- Jun 6

By the Yellow River 黄河之滨

As the West takes issue with China, China has long taken issue with its own wild West: the land that begins with the Hexi Corridor through Gansu province and extends to the sparsely populated mountain areas in the south and the desert areas in the north. This region has provided China with a vast buffer zone for millennia while posing a persistent challenge for central rule to ensure its people understand and accept it as part of China. I have traveled through this land and observed these tensions as intrinsic to 2,000 years of history.

当西方对中国提出质疑时，中国也长久以来对其辽阔的西部土地心存忧虑。这片土地从甘肃的河西走廊开始，延伸至南部人烟稀少的山区和北部的沙漠地带。千百年来，这个地区为中国提供了广阔的缓冲区，同时也对中央统治提出了持续的挑战，要求确保其人民认识并接受其作为中国的一部分。我穿越了这片土地，观察到这些紧张局势早已融入了两千年的历史之中。

Throughout these years, tensions have been mitigated by spiritual life, trade, and governance, but most significantly by people’s thirst for peace and peaceful coexistence. The place I found most vibrant, embodying all this, is Lanzhou. The city condenses numerous drives, paradigms, tastes, beliefs, and more. Living in Lanzhou exposes one to a variety of languages, even more dialects, cuisines from near and far, customs, trades, imports, and more. When the urge arises to find meaning in all this, one may find a temple of choice around the corner, be it Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, or Christian. In Lanzhou, I found that the Middle Kingdom has its own middle too—an embarrassment of riches.

在这些年里，紧张局势得以缓解，主要得益于精神生活、贸易和治理，但更重要的是人民对和平共处的渴望。我发现最充满活力、集合了所有这些元素的地方是兰州。这座城市融合了众多的动力、范例、口味、信仰等等。生活在兰州会让人接触到各种语言、更多的方言、来自远近的美食、习俗、贸易、进口商品等等。当人们渴望在这一切中找到意义时，他们可能会在附近找到一座心仪的寺庙，无论是儒家、道教、佛教还是基督教。在兰州，我发现中华之中也有其独特的中心——这里拥有丰富多样的资源。