Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province is a big 3 million people city. It is located at the south end of the “Hexi corridor”, the main link between western and eastern China.. The city is trapped between 2 mountain chains, and on windless days there is a terrific pollution here. Apparently Lanzhou is the most polluted city in China. Pollution can be up tu 250% of official recommendations. There are many spectacular plans, how to get rid of this problem, going as far as just blowing away a full mountain, to allow fresh air into the city.

The “Yellow river” passes through Lanzhou and I spend a long afternoon with Roy, Peter and Fong on a riverboat talking about life in China, and watching one of Lanzhou’s attractions: the descent of the Yellow River on a funny raft made of inflated sheep bellies! In the evening we had dinner of crocodile and rattlesnake. Whilst the crocodile tastes a bit like pork meat, the snake was just uneatable! I had the feeling it was just consisting of fish bones. Besides that it was extremely expensive.

But the real attraction of Lanzhou lies some 100km away from the city: the Bingling grottoes. One can access them only by boat. The crossing of an artificial lake takes between one and 3 ½ hours, and is just a splendid experience. On the site itself, we could admire a 27 meters high Buddha statue. The upper part is carved out of the rock, and the lower part made of clay. There are about 700 statues of all sizes, most of the carved out of the rock, and some 80 more are made of clay.

Fang, Roy and Peter

A yellow river raft

The giant Buddha in Bingling