Gaolan County 皋兰县

History

A county was first set up here as Jincheng (金城县) in 127 BC under the Western Han. It was renamed Gaolan in 1738 and remained Gansu's "first county" (甘肃首县) until the Republican era.

At Shichuan (什川), a short stretch of the Great Wall, here called the border wall (边墙), survives on a cliff above the south bank of the Yellow River: about 3 metres long and 4 metres wide, built of stone under a cap of loess. A county survey in 1987 dated the Shichuan wall to the Ming.

What to see

The Shichuan Ancient Pear Orchard (什川古梨园) is a national 4A scenic area in a gorge basin on the Yellow River. It covers 12,000 mu and holds 9,423 pear trees more than a century old, over 2,600 of them older than 300 years, including old groves of winter pears (冬果梨) and ruan'er pears (软儿梨). On 19 May 2025 the FAO recognised the "Shichuan ancient pear orchard system" as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System. Growers still use the tianbashi (天把式) technique, climbing special ladders into canopies more than ten metres high to prune and thin fruit; it entered Gansu's intangible heritage list on 13 June 2008.

The county is known as the home of the Taiping drum (太平鼓). The Lanzhou Taiping drum and Lanzhou guzi (兰州鼓子) are both national intangible cultural heritage, and the Shichuan lantern tradition (什川灯火) is on the provincial list.

Food and local products

In 2025 four Gaolan farm products became national geographical-indication products. The ruan'er pear is stored until late winter, when its flesh turns soft, dark and sweet as honey. Heshangtou wheat (禾尚头小麦) is named for its awnless ears and is the flour for Lanzhou latiaozi (拉条子) pulled noodles. Gaolan dry-sand watermelons (旱砂西瓜) grow on the county's dry sandy fields, which are hot by day and cool at night. The red-sand potato (红砂洋芋) is a speciality of Mingxing village (明星村), where the soil is loose red sand.

Highlights

• Shichuan Ancient Pear Orchard 什川古梨园: National 4A scenic area with 9,423 pear trees over a century old; recognised by the FAO as agricultural heritage in 2025.
• Lanzhou Taiping drum 兰州太平鼓: National intangible cultural heritage; Gaolan is called its home.
• Gaolan ruan'er pear 皋兰软儿梨: Winter-stored pear that turns soft and honey-sweet; a national geographical-indication product.