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Along the Yellow River and beyond

Explore the regional map

Explore every city and autonomous prefecture in this edition. Each has its own places and a complete article library.

Gansu
Lanzhou Jiayuguan Jiuquan Zhangye Jinchang Wuwei Baiyin Tianshui Pingliang Qingyang Dingxi Longnan Linxia Gannan Zhongshan Bridge Mogao Caves Maijishan Grottoes Labrang Monastery Giant Buddha Temple

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Some stories describe broad landscapes, distributed practices or events rather than one verifiable point. They remain available through their city or prefecture; no marker is inferred.

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Along the Yellow River and beyond

Gansu.

An iron bridge, painted cliffs, and valleys with lives of their own

Begin beside the Yellow River in Lanzhou, where an iron bridge crosses the water and noodles are pulled for the next bowl. Follow the Hexi Corridor through cave paintings, postal records and earthen walls; then turn towards the clay figures of Maijishan, the brickwork of Linxia and the forests and plateau towns farther south.

Lanzhou Iron Bridge across the Yellow River

Zhongshan Bridge

A river crossing opens the province

The iron bridge finished in 1909, now a footbridge across the Yellow River in Lanzhou.

Explore this place ↗

Four places to look closer

Cliffs, a temple hall and a monastery town reveal different histories and ways of making.

Timber eaves and a raised pavilion protect and frame a cave opening in the cliff.

Jiuquan

Mogao Caves ↗

A cliffside Buddhist sanctuary where painted rooms, clay figures and changing communities left a thousand years of work in Dunhuang.

Panorama of the Zhangye Giant Buddha Temple complex

Zhangye

Giant Buddha Temple ↗

A Western Xia hall in Ganzhou, with a wooden-frame clay reclining Buddha and later Ming and Qing buildings.

A forest-framed view of the cave-bearing peak, with a long gallery crossing the rock and tiled roofs at its foot.

Tianshui

Maijishan Grottoes ↗

A forested red cliff in Tianshui holds Buddhist cave temples, painted clay figures and cliffside architecture.

A monastery building at Labrang in Xiahe.

Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Labrang Monastery ↗

A Gelug monastery and teaching centre in Xiahe, encircled by a long prayer-wheel corridor.

Three places, seen in depth

Enter a painted cliff at Mogao, follow the meeting of water and dunes at Crescent Spring, and look up through Maijishan’s clay figures and hanging galleries. These photographic introductions open into stories and knowledge articles.

The caves extend along a conglomerate cliff above the Dachuan River; openings of different sizes mark centuries of work.

Mogao Caves

A visual walk through the Mogao cliff ↗

Move from the gravel face into an imagined cave visit, reading the architecture, painted surfaces and conservation work one view at a time.

A view of Crescent Spring photographed from the dune in 2023.

Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring

Water and dunes: a photographic portrait ↗

A curved pool, a steep sand ridge, reeds and tiled roofs give Crescent Spring several scales of beauty. This illustrated feature moves between the whole basin and its smaller textures.

Snow settles on the wooded crown and branches around the red cliff, where cave openings and visitor galleries form a steep, layered face.

Maijishan Grottoes

A Mountain Built for Looking Up: Maijishan in Nine Views ↗

A visual passage from the grain-stack peak to cliff galleries, cave entrances, painted clay faces and conservation.

Follow a thread

Start with a place or a material, then read into the lives around it.

Paint and earth along the Hexi Corridor

Painted caves, a Ming fortress and records from a Han postal station offer different windows onto the corridor.

  1. A cliff built in clay and pigment ↗

    At Mogao, a gravel cliff became a thousand-year archive of Buddhist art. Cave 17, the small chamber beside Cave 16, preserves the story of a library hidden behind a painted wall.

  2. The Ming fortress at the wall’s western end ↗

    Begun in 1372, Jiayuguan’s layered gates and ramparts mark the western end of the Ming Great Wall. The modern city grew around a fortress built to control movement through the corridor.

  3. An official relay station in the corridor ↗

    At Xuanquan, an excavated Han-period posthouse preserves the remains of official travel, lodging and administration along the Hexi route.

  4. An earthen city on the edge of the oasis ↗

    Suoyang City preserves rammed-earth walls and traces of water management in Guazhou. Its ruins belong to a settlement landscape of city, canals, religious remains and tombs.

The river in everyday life

A bridge carries people, waterwheels lift river water, and a bowl brings the city to the table.

  1. The iron bridge across Lanzhou ↗

    Opened in 1909, Zhongshan Bridge joined Lanzhou’s two banks with a permanent iron crossing. Today pedestrians cross it beneath White Pagoda Hill.

  2. The clear broth of Lanzhou noodles ↗

    A bowl of Lanzhou beef noodles brings hand-pulled strands into clear beef broth with beef, chili oil and herbs. The craft was added to China’s national intangible cultural heritage list in 2021.

  3. Waterwheels that lifted the Yellow River ↗

    Lanzhou’s wooden waterwheels used the river current to raise water into irrigation channels. The Waterwheel Expo Park keeps the form visible beside the south-bank promenade.

  4. Stone pillars at the Yellow River bend ↗

    At Longwan in Jingtai County, the Yellow River curves through a canyon of sandy-conglomerate pillars. The river, farms and cliffs occupy the same broad view.

Clay, brick and thread

Follow the shaping of clay, the cutting of brick and the stitches of a small festival bag.

  1. Maijishan: Clay figures on a wheat-stack cliff ↗

    Maijishan rises above Tianshui with a cliff of grottoes known for clay sculpture and figures built over stone cores. Its caves preserve work made across many centuries.

  2. Majiayao Pottery: A painted pattern and its home terrace ↗

    The Majiayao culture takes its name from a terrace west of Majiayao village in Lintao. Painted vessels, including a swirl-patterned bottle found elsewhere in Dingxi, reveal a long and varied ceramic tradition.

  3. Linxia Brick Carving: Pictures shaped from grey earth ↗

    In Linxia, artisans turn soft grey kiln brick into relief for courtyard walls, gates and rooflines. The craft joins drawing, carving and building in one material.

  4. Qingyang Sachets: Embroidery on the loess tableland ↗

    On Dongzhi Yuan, Qingyang’s broad loess tableland, a small festival sachet carries a varied local embroidery tradition. Its forms and stitches are recorded in China’s national intangible-heritage catalogue.

Forests, fields and plateau towns

Read the forested valleys of Longnan, the farming landscape of Zhagana and the monastic town of Xiahe in their own settings.

  1. Guan’egou: Forest valleys and villages in Longnan ↗

    Near Tanchang, Guan’egou gathers six named valleys into a large forest park of lakes, canyons and waterfalls, with Tibetan and Qiang villages within its landscape.

  2. Labrang Monastery: Learning and devotion in Xiahe ↗

    At Labrang in Xiahe, a long prayer-wheel corridor encircles a major Gelug monastery. Colleges, assembly halls and neighbouring streets show how religious study shapes the town.

  3. Zhagana: Four hamlets and a living mountain landscape ↗

    In Diebu County, Zhagana’s villages occupy a high mountain basin enclosed by steep rock. Farming, herding and forest use follow the slopes from valley floor to woodland.

  4. Wetlands along the Heihe ↗

    Zhangye’s Heihe river corridor links urban wetlands in Ganzhou with a national wetland park in Gaotai. Reeds, open water and managed ecological flows shape this green edge of the oasis.

Across Gansu

Explore every city and autonomous prefecture in this edition. Each has its own places and a complete article library.

Jiuquan ↗

The prefecture-level city at the western end of the Hexi Corridor, including Dunhuang and its oasis landscapes.

All articles ↗

Zhangye ↗

An oasis prefecture whose seat is Ganzhou, with colored hills shared by Linze and Sunan and a Western Xia hall inside the city.

All articles ↗

Wuwei ↗

An eastern Hexi city where a Han tomb yielded a bronze horse now displayed in the provincial museum.

All articles ↗

Baiyin ↗

A copper-mining city restored in 1985, with a wider municipal landscape extending to Jingtai County and the Yellow River.

All articles ↗

Tianshui ↗

Tianshui brings together the western Qinling, the middle Wei River, the Maiji cliff and Qinzhou’s Fuxi Temple.

All articles ↗

Qingyang ↗

Qingyang’s Longdong landscape centres on Dongzhi Yuan, a broad loess tableland with a long agricultural history.

All articles ↗

Dingxi ↗

Dingxi links the Neolithic pottery tradition of Lintao with a contemporary potato economy across the region.

All articles ↗
Photo credits and rights
  1. Lanzhou Iron Bridge across the Yellow RiverAuthor not specified on source page · Rights status not determined Photo source ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  2. Timber eaves and a raised pavilion protect and frame a cave opening in the cliff.Windmemories · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  3. Panorama of the Zhangye Giant Buddha Temple complex柴志杰 · Rights status not determined Photo source ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  4. A forest-framed view of the cave-bearing peak, with a long gallery crossing the rock and tiled roofs at its foot.颐园居 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  5. A monastery building at Labrang in Xiahe.Ariel Steiner · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  6. The caves extend along a conglomerate cliff above the Dachuan River; openings of different sizes mark centuries of work.Yaohua2000 · CC BY-SA 3.0 (one of the page's listed options; preserve page terms) Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  7. A view of Crescent Spring photographed from the dune in 2023.N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  8. Snow settles on the wooded crown and branches around the red cliff, where cave openings and visitor galleries form a steep, layered face.MarsmanRom · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.