Discovering our world: Gānsù, China

popsiclesociety

5 years ago

Hello my dear readers,

Maybe some of you are in holiday, lucky you, and some of us are still in the office, not so lucky 🤪 However, I hope your week is going smooth no matter where you are.

Now that we know that the first place in the world that produces watermelon is Gānsù, in China, let’s discover a little bit more about it.

Beside Beijing and Shanghai, China is somewhat poorly known, but places like the Rainbow mountains, also known as Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park, or Magao Grottoes, Jiāyùguān Fort, located in Gānsù province, are well worth to see them.

Gansu is a province in north-central China, with a population of 23.7 million. This region has a multinational population which includes ethnic minority groups of Kazak, Mongolian, Tibetan, Hui, Dongxiang, Tu and Manchu. They mutually influence each other in the fields of economics, politics and culture and hold close ties with the Han people and they have developed a unique cultural community. Lanzhou, a well-known ancient city in China, is the capital of Gānsù.

With a long history and brilliant cultures, Gānsù is characterised by plenty of cultural relics and natural scenery. Endless desert and pure glacial landscape present an impressive and breath-taking scenery before your eyes. For example the world-famous Mogao Grottoes, which is the largest and most well-preserved Buddhist art palace and also a post along the ancient Silk Road; the grand Jiayuguan Pass, is an important outpost in ancient China, is the western end of the Great Wall; the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist resorts in China while the Bingling Temple in Lanzhou is a treasure trove of Han Buddhism. All of these are well worth points of interest for your tour.

Here, you will need to lower your hotel expectations, as you will not find luxury hotels but mid-range hotels are pretty common in Gānsù province. They are clean, cheap and equipped with in-house fast internet.

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The annual average temperature is about 0C to 15C. The lowest temperature are in January and is approximately -14C to 3C and the highest temperature is in July between 22C and 25C. With plenty of rain, you would better take an umbrella along with you. However, despite the changeful weather, your sightseeing visit from May to October would be uninterrupted.

Well, I hope you like Chinese food, as you’ll not have many options for western food 😉 It seems that the top choice in Gānsù province are spicy hand-pulled noodles, and hotpots are also very common. You get a pot of broth in which you can add sliced mutton, beef or pork, greens and various other dishes. But to not forget also the nigh markets, where you’ll find all manner of open-air stalls and restaurants serving barbecue and local specialities.