LANZHOU 101

Lanzhou is a small city by China standards, with a mere 3.5 million people! Compared to other Chinese cities I’ve been in, it does feel pretty compact.

It is surrounded my mountains on all sides, so sits in a valley long and narrow, giving it quite a claustrophobic feel. The air quality isn’t great so on bad days we can’t see the mountains clearly at all! It is extremely dry here, which is actually agreeing with me.  Sandstorm season is over thank goodness, and it is becoming hot. However, humidity is non existent which makes it overall very pleasant.

It is the only Chinese city that has the famous Yellow river running through it, unfortunately to me it seems more brown than yellow… This river is Lanzhou’s secret weapon. For those wondering how Lanzhou could be such a strong producer of fruit, this is the answer. It irrigates all of the surrounding gardens, as the waterwheels beside the river testify. This was how they did it back in the day, I do suspect it may be more modern now!

The people here are all pretty friendly and apparently, I don’t actually look that foreign! So I am not bothered at all when I walk around, that is until I open my mouth and they hear my appalling intonation…  If I do end up teaching in China I think that this lack of western looks could be a disadvantage.  I got mistaken for a Xinjiang girl last week!