The city is a hugely elongated sprawl from east to west. The modern centre and most of the hotels and shops lie in the east, focused on the Xiguan Traffic Circle and Dongfanghong Square; the oldest part of the town, and the most interesting for walking, eating and shopping, is roughly in the middle; and the museum and popular Youyi Hotel are in the west.

Lanzhou's airport lies about 70km to the north of the city, at least a two-hour journey, with connections to all major Chinese cities and Dunhuang and Jiayuguan within Gansu Province. The airport buses terminate conveniently in the eastern part of the city, outside the CAAC office on Donggang Xi Lu, a few minutes west of the Lanzhou Fandian.

Being the main rail hub of northwest China, Lanzhou is an easy place to travel into or out of by train, with direct connections to or from every part of China. Arriving by train, you will almost certainly be dropped off at the main train station in the far southeast of the city. There are a number of hotel options in the immediate vicinity of the station, though if you are heading farther afield, the Xiguan Traffic Circle is about 2km due north of here (buses #7, #10 and #34) while western Lanzhou, more than a dozen kilometres away, can be reached on buses #1 and #31.

There are several bus stations in eastern Lanzhou and one in western Lanzhou. If you are coming on the bus from Xiahe you will certainly arrive at the bus station in the western part of town, about 15km from the train station and close to the Youyi Hotel. City buses #1 and #31 run east through town from here. Buses from the Hexi Corridor will at the very least run through western Lanzhou; you can request a stop here if you wish. Coming from anywhere else, it is difficult to predict where you will arrive, though the chances are that travellers approaching from the east (Tianshui, Yinchuan, Xi'an) will end up somewhere on Pingliang Lu, within walking distance of the train station.