Xiahe to Lanzhou: How Far? 240 km in 3.5 Hours — Two Routes Tested, Tolls and Fuel Stops

Xiahe to Lanzhou: How Far? 240 km in 3.5 Hours — Two Routes Tested, Tolls and Fuel Stops

A client asked me how long the drive back to Lanzhou would take. I said three and a half to four hours, and that he'd still make it in time for a bowl of Lanzhou beef noodles at lunch. He left half-convinced, and at 1:30 PM messaged me: "Eaten. Your timing was right." Then he added: "But I nearly went wrong — the app routed me onto a five-hour road."

That's the most common trap on the Xiahe–Lanzhou run: the route your app defaults to isn't necessarily the fast one. There are two ways to do it. One takes the expressway via Linxia: 240 km, 3.5 hours. The other follows the national roads via Hezuo and Lintan, swinging well out of the way: five hours, easily. Both arrive; the one to two hours between them is the difference between making lunch in Lanzhou and not.

Here's the breakdown: how many kilometres each route covers, how long each takes, what the tolls cost, where to refuel, and one thing most people overlook — this leg drops the whole way (2,850 m down to 1,520 m), and both car and body behave differently for it.

😤 Choose Your Road First: Two Hours Between the Expressway and the National Roads

My conclusion is blunt: take A unless you specifically want Lintan, Zhuoni or Yeliguan. B isn't impossible, it's just ninety minutes longer, hillier and far more likely to make someone carsick. I've only driven B when taking clients to Yeliguan; every other time it's A.

A has one hidden bonus: the elevation falls the whole way. From 2,850 m at Xiahe to 2,000 m at Linxia and 1,520 m at Lanzhou. Anyone coming down off the Gannan plateau feels noticeably better by the time they hit the city.

🚗 Route A, Segment by Segment (Recommended)

Segment 1: Xiahe → Linxia (~100 km, 1.5–2 hours)

Head northeast out of Xiahe on the S2 Linhe Expressway (some sections are first-class highway). It follows the Daxia River valley — decent scenery, and the poplars along both banks turn gold in autumn.

• Watch out: there's a speed camera on the short stretch leaving Xiahe, limit 60. Once on the expressway the surface is excellent but there are many tunnels: lights on, no speeding.
• Optional stop: Derlong Monastery sits on this road, about 77 km from Linxia and 30 km from Xiahe. A quiet Gelug monastery that almost no tourists visit. I once spent half an hour inside and met only two locals. Skip it if you're pressed for time, but if you want somewhere genuinely quiet, this is the place.

Segment 2: Linxia → Lanzhou (~140 km, 2 hours)

Take the G1816 Wuma Expressway: excellent surface, two lanes each way. This stretch moves from the loess plateau into the Yellow River valley and the landscape changes noticeably.

• Watch out: the last stretch before Lanzhou jams up easily, especially between 5 and 7 PM. Avoid arriving in the evening rush — being stuck on the ring road for half an hour is normal.
• My tip: service areas and the county town both have fuel, but with only 140 km to go you might as well drive through. Unless the gauge is already low.

🗺️ When Route B Is Worth Taking

Route B (Xiahe → Hezuo → Lintan → Zhuoni) has exactly one thing going for it: what's along the way — Yeliguan, Lianhua Mountain, the Danxia landforms near Lintan, and Zhuoni's Dayugou. If those were on your list anyway, it isn't a detour, it's the itinerary.

• Distance: 300 km and up, 5 hours of pure driving, a full day with stops.
• Road: mostly national and provincial roads, more mountains and bends, bigger elevation swings. Think twice if anyone gets carsick.
• My tip: if you take B, forget about reaching Lanzhou the same day. Sleeping in Lintan or Zhuoni is far more comfortable.

🎒 Practical Checklist

⚠️ Don't say I didn't warn you: this leg is mostly downhill, so people relax and speed up. But there are many tunnels and quite a few average-speed cameras, particularly on the S2. I've watched someone get flashed at a tunnel mouth — six points off their licence.

