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China Elevator Stories

Lingming Mosque, Lanzhou (China Travel)

Lanzhou features a lot of Islamic architecture, including this stunning building.

07/05/2026

Ruth Silbermayr
Ruth Silbermayr

Author

Ornate Chinese temple with carved stone walls, upturned tiled roofs, and evergreen trees against a blue sky.

I only spent about a day in Lanzhou before I had to head back to Northeast China.

Stone Chinese temple behind a brick wall with multi-tier, upturned roofs and parked cars along the street behind it.

I came across this building rather coincidentally while looking at the map during the day when visiting different sights and after seeing a few pictures of it. I thought it looked terrific in the pictures and took a cab there.

Stone city wall with ornate Chinese temple roofs peeking above, sun glare in the corner

I initially thought it was a truly old historic building, and found out only later that it was only built in 1985.

Ornate Chinese temple gate with green doors and carved stone walls amid barren winter vegetation and distant hills.

The halls weren’t accessible, but I walked around outside the building complex to see what it looked like.

Traditional East Asian rooftops with ornate curved tiles and a stone wall in the foreground, under a clear blue sky.

Someone who looked a bit like an imam asked me what I was doing there and tried to send me away.

Ornate Chinese temple wall with carved stone panels and green tiled roof, adjacent to a paved courtyard and storefronts with closed shutters.

I think he didn’t want non-Muslims to visit, which seemed to be common for mosques in Lanzhou, as I had also experienced this behaviour at another, smaller mosque.

Blue wall with a green tiled roof along a street; behind it rise colorful multi-tiered Chinese pagoda-style rooftops on a clear winter day with bare trees.

Many of the Muslims who live in Lanzhou belong to the Hui minority and are identifiable through their round white hats. After I spoke a little with this man, he became a bit friendlier. Maybe he had preconceived notions that foreigners are hostile or ill-intentioned and became friendlier once he realized I wasn’t.

Have you ever visited Lanzhou?

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