Gansu Travels (Part II)

From Lanzhou, we headed south back towards Xi’an for our next stop in Tianshui (天水) on the way. Tianshui is located in south-eastern Gansu, almost on the border to Shaanxi. The reported GDP per capita for Tianshui was only 3571 yuan in 2004, less than a quarter of that of Xi’an or Lanzhou for the same year. Nonetheless, Tianshui looks like most other Chinese cities (with a KFC decorating the People’s Square), although there seemed to be an abnormally high concentration of bubble-tea stands and luxury hotels (ours not included…).


View over Tianshui (from Yuquanguan)

The main attraction around Tianshui are the Maijishan Grottoes (麦积山石窟). The Maijishan Grottoes are carved high up on a mountain wall (how did they get up there…?!), with an elaborate construction of stairs for tourists to explore the relatively well-preserved statues. There were very few tourists (and no foreign tourists at all) at Maijishan.











With some more time to kill around Tianshui, we also visited the Fuxi temple (伏羲庙) downtown Tianshui. Pretty, but well, nothing we had not seen before.





Our final stop was Yuquanguan (玉泉观), a Daoist temple. This visit was significantly spiced up by old bearded actors dressed up as Daoist monks and calligraphers. Located on the hillside, this spot also provided a good view of Tianshui itself.




We boarded the train back to Xi’an at two o'clock in the afternoon. Choosing between sleepers and no seat, Pravit chose sleepers. As evident, he was very happy with this choice.