Getting from Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport to the city

The distance is the story

• Lanzhou Zhongchuan is about 70 km from Lanzhou. That is a long way even by the standards of new Chinese airports.
• A taxi costs about 250 to 300 yuan, and about 300 to the main railway station.
• The train costs 18.5. There is not much more to say about which one to take.

The train, and the station that moved

• The Lanzhou to Zhongchuan Airport intercity railway connects the airport with Lanzhou West in about 30 minutes.
• Second class to Lanzhou West is 18.5 yuan, first class 22.
• To the main Lanzhou railway station it is 21.5 and 26, and the journey runs 40 to 50 minutes.
• On 20 March 2025 the airport's railway station changed. Zhongchuanjichang, which had served terminals 1 and 2 since 30 September 2015, closed, and Zhongchuanjichangdong, Zhongchuan Airport East, opened the same day next to terminal 3.
• Check which terminal you are in before following signs to the train. Anything written before March 2025 describes the old arrangement.

The coach

• One airport coach line runs into Lanzhou, ending at the CAAC ticket office on Panxuan Lu and calling at the Eastern Hotel and the Jinjiang Sunshine Hotel.
• It runs from the first flight to the last arrival, hourly, and back from the city 05:30 to 19:00.
• The fare is 30 yuan and the trip takes about an hour.
• From Panxuan Lu, city bus 1 runs to the railway station for 1 yuan, which is the cheap way to finish the journey.

Which to choose

• If your flight lands within train hours, take the train. It is faster and costs a sixth of the coach and a fifteenth of a taxi.
• The coach is the fallback, running to the last arrival.
• Budget properly for a taxi if you need one. Three hundred yuan is not a rounding error, and it is the standard price rather than a tourist one.