Day 18: Stone Art Museum and Qingcheng

As we left Qingyang it was evident that while a lot of development is underway, a lot of maintenance is required also. Nevertheless, the people express the same warmth and friendliness seen before and there is certainly a bright future for this city. The culture is alive and well, the workers diligent and the agriculture florishing. Farewell Qingyang.


Longdong Ancient Carved Stone Art Museum is just outside of Qingyang and contains an astounding collection of artifacts chronicalising and memorialising the history of Buddhism.

The pieces include numerous carvings of Buddha -- statues and busts, coloured and unadorned, complete and partial relics. This collection was delightful and inspiring to examine.


Zhou is thought to be the founder of Agriculture in China and his remains are kept in a tomb on a Mount above Qingcheng. On the walk to the tomb there is a large drum and bronze bell whose rich reverberations can be heard around the city of Qingcheng.






Qingcheng Museum is a very new museum, opening just months before our visit. The exhibits were extremely well presented: easily accessed for viewing and most interesting. Sections in the museum include a history of Qingcheng, stone carvings and ancient artifacts, the development of Chinese Medicine (which supposedly originated in Qingching!)
and the tomb of a General. It was absolutely stunning to look around.


Qingcheng was a quite tidy city with a much smaller population than any city we'd visited so far, with only 300,000 people. It is encompassed by two rivers, otherwise appearing quite dry in comparison.


The rest of the day was spent in a bus, returning to Lanzhou. It was good to return 'home'!