Lanzhou

Since I didn't have time the other day to post pictures of our trip to Lanzhou, I thought I would put a few up. It is very interesting because this is definitely off the beaten path. The scenery is very different from what most people think of when they think of China. We were very excited to be able to see the Great Wall from the plane, and then to see the Gobi Desert.

The section just to the right of the lake is what we climbed.  My legs still hurt!

The desert

I tried to zoom in to take a picture of how the sand is rippled by the wind.

The first range of mountains after the desert.

Look how dry and barren they are!

There is a flatter area where they irrigate and grow crops.  This is also the only place they could build the airport for Lanzhou.

The drive took about an hour.  These funny mountains/hills are called monk's hats. 

This photo shows some of the caves.  In Shaanxi people dig caves to live in, but here they are more for storage or to have a shady place to rest when you are farming.  All these hills have been terraced and they are trying to grow trees on them.  The problem is that the irrigation has drastically reduced the ground water in the area.

Our hotel is the Grand Soluxe.  We are on the 19th floor and this is the view of the street from our window.

Lanzhou is a long skinny city since there it is built on the banks of the Yellow River, with mountains on the edges. 

The big mountain is what gave the town it's name.  We can see it from our window.