan is the main district of Lanzhou's city centre, directly below Fúlóng Píng.

Towels and a mop, drying outside a small hairdresser's:

Here was the view from Fúlóng Píng, looking west over towards Huálín Píng (华林坪), another Hui area, which can be reached by heading southwest from Jiěfàng Mén:

By this stage I was back on familiar territory, having used this road to cycle up Lanshan several times in the past. I stopped off at a small mosque, and then a few hairpins later, reached a lookout terrace.

From here, a tree-shaded path continued up, and would lead you along the ridge overlooking Wuquan Shan, and eventually to Lanshan.

I called it a day, and took the steps down the hillside, directly to the west gate of the Minorities University. A shortcut through a market, an underpass under the railway line, and I found myself back in the city on Báiyín Lù (白银路), at the south end of Yŏngchāng Lù (永昌路).