To get started, open this map of the walk.

There are two good starting points for this walk: 

Option 1: Head east from the West Bus Station (西车站 Xī Chēzhàn), then south at the big flyover (road G212 on the map). You’ll go first under a railway bridge (shared taxis for Linxia start here), and then reach a railway level crossing, passing 4 or 5 mosques along the way.

Picture
Walking south from the West Bus Station
 
 

Introduction: 灵明堂拱北 (Ling Ming Tang Gongbei) is a huge mosque complex in the hills in the south of Lanzhou. According to this article, 拱北 (Gongbei) is a transliteration of the Arabic word Gubba, meaning tomb. The hillsides around Ling Ming Tang are scattered with earth mounds - the grave sites of the Lanzhou (and surrounding areas) Hui community. Construction started in 1985, and now the complex covers 40,000 square metres, across 3 large courtyards, with enormous 30m high gate buildings and a prayer hall for 1000 people. There are lots of hidden-away courtyards and gardens to either side of the main areas.  

Location: 五星坪 (Wuxing Ping) in 七里河区 (Qi Li He District). Map.

Getting there: See the map. If you are travelling south from the West Bus Station (西车站) towards the South Bus Station (南车站), you need to take a left immediately after railway level crossing (don't confuse this with the railway underpass on the same road). Then take the second right, up into a maze of narrow streets in this Hui muslim area on the hillside. From here, it's another 3 km, but best to ask for directions. Our taxi driver knew Wuxing Ping, and got us almost there before we needed to ask. 

 
CHAOYANG CUN 02/15/2009
 

Chaoyang Cun (潮阳村) is the network of hutongs behind the City No.2 People's Hospital (市第二人民医院), to the east of Chaoyang Shan. I reached there by following the paths off the southeast of the hillside. Map here. 

 
 
 
 

I stumbled across the website of Rolf Gross the other day, which has an incredible selection of photo-diaries, travel writing, and assorted essays. What caught my interest particularly was his description of a visit to Lanzhou in 1983.

The first photo on the page is of a sick child being wheeled along on a pushcart, with a mosque in the background. At first glance, I was pretty sure that I knew which mosque it was, and we confirmed this through a short correspondence, and by cross-referencing Rolf's route that day (along the north bank of the river upstream from Zhongshan Bridge) to another online photo. 

Rolf has given me permission to republish his photo of the 'Waterside Mosque' (水上清真寺) here. The photo was taken facing west, which means Rolf was standing midway between Zhongshan Bridge and the mosque:

 
NANGUAN MOSQUE 01/10/2009
 

The view from Jiuquan Lu (酒泉路), south of Nanguan Shizi (南关什字):

The main entrance, on the east side of the mosque:

 
 

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).

 
 

The Olympic Torch Relay passed through Lanzhou today. I decided to avoid the crowds, and instead took advantage of the traffic restrictions and walked up onto the overpass to try to get a clear picture of the mosque. To give it its full name: Lánzhōu Xīguān Qīngzhēn Dà Sì (兰州西关清真大寺).

Unfortunately, the sun was blazing down directly into the camera from behind the mosque, so the shot from the west side was impossible to control. I had to make do with this: