Lanzhou City is located in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent. It has the characteristics of a belt-shaped basin city and is dry and rainless. The Yellow River runs through the city from west to east, with a drop of more than ten to twenty meters above the ground, which brings rich natural water resources. In 1556 AD, Duan Xu borrowed the irrigation technology of the drum wheel in Tonghe, Yunnan, and created a water wheel suitable for the local area in Lanzhou. The Yellow River water wheel uses the impact of water flow to work and has become a cheap and efficient irrigation tool. The small water wheel has a diameter of 17 or 18 meters, and the large one is more than 20 meters. There are single-wheel, double-wheel and multi-wheel types. One water wheel can irrigate 700 to 800 acres of farmland. Since the end of the Ming Dynasty, large water wheels have been widely used in Gaolan, Baiyin, Jingchuan, Pingliang, Yinchuan and Shaanxi in the Yellow River Basin, promoting the development of agricultural production in these areas. The Yellow River water wheel is an important part of the Yellow River culture. It embodies the creativity of the Chinese nation and provides a witness for the study of Chinese agricultural civilization and water conservancy history. The invention of the water wheel laid the foundation for people to live and work in peace and contentment and for social harmony and stability. In 1952, there were still 252 water wheels on the banks of the Yellow River in Lanzhou. Since the widespread use of electric irrigation technology, the number of water wheels has decreased year by year, and there is a lack of successors in making them. They are facing an endangered situation. It has become an urgent and important task to protect the craftsmanship of making large water wheels on the Yellow River.