Waterwheel Garden

The Waterwheel Garden, built in 1994, is located in the Binhe Middle Road (Binhe Zhong Lu) in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. The garden covers an area of 1.45 hectares (3.58 acres) and is comprised of two waterwheels, a cofferdam, the recreation area and a house of water mill. It is certainly an exciting experience for the visitors to tour around the Waterwheel Garden, a restoration of the ancient irrigation system.

Lanzhou is the only city through which the Yellow River flows. Once upon a time, a Chinese inventor Duan Xu modified irrigation machinery of Yunnan Province and invented his water wheel. His design was of 20 meters in diameter, able to lift water to a height of 15 meters, which was fed then by pipes and canals to irrigate nearby fields. Since then, Lanzhou became known as the "City of Water Wheels." For example, nearly 250 waterwheels were used on the Hwang Ho riverbank near the city up to the mid XX century.

Giant ancient waterwheels, made in the Ming Dynasty, were used for irrigation of the farming fields along the Yellow River in ancient Lanzhou City. The Lanzhou waterwheel was quite a famous invention of ancient China, and it was named "Heaven Wheel", "Fan Wheel", "Irrigative Wheel" and "Tiger Wheel" at different times of the history. Hence the Waterwheel Garden was built to honor the invention of this ancient irrigation instrument.

In the garden, two huge waterwheels with striking appearances stand uprightly on the south bank of the Yellow River. They are modeled on the antique waterwheel, having quadrate buckets and a diameter of 16.5 meters (54.1 feet). In high water periods, they are driven by flowing water from the river; in low water periods, they are driven by water gathered by cofferdam. Owing to the two waterwheels and an advantaged position, the Waterwheel Teahouse attracts a lot of tourists.

In the garden, tourists can experience crossing the river on a sheepskin raft, which is the most primeval ferrying tool in the northwest region of the Yellow River. A cozy tea house called “Water Wheel” perfectly fits in-between these wheels. This place has become popular not only among the citizens but also the tourists. The garden also houses shops, photo studios and even a sculpture made of the bushes, imitating a family of elephants. To make impressions of the city complete when visiting Lanzhou you should take a walk in the Waterwheel Garden.

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