• Tolls: about 80–100 yuan for route A (small car); route B has almost none.
• Fuel: proper stations in Xiahe, Linxia and Lanzhou. Filling up before you leave Xiahe is simplest — refuelling once you're inside Lanzhou means sitting in traffic.
• Speed limits: 100–120 on the expressway, usually 80 in tunnels; 60–80 average-speed zones leaving and entering cities.
• Timing: leave in the morning if you can and avoid entering Lanzhou between 5 and 7 PM.
• Elevation: 2,850 m → 2,000 m → 1,520 m, descending throughout. You'll feel better — but don't use that as a reason to drive fast.
• Parking: tight in central Lanzhou, especially Chengguan district. Ask your hotel about a space in advance.

💡 A Few Honest Truths

240 km in 3.5 hours is the easiest leg of a Gannan loop. After days of plateau mountain roads, being back on an expressway feels like a holiday. Which is exactly why people get caught speeding — tunnels everywhere, limits changing constantly. Just do what the app says.

Don't arrive in Lanzhou at rush hour. This isn't fussiness. I once hit the ring road at 5:30 and sat for forty minutes; the beef noodles I'd planned became instant noodles in the car. Either leave early, or have a long lunch in Linxia and roll in after seven.

Coming down from Gannan, people genuinely perk up. From 2,850 m to 1,520 m — a 1,300-metre drop. Travellers often say their headache simply vanished at Lanzhou, and it's true. Still, don't immediately eat, drink and exercise hard; give your body one night.

Linxia deserves an hour for lunch. It's a Hui autonomous prefecture and the hand-pulled mutton and liangpi are as good as anywhere in Gansu — far better than a service-area meal. The main town is only a short hop off the expressway.

📸 Don't Shoot Blindly — These Spots Work

• Daxia River valley (Xiahe → Linxia): golden poplars along both banks in autumn, lots of bends; the lay-bys give good side light.
• Derlong Monastery: a quiet Gelug monastery, red walls and gold roofs against distant hills, almost no visitors — take your time.
• Liujiaxia Reservoir viewpoint: the entrance to the Yellow River Three Gorges, wide water, best in late-afternoon light.
• Lanzhou Yellow River scenic belt: Zhongshan Bridge at night; the half-hour around sunset is golden.
• Looking down from the hills north or south of Lanzhou: the city squeezed into the Yellow River valley shoots well from above.

💬 What Travellers Who Came With RoamFun Said

"Following the guide we took the Linxia expressway and made Lanzhou in three and a half hours — real beef noodles for lunch. We stopped at Derlong Monastery for half an hour; there were only the two of us in the whole place, quiet enough to hear the wind." — Xiao He, Chengdu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"The first time I wasn't paying attention and followed the app onto the Lintan national road. The mountain switchbacks made my wife sick and it took over five hours. The second time I took the Linxia expressway: three and a half. Please check the route." — Mr. Wang, Xi'an ⭐⭐⭐⭐

240 km — the Best Possible Ending to a Gannan Trip

After years of running Gannan loops, I still think the day you return to Lanzhou is the most comfortable one. The elevation falls the whole way and you feel human again; the roads switch from switchbacks to expressway and the car relaxes too; outside the window the plateau meadow gives way to loess hills and then the Yellow River valley. You can feel, quite physically, that you're coming down off the plateau and back into the ordinary world.

So my advice is short: take the Linxia expressway and don't trust your app's "shortest route"; fill up before leaving Xiahe; obey the limits leaving town and at tunnel mouths; and avoid entering Lanzhou between 5 and 7 PM. Do those and you'll be sitting in a noodle shop at lunchtime, eating away the whole trip's tiredness in one bowl.

For what's worth stopping at on the way, see What to See Driving from Xiahe to Lanzhou (/travel-guide/gansu/gansu-xiahe-lanzhou-attractions-guide/); for the full loop, see Gannan Self-Driving Loop (/travel-guide/gansu/gansu-gannan-self-driving-loop-guide/).

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Updated: September 2026 Author: RoamFun Senior Travel Consultant Questions? Contact us: vip@roamfun.net