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Instead of challenging the 40-hour train journey back to Lhasa, we got off the train in Lanzhou and flew back to Beijing from Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport early the next morning.
Let me talk about Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport first. The distance between the airport and Lanzhou city is like that from Beijing to Tianjin. We will take off at 8 o'clock the next morning, so we have to rush to the airport to stay overnight.
After careful planning, we had about 2 hours to explore Lanzhou.
Lanzhou is indeed not too big and is generally regarded as a transit city for tourism.
But it is also the central city in the northwest region, and its transportation status is very important. It reaches Dunhuang in the north, Gannan in the south, Xining in the west, and Yinchuan in the east.
The same goes for going to Tibet. Since direct air tickets to Lhasa are so high, many people will choose to transfer in Lanzhou or Xining. We also followed this routine on our return trip to Linzhi, Tibet.
If you spend 2 hours at night to appreciate Lanzhou, it is impossible to go to the Lanzhou Museum to admire its flagship horse riding a flying swallow, nor to go to the top of the White Pagoda to overlook the Yellow River.
Perhaps eating a bowl of authentic Lanzhou Ramen on the streets of Lanzhou is the best choice.
The real Lanzhou ramen mentioned on the Internet emphasizes one clear, two white, three red and four green, that is, clear soup, white radish, red spicy oil, and green coriander... However, if you eat a lot in the mainland, it does not include meat, or only a few slices are as thin as cicada wings.
After eating the meaty Lanzhou Ramen, I have long lost interest in this kind of noodles.
When going to a Lanzhou noodle shop or a halal restaurant, I would rather have a few grilled skewers and grilled naan.
After some research, I found that the famous food in Lanzhou is not just Lanzhou Ramen.
There is also something called milk and egg fermented rice.
This was unheard of before, and I couldn't even pronounce the standard pronunciation of the word "饳饳".
The most famous glutinous rice in Lanzhou belongs to Lao Ma's. Just like Lao Sun's or Lao Bai's when you go to Xi'an Huimin Street to eat steamed buns, Lanzhou's Zhengning Road is as popular as Xi'an's Huimin Street.
The train arrived in Lanzhou at 18:36 on April 6. As soon as we got off the train, we went straight to the Zhengning Road Night Market.
When we arrived at Zhengning Road, our first impression was that it was crowded. All kinds of snacks were lined up on both sides of the narrow street. To sum up, they were nothing more than milk and egg glutinous rice, haggis, lamb bones and heads, hot and sour noodles, baked potatoes, and beef and mutton barbecue.
There are mostly these types, but there are also chicken wings with rice, stinky tofu and other delicacies that are must-haves in snack streets all over the world.
The second feeling is that it is authentic, although all the glutinous rice sellers will add Lao Majia to their stall names, and behind each stall there is an old man wearing a Hui hat and a long beard.
The first one we encountered was Lao Majia glutinous rice. We were very excited. Isn’t this the Lao Majia glutinous rice recommended by Mafengwo/Dianping. Yes, the photo on the Internet is of this long-haired old man. He went in to eat it.
Once I got through, I went out and continued shopping. When I walked to the front, I found that there were nearly 10 other stalls selling fermented glutinous rice. There was an old man with a long beard like this in front of each stall. The stall names would try their best to have something to do with Lao Ma's family, just like in Beijing.
In the Wangjing area, various types of Wangjing waists will appear.
When I got to the end, I found that everyone had queued up in a queue of more than 10 meters long in the crowded crowd, just for Lao Ma's glutinous rice. This restaurant is the most authentic Lao Ma's glutinous rice!
Doesn't it taste like rice wine, eggs and yogurt? It doesn't matter if it's real or fake.
Apart from glutinous rice, what we are most interested in is haggis. Although mutton and haggis are indispensable in the mainland, when you go to Lanzhou and see the Hui people wearing white hats, you will feel that this is the most authentic mutton in the world.
, so I wanted to experience sheep bones, sheep hooves, sheep heads, and haggis soup.
While eating haggis at the second stall, I met a local uncle. He ordered a sheep head and ate it skillfully, mumbling something to himself. When he saw us sitting across from him, he asked me if the mutton was delicious.
smell of mutton.
I said no, but he was right. The sheep here are almost all Tan sheep, that is, the kind of sheep in the Gobi Desert. They are different from the sheep often eaten on the grasslands and the goats often eaten in mountain villages.
This is the reason he explained why he doesn’t feel so bad. I think it has something to do with people’s taste. I don’t feel so bad eating sheep from the mainland.
The uncle thought we were students from Lanzhou University, but wow, I still look immature. Every time I go traveling with a bag on my back, I get mistaken for students.
Speaking of delicious food, I have to mention a few more words.
In Lhasa, if you want to eat some local delicacies or buy some souvenirs to take back, a trip to Barkhor Street is indispensable.
When we first arrived in Lhasa on April 1st, we walked around in a hurry and didn't even figure out where Barkhor Street was. However, we did see the Guangminggang Qiongtian Tea Shop, which has an excellent online reputation.
I also went in to experience it. The people sitting crowded with you are all authentic local Tibetans, which is quite local.