Saying goodbye to ancient city Jiayu Pass, we came to Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu, born with mother Yellow river. Yellow river is Chinese nation's cradle, breeding China's 5,000 year brilliant civilization and Lanzhou is one of them. Some say Yeloow river flows passed Lanzhou. Actually,Lanzhou is built along the river. We traveled and saw ancient tap water project-Waterwheel garden copied Ming Dynasty's famous waterwheel. We also started our our charity event here:Gaolan assisting impoverished students activity.

  In Jingyuan County, the farmers' 1st bridge is very impressing. This bridge was built 60-70s last century under underdevelopment circumstance and is mainly rely on farmers' spontaneous funding. It is also the 1st suspending bridge on Yellow river's upper stream. Amazing!

  In this chapter, we don't have magnificant landscape photos, instead we have ordinary moving moments. Let's have a look.

Lanzhou Waterwheel in history
    Lanzhou waterwheel, is also named crown block, turn over wheel and tiger wheel. it was first created by Scholar Xu Duan in Jiajing period in Ming Dynasty( 1522AD -1566AD). It has more than 500 year's history. Lanzhou waterwheel is a water-conservancy facility using the Yellow River's natrual force of impact. The wheel arm's  diameter is 16.5m and can lift water 15m-18m. Using water to boost rotating, let the water irragate  the fields. This facility is also called the ancient" tap water project".

Lanzhou Waterwheel Garden
    The waterwheel garden is designed and built in order to reapear this old irragating facility. It was finished in 1994. The whel arm's diameter is also 16.5m. This is also a most distictive scenic spot of Lanzhou among all the cities of the 100 mile Yellow River.The garden is made up of two-wheel water wheel,coffer dam,water mill, service room and recreation area.

The Yellow River raised Lanzhou like a mother.

Yellow River Mother.
 

Lanzhou Yellow River Iron Bridge
   Lanzhou Yellow River iron bridge is also named Zhongshan iron bridge. Its predecessor is a raft bridge built by Sheng Feng,the king of Song kingdom 7 miles west from Lanzhou city in the 5th year of Hongwu period in Ming Dynasty(1372AD). In the 9th year(1376AD), Yu Deng, the king of Wei Kingdom moved this bridge to 10 miles, called it" Zhenyuan Bridge". In the 18th year(1385AD), Lian Yang, the director of Lanzhou moved it to today's position. The relic weight 10 tons and 5.8m long with 3 columns.
 

                                                                                                           Gaolan Assisting Impoverished Students Activity

 At the begining of our riding event, we were thinking doing some good deeds for primary schools in northwestern regions. But what do we give them is for their best?
   We can lose any game but we cannot lose at the begining line. We can eat and wear simple. The classrooms can be simple, but the visions of these students can not be inferior to those in the big cities. Computers are media appliances that can let the students learn the world from a different angle. So after careful thoughts, we all decide computers are our 1st choice and we must gave them good brand ones because brand computers have better after-sale service.
   15th ,June, we purchased some computers and sent them to East Bay primary school in Cave Town, Gaolan County. Both the teachers and students were thrilled to receive these gifts. We became more happier when we saw their smile. When you give others roses, you can have fragrance in your own hands.

Packing these computers.

Here is east bay primary school.The school is very tidy and clean.

 

The school scale isn't very large. It owns 100 students. The infrastructure is ok. We hope these computers can bring them more colorful life.

Our team gave the principal team flag as gift.

Polite and cute kids.

The walls are full of these students' graffiti. Mr. Zhao and Mr. Kong wanna be back to school.

Pingpu Yellow River suspension Bridge
Pingpu Yellow River suspension Bridge is located above the west Yellow river Wujin Narrow in Ping pu village Jingyuan county and is known as the "farmers' first bridge".This bridge is built in 1967 by local farmers who spontaneously raised funds and constructed along with the help of national government support and mining corporations nearby. It was finished on 21th, March 1970. This is also the 1st suspension bridge over the upper stream of Yellow River. The length is 192.4m and the width is 4m. Pavements that is 0.8m each are on both sides. The bridge connects the two sides of Yellow river. You can say a tough road turn into smooth road because of this bridge, like a rainbow over the river, so magnificant.

Good fortune temple is located in the west of Little Ping mountain southwest of Jingyuan County. It is a rare temple that combines Buddhism and Taoism. The temple is first built in the 3rd year of Hongzhi period of Ming Dynasty.(149 AD). Because it's near the fortress of Hexi Corridor, wars always happened here. In Tongzhi period of Qing period, it was burnt down by fire. In 1980s, local people raised fund to rebuild what is called "good funtune temple" today.

Next Chapterass through Ningxia province,heading to Inner Mongolia