Yellow River Scenic Area

Chinese name: 黄河风情线 (Huang He Feng Qing Xian)
Location: Lanzhou City,GansuProvince.
Ticket: Free
Estimated tour time: One day, can choose to visit some of them
Recommended time to visit: May to Oct
Nearby attractions: Gansu Museum, Bingling Grottoes, White Pagoda Mountain, etc.

Yellow River is the second-longest river in China estimated the length of 5,464 kilometres after the Yangtze River. Its headwaters of this mighty river originates from the Kunlun Mountains in northwestern Qinghai Province, the west of China. It winds its way passing nine provinces and autonomous regions - Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong, and finally empties into the Bohai Sea in the east of Shandong Province. The total basin area is 742,443 km².

Yellow River is the cradle of Chinese civilization and the spiritual home of the Chinese people. For thousands of years, the Yellow River has been admired by great poets, artists, as well as by ordinary people. The Yellow River is the symbol of the Chinese nation, the spirit of the Chinese people and more importantly, civilization itself.

Yellow River nurtures a lot of towns and cities including such big cities as Lanzhou, Yinchuan, Baotou, Zhengzhou, and Jinnan. So if you are interested in seeing and feeling the giant river, you may go to these cities. Most of the cities have developed an area or a park to represent the Yellow River culture.

It flows the Loess Plateau in its middle section and carries a large amount of sand on its way down to the lower reaches of the mighty river, making the river appearing yellow, hence the name of Yellow River.

● Highlights of Yellow River Scenic Area

Yellow River Mother Sculpture 

As one of the travel destinations along the silk road, the Yellow River Mother Sculpture has become the landmark sculpture of Lanzhou and also represents the image of Lanzhou.

The Yellow River Mother Sculpture, regarded as one of the best sculptures depicting the mother river of Chinese civilization, is located on the southern bank of the Yellow River in Lanzhou. The sculpture has a length of 6 meters and a height of 2.6 metres with more than 40 tons. 

The whole sculpture comprises a mother and a baby. The mother with long hair, slim figure, lying on the undulate water looks happy and kind. On her breast holds a small kid who bears naive smile. The sculpture connotes that the Yellow River has nourished generations of Chinese. It was carved out of a huge piece of granite in 1986 in Beijing and measures 6 meters in length, 2.2 meters in width and 2.6 meters in height.

Zhongshan Iron Bridge

Located at the middle section of Binhe Road, it is the first iron bridge above the Yellow River. originally as a floating bridge, it was built in 1372 during the Ming Dynasty. In 1907, the government of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) spent treasury silver of over huge money to build the first iron bridge above the Yellow River and its original site and named it “Lanzhou Yellow River Iron Bridge”. In 1942, it was renamed “Zhongshan Bridge” in order to commemorate Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), forerunner of Chinese democratic revolution. After reinforcement in 1954, the bridge is still in use now.

White Cloud Temple

White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Taoist Temple) is on the south river bank, Nanbinhe East Road, one block west of Zhongshan Bridge.
Still a place of worship, the White Cloud Temple (Baiyun Guan) was constructed during the Qing Dynasty. It was built to honor Lu Dongbin, one of the legendary Taoist immortals. Taoist monks still follow the ancient rituals and pray at the temple. At the entrance is an inscription that says "the path to the heavens" referring to Lu's attainment of immortality. There are large statues of Lu and of the Jade Emperor who was a powerful ruler with Taoist leanings. It can be reached from the Nanbinhe Road via a waterfront walkway or by cable car.

Xiguan Mosque is on Cuiyingmen, one block south of the Taoist Temple. Anywhere else, this would be a hard-hat zone, as (in 2018) the mosque compound is being rebuilt. But if you pick your way past blocks of cladding and piles of sand and trailing pipes and cables, the mosque itself remains open. It's quite a simple modern design.

 Yantan Park 

Since founding a state, here has built up to 20 km ring at the dam and 10 km asphalt road, and across the Yellow River tributary, the Yantan and urban integration. Later turned into parks, gardens lush forests, beautiful scenery, has built a pavilion, and the Yellow River scenery mutual authentic, very magnificent.

 Solemn Temple

The great cause of thirteen years (617 years ), Xue Ju in Lanzhou later became the emperor, the solemn temple as the palace. Tang Pingdingxue cited later renamed the temple, by the gate, and QianDian rooms, the main hall, houdian constitute HHS falls. original gate board, "Chi stately Temple" six characters, is the famous calligrapher Li Puguang the book, font bold. The main hall after a Buddhism godness Guanyin wall murals, dignified and beautiful, wearing white, wanran such as yarn, Panicum Jingping, Cuise such as the new.

Waterwheel Park

The unique-shaped Waterwheel in Lanzhou popular Waterwheel Park is another highlight of this city. Built in 1994, the park is comprised of two waterwheels, a cofferdam, the recreation area and a house of water mill.
With 12 wheels of the Yellow River waterwheel in Lanzhou as main scenery, assemble the Chinese and foreign different forms, different styles of tens of waterwheels, Lanzhou Waterwheel Expo Park is currently the waterwheel theme parks which has the most varieties, the largest number of waterwheel in the world. Among them, the Yellow River Waterwheel in Lanzhou due to its unique structure, exquisite craft, bold style becoming the representative of the waterwheel and state-level intangible cultural heritage items.
Waterwheel Park reproduce this ancient irrigation machinery, foreign visitors can glimpse faster.