(Airdate: November 5, 2024) After a trip to the Tibetan center of Labrang, we’re back in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province. Lanzhou has never been renowned for its beauty, and it’s sliding fast toward the ugly end of the scale. Still, there are a few places worth visiting while we await the next bus out of town—Five Spring Mountain Park, and across the Yellow River, the White Pagoda, both full of history and legend.

(Airdate: October 28, 2024) We’re in Gansu Province at the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Labrang, a seven hour bus ride south the Linxia. Most of the people who visit Labrang are Tibetan pilgrims, but Chinese and an occasional Western tourist or two also make the trek.

(Airdate: October 22, 2024) We’re in Gansu Province at the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Labrang, a seven hour bus ride south the Linxia. Most of the people who visit Labrang are Tibetan pilgrims, but Chinese and an occasional Western tourist or two also make the trek.

(Airdate: October 15, 2024) We’re traveling south of Lanzhou and Linxia, and after a long, long bus ride we’ve finally arrived at Xiahe and to our destination, the Tibetan Buddhist complex of Labrang, one of the most important training centers outside Tibet.

(Airdate: October 15, 2024) Linxia is the area where much of the painted pottery in the Gansu Provincial Museum was unearthed. Until about a thousand years ago, Linxia, and not Lanzhou, was the major focus of Silk Road trade in this part of China….

(Airdate: October 8, 2024) In addition to the great repository of Buddhist art in the Bingling Caves on the reservoir’s west shore, we’re also visiting the living repository of Islamic culture in the town of Linxia on the east shore. Among the Muslim groups that have called the Linxia area their home, one group in particular has a story that’s especially enlightening….

(Airdate: October 1, 2024) We’ve discovered that at the mouth of the gorge that leads to the Bingling Caves, there was once a stone bridge that led across the Yellow River to the town of Linxia, 20 kilometers to the east. The Linxia area is known as one of the oldest known settlements in China. Just outside of Linxia, archeologists have discovered a 5000 year old village….

(Airdate: September 24, 2024) The Bingling Caves are filled with some of the finest Buddhist sculptures in China, dating back to as much as sixteen hundred years ago. Like the caves of Maijishan outside Tianshii, they’re spread across a cliff face—only this particular cliff face is in a gorge, two hundred meters from the Yellow River….

(Airdate: September 17, 2024) We’re in Gansu Province and we’re visiting the Bingling Caves, 70 kilometers southwest of Lanzhou. After a two hour bus ride to the Liujiaxia Dam and Hydroelectric Station, we still had another three hour boat ride to the end of the Liujiaxia reservoir, filled by the Yellow River….

(Airdate: September 10, 2024) Lanzhou is the only city in China where foreigners are required to purchase travel insurance before they’re allowed to board a bus leaving town, but it’s a hassle running around trying to find the office that issues the necessary certificate…