More historical photos here.
The Waterside Mosque and White Pagoda Hill, photographed from the south side of the Yellow River. The new hillside development is the Lanzhou 'Golden City Pass' Customs and Culture Quarter, home to the China Qinqiang Opera Museum.
More historical photos here. Have added a new page on Xújiā Wāncūn (徐家湾村) to the 'Mosques' and 'Walks' sections of the site. Another good place for mosque spotting. One of Lanzhou's predominantly Hui Muslim communities, this area stretches for about a kilometre along the north side of the river, opposite Xihu Park. It is gradually being developed (new high rises are taking shape), but is still one of the poorer areas of the city, with alleyways of tumbledown houses leading up to the foot of the hills from the road, lined with noodle restaurants, local shops, and street side vegetable sellers.
To get started, open this map of the walk. 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. 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 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: Fúlóng Píng (伏龙坪) is a poor Hui area, perched on the clay hills to the south of Xiguan Shizi. UPDATE (27 AUG) Back to my original route... 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. 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. |
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