Ever since the Neolithic Age, this place had been the habitat of our ancestors. They raised themselves by hunting and planting. Majiayao, Banshan and Qijia cultures were great treasures they had left.

In Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, Qiang and Rong groups lived there. In the Chinese legendary, Yandi, also known as Shennong, was the God of Qiang people.

Lanzhou was first built as a city in 86 BC. It is recorded that people excavated gold when they were building the city thus it was called Jincheng (which means the city of gold in Chinese). In Han and Wei-Jin time, this region was called Jincheng County. It was in Sui dynasty that Jincheng were replaced by Lanzhou. This was the first time thatLanzhou was recorded into documents. In later period, the name of the region had changed several times betweenJincheng County and Lanzhou, however, the organizational structure was kept till today.

From Han dynasty to Tang-Song period, Lanzhou gradually became an important transport hub as well as commercial port on the Silk Road. It closely connected people from central plain area with the minority groups in the West Region.

In Qing dynasty, Lanzhou became the capital city of Gansu. Currently, it is the political, economic and cultural center of Gansu Province.