Water Wheel Extravaganza!

In a previous entry on my own blog, I was a bit scathing about our local Water Wheel Park, but I had another look recently and I must admit I have revised my opinion.

On a hot, sunny late September day, I took the screaming yellow 144 bus to the bridge over the Yellow RIver nearest the park, and backtracked a bit to get a view of the whole thing from the bridge. It is quite a sight.

There were over 250 of these wheels on the banks of the Yellow River in Lanzhou in 1952, irrigating thousands of hectares of land. There are six pairs in operation in the park, and I reckon it takes up about 1 km of the bank. The river is about 300m wide here, and flows very quickly. For a hairy, watery ride, try the sheepskin bag rafts!

After taking photos from the bridge, I walked the few hundred yards downstream to the park that runs along the embankment, behind and above the water wheel park. Just before the gate to this park, there were some croquet courts where men, clad in white coats and hats, just like an English bowls match, were knocking balls through hoops. The sound of mallet on ball was very reminiscent of cricket.

To get to the entrance I had to walk through this upper park, where families, mostly with three generations present, were chatting and playing. Old men in Blue Mao suits and flat caps were topping up their tans, strolling thoughtfully along, smoking. I got some good shots of the wheels from here. There were roses in abundance in the park, of all shades, shapes and sizes. Lanzhou grows great roses, especially the perfumed ones. There were greast views of the wheels from here.

I got to the entrance of the park, handed over my 10 yuan and walked down to the statue of Duan Xu, who at sometime in 1556 cried out the Chinese equivalent of “Eureka”, because after 20 years of trying, he finally got his water wheel design right. He was an imperial official of some note, who retired to Lanzhou to crack the irrigation problem. The tipper waterwheel concept he came up with is nothing short of genius.

There are some problems here, with the mud from the river clogging everything it touches up and levees forming around the channels. I doesn’t smell too good either. Nevertheless, you can’t deny the sheer chutzpah of the park, which not only has six pairs of 40 foot high water wheels up and running, but an amphitheatre with one of the wheels as a backdrop. I expect I’ll be playing there one day.

Sitting there watching the band and dancers (neither of which should give up the day job), I felt that they really have a great attraction here that just needs a little fine tuning. There are magnificent bronze sculptures all over the place showing old Lanzhou people doing all sorts of things, like stretching the famous noodles, there’s a place to have tea, watch the show and nibble seeds. All they need to do is stop using the polluted Yellow River water and they have a winner.

I think old Duan Xu is smiling at it from wherever he is.