Lánzhōu

Lanzhou lies in a narrow basin where the Yellow River passes between mountains. Its walls stood close to the southern bank, with the hills and the river constraining the approaches. Known in earlier times as Jincheng, it guarded a crossing on the roads between the Chinese interior, the Hexi Corridor and the Tibetan highlands, and the Sui gave it the name Lanzhou, after Gaolan Mountain south of the city. Soldiers, officials and merchants all had reason to pass through this meeting place of river and road.

The river was both a defence and an obstacle. In 1372 Ming troops built a temporary bridge of boats to cross it during their western campaign. In 1385 the crossing was moved beneath White Pagoda Mountain north of the city, where boats were chained to the banks and planks laid across them to make a road; the Zhenyuan Bridge was repaired repeatedly and long remained the vital link between the two sides. In the sixteenth century the local builder Duan Xu is credited with raising the first great water-wheels of Lanzhou, which lifted river water to fields above the bank.

Under the Qing, Lanzhou grew in administrative importance. It became the seat of Gansu Province in 1666, the seat of Lintao Prefecture was moved here in 1738 and renamed Lanzhou Prefecture, and in 1764 the governor-general of Shaanxi and Gansu moved his offices from Xi'an. In 1781 the Jahriyya rising led by Su Sishisan reached the city itself.