Day 7 – Hanging out in Lanzhou

December 9 – Lanzhou is a very interesting city. The city is long and narrow, just fitting into the valley along the Yellow River in the Gansu Provence of .China. The city has an interesting history based on its geography. It was part of the Silk Road that brought China’s unique goods to Europe. It also lies between Tibet to the south and Mongolia to the north.

Even though it was really cold outside my mama bundled me up and we went with our group to the Water Wheel Park. The water wheels were invented in Lanzhou to carry water from the river to the fields. This invention was so successful, that other communites along the river began using this technology. If we had visited in the summer we could have riden on a sheepskin raft. We saw several rafts with deflated sheep skins lying near the river. I takes 13 skins to make raft. Until the first bridge was built in the early 1900’s this was the only way to cross the Yellow River. As we strooled through the park Jenny and I looked very stylish in our pink coats. Unfortunately I can’t show you any picyures yet because Mama left the memory card in the laptop and the few pictures Mama was able to take with the little bit of memory are stuck in the camera.

Instead you can see pics of me in the hotel.