Over subsequent years Lanzhou became a railway hub as I ventured across northwestern China. It became a base for exciting, stunning road trips southwest toward the Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture.

Lanzhou holds many personal memories, such as my arriving early one morning by train from Yinchuan in Ningxia to be taken straight to a great steaming bowl of the city’s famed beef noodles (roujiabing) for breakfast.

My first destination within Lanzhou was often Zhongshan Bridge — after all, it was my earliest impression of the city. There I would sit looking at the brown waters of the river while a camel would stand nearby, tethered on an exposed mud flat. On the adjacent riverbank rose replicas of the iconic wooden water wheels regularly located along this section of the Yellow River. While most water would be directed into irrigation channels, some would feed into mills to turn stone wheels for grinding corn. Nearby, a man produced winter quilts by pedaling a wooden machine.