Unique Gansu (Ⅱ)

Updated: 2016-09-22
( chinadaily.com.cn )

Tianshui city

Tianshui city was once the first stop that the Silk Road made upon entering the Gansu province.

Tianshui, an important birthplace of Chinese civilization, has over 8,000 years of ancient history, 3,000 years of written recorded history.

The main historical cultures in the city include Fu Hsi Culture, Dadiwan Primal Tribe Culture, Grottoes Artistic Culture, and Ancient War Culture during the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-280).

Jiayuguan city

Jiayuguan city is located at 98°17' east longitude and 39°47' north latitude. It lies in the Gobi desert, at the middle of Hexi Corridor, 776 kilometers away from Lanzhou and 5 - 6 hours away by bus from Dunhuang.

Jiayuguan has a history over 630 years. In 1372, during the Ming Dynasty, a fortress was built to protect the last frontier of the Chinese empire. It was completely built up in 1540 and became a small township engaged in local trading, catering to the needs of the military garrisons stationed at the fort.

The city was used to be the pass of the famous Silk Road and the first pass at the west end of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty.

Wuwei city

Wuwei city is situated in the central part of Gansu province, on the east end of Hexi Corridor.

Wuwei is the most competitive production base of natural pollution-free food and high-quality agricultural specialties. It is a desirable planting area for grapes because of its hours of sunshine. It has gained the reputation of "China's Bordeaux" among experts.

The agricultural and sideline products are high quality and numerous. The city has a number of specialty brands, including wine, black melon seeds, white yak products and pollution-free vegetables with local characteristics.

Zhangye city

Anciently named Ganzhou, Zhangye was a famous commercial port on the Silk Road and one of the biggest international trade markets in the country.

Zhangye is home to a collection of more than 577 cultural relics, including 13 national nature reserves, two national 4A level scenic spots and Asia's largest desert reservoir.

The city has 577 historic sites, including 13 important units of cultural relics under national protection and 47 units of cultural relics under the provincial level.

The Qiyi Glacier in the Sunan Yugur autonomous county is the closest glacier to an Asian city. The Danxia landform in Linze and Sunan is one of the seven most beautiful landscapes of unique petromorphic geomorphology. It is found only in China. The Shandan Horse Farm served as a royal horse farm since the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24). Now, it is the largest in Asia and the second largest in the world.

Baiyin city

Baiyin city is situated in central Gansu province, the upper reaches of the Yellow River.

Baiyin city is situated in central Gansu province, the upper reaches of the Yellow River. It is bordered by Ningxia Hui autonomous region in the east and Inner Mongolia in the north. The capital city of the province, Lanzhou is adjacent to its west.

Baiyin means silver. As the name suggested, the city is a treasure land, whose mining industry began as early as the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD).

Pingliang city

Standing in the east of Gansu province, Pingliang neighbors Ningxia Hui autonomous region in the north.

Pingliang is Gansu’s important production base of agriculture and forest products as well as animal husbandry and industrial crops. It has an abundance of wheat, corn, cereal, buckwheat, oilseed rape, flax and flue-cured tobacco.

Pingliang, together with Qingyang, was once known as the granary of east Gansu province because it was a base for animal husbandry, a distribution center for fur and feathers, and an important production area of traditional Chinese medicine in Northwest China.

Qingyang city

Qingyang is habitually called 'Long Dong' because of its locality in eastern Gansu province.

Qingyang city is known as "Longdong Basin" for its geographic location. Well-known as "Longdong Granary", Qingyang has an abundant amount of grains, including wheat, corn and buckwheