About Lanzhou, China (People’s Republic of China):
Lanzhou is located along the ancient Silk Road in China’s northwestern highlands and is considered to be China’s northwest geographical center with a population of 3,310,100 in 2008.
Catholic places of interest in Lanzhou, China (People’s Republic of China):
The diocesan territory stretches across more than 2,000 kilometers in Gansu and covers 20 counties, including four ancient cities on the “Silk Road” — Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Wuwei and Zhangye, as well as Dingxi and Lanzhou cities. What is now Lanzhou Diocese was erected in 1922 and entrusted to the Society of the Divine Word. In 1946, it became an archdiocese when the Vatican set up the Chinese hierarchy. In 1952, foreign clergy in Gansu, as in other places in China, were expelled.
Religious activities revived in the early 1980s, and Bishop Yang was ordained in 1987 in the “underground” Church community. Later, he surfaced and worked openly until he died in 1998. Bishop Han was ordained his successor in 2003.
Traveling to Lanzhou, China (People’s Republic of China):
Lanzhou is 727 miles (1,170 kilometers) southwest of Beijing. It is situated on the upper course of the Yellow River, where the river emerges from the mountains. The Yellow River flows through from west to east. Lanzhou has been a center since early times, being at the southern end of the route leading via the Hexi Corridor across Central Asia.