Lanzhou to Qilian Mountain Self-driving Tour Strategy

Lanzhou to Qilian Mountain is actually a considerable distance. For those who love self-driving tours, the journey is full of fun. You can make the most of your time. Here is a self-driving tour strategy for Lanzhou to Qilian Mountain.

Day 7, 8.2

Early in the morning, we had a grand departure ceremony at the Xi’an Silk Sculpture Group, where we were issued a travel pass. We set off for Lanzhou.

Traveling by high-speed rail, the journey became more and more western. The lush green hills in my hometown turned into huge “earthen mounds.”

The high-speed train from Xi’an to Lanzhou wasn’t too long, and the scenery wasn’t legendary. Before entering the west, although I had some psychological preparation, I knew the conditions would be relatively difficult.

But I, who came from Yunnan, a less economically developed region, didn’t have too many worries, thinking that it was probably similar to my hometown.

Lanzhou, what a chaotic city with terrible air. That was my first impression of Lanzhou. We had just left Xi’an, and the difference was too great.

After getting off the high-speed rail, we waited for a taxi for about an hour. On the way to the hotel, I was truly amazed by the driver’s skills. He was dashing and reckless, and several times I felt like we were about to crash.

But after taking a taxi three times in one night, I realized that this is the norm in Lanzhou.

A western city with developing urban transportation, Lanzhou is truly chaotic. Construction sites are everywhere, which is an unavoidable process.

Drivers are very aggressive, and it seems that they must be aggressive to fight for a spot on the road or else they’ll be stuck. Another manifestation of chaos: the sidewalks become “street markets.”

This phenomenon occurs on the streets near the Yellow River Iron Bridge. Judging by the bustling streets, this area should be the main street of Lanzhou, yet it’s completely occupied by street vendors.

Unlike other cities, this seems perfectly normal in Lanzhou, without the street enforcement officers chasing people away. Clothes, Korean cosmetics, and even nail salons, all exist in this crowded, bustling sidewalk.

Lanzhou left me with the impression of being slightly less developed than Kunming. Many guesthouses, large supermarkets, clothing wholesale markets, and commercial cities, terms that feel rather dated, can be seen everywhere in Lanzhou. I casually browsed a few roadside stores, but the goods lacked cutting-edge elements.

I saw the Yellow River for the first time. There were yachts advertising on the shore, “Sailing on the blue waves, people are in the painting.” This sentence made me laugh. It was clearly the Yellow River, where are the blue waves?

Zhengning Road Snack Street is a Lanzhou specialty snack street, most of which are also Muslim delicacies. This street is quite short and narrow, very down-to-earth. We did try some delicious and affordable snacks, such as egg milk fermented glutinous rice, and sweet wine.

Day 8, 8.3

Early in the morning, after a five-to-six hour drive, we arrived at the Daban Mountain Scenic Spot, but couldn’t even stay for ten minutes, it was too cold! At 3760 meters above sea level, it was incredibly cold.

Before we even got out of the car, the local residents surrounded us, asking us to buy their wreaths, saying, “Sister, sister, let us earn some tuition!” I hesitated and refused. Although their skin was dark and cracked due to the cold and intense UV rays, making me feel a bit uncomfortable, I instinctively refused. On the return journey, I seriously thought about whether I should buy something I didn’t need to “help them.” It reminded me of a time when I went to the beach with Wei Ge and was morally coerced into buying flowers. I suddenly hated this act of using people’s sympathy.

This is a social mindset: the strong should have sympathy for the weak and try their best to help them.

In this situation, I was the strong person in their eyes, and I should buy something I didn’t want and that wasn’t worth it to help them. Later, I found that such commercial behavior was common in some areas of the northwest. People like to use phrases like “Help us, we’re struggling” as an opening line for selling. But, they are simple. They simply want to sell things, but they don’t deceive or force you. This is much better than the vendors at Bai Cheng Beach who always use giving flowers as a way to coerce you into buying. Am I too hard-hearted? I’m in a safe place, thinking about my actions with a detached attitude. But I still believe that buying a wreath wouldn’t change anyone’s life situation, but would instead make them satisfied with earning money from tourists instead of focusing on developing real businesses that can support their families.

In the afternoon, we went to Menyuan. The rapeseed flowers in Menyuan were already withered, but the distant snow-capped mountains, green and vibrant, had a unique charm.

We spent the night in Qilian. When we arrived in Qilian, it was already 7:30 pm, the sun hadn’t set yet, but it was already very cold. Qilian is a county town, but it’s still worse than Qibai.

We had dinner at a Sichuan restaurant. The couple running the restaurant were both from Chengdu and had been in Qilian for twenty years. They couldn’t speak Mandarin, so we communicated in Sichuan dialect.

During the meal, the male owner and his daughter cleaned the place, but I noticed that the shop hadn’t been cleaned in a long time.

The originally white walls were yellow, and the water in the basin was dirty. Although it’s called a Sichuan restaurant, the menu was very limited. My mom just had dumplings.

I really wanted to know why they chose to leave their hometown and come to this place, staying for twenty years.

But after asking if he had served in the military, I didn’t ask further. The prices in Qilian aren’t high, a big white bun only costs one yuan.

Qilian, known as a fairyland, truly made me feel like I was in a dream. Because, it was too cold!

This small county town’s square didn’t have aunties gathered to dance square dances. Everyone was practically wearing down jackets, which made me, in my shorts, feel very awkward. I also got a lot of strange looks. With fewer people on the street, it felt even colder.

There are more Tibetan people in Qilian. Almost all the shops, the Land and Resources Bureau, and the State Taxation Bureau have Tibetan text alongside Chinese.

This was my initial thought. Later, on the return flight, I met a gentleman who had lived in Gansu for many years. We chatted about our understanding of Gansu.

He told me that he had spent an autumn and winter in Qilian. He said it was freezing, not to mention the winter, even the summer was cold. Life really wasn’t easy. How could there be such a fairyland in the world?

The largest group of people in this area aren’t the Tibetans or the Hui people, but a group of people who are somewhere in between Tibetans and Hui people.

Day 9, 8.4 morning

Sunrise from the Zuoer Mountain.

This was the second time I went out to watch the sunrise on this trip. We woke up early, but the clouds prevented us from seeing the sunrise. I had already experienced the coldness of Qilian the previous day, and today, for the first time in August, I put on a down jacket. When the sunlight shone on the snow-capped mountains, I remembered what Fu Zhen wrote about the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the golden top.

Zuoer Mountain is beautiful, but not breathtakingly beautiful.

Along the way, we came to the Arou Grand Monastery, a small Tibetan Buddhist temple. Most tourists like to take photos at places with distinctive features, like prayer wheels and prayer flags. But few people seriously try to understand their culture and wisdom. The Arou Monastery is not a place that’s heavily commercialized, it retains its original appearance. This is a field we know nothing about. This trip focused on the Silk Road, but it couldn’t escape the exploration of faith. I saw Tibetan women circling a building chanting sutras, I saw Tibetan children. I also remembered what the ticket collector said on the bus in Xi’an: “What we know is very little, but the unknown is infinite. We might get lost in the sea of knowledge, but many things are like guiding threads, guiding us to discover, to explore.” On this journey, I learned very little, but it opened up a series of knowledge doors for me. After this, it’s up to me to study, to research, to explore.

I’ll talk more about Tibetan Buddhism in the chapter about the Ta’er Temple in Xining.

Summary: Compared to other places I’ve been, the west really brings about a collision of mind and sight.

The inconvenience of transportation brings us inconvenience, but also things that we in the eastern developed areas can’t have.

In fact, human warmth and coldness can be found all over the world. Stories, exist everywhere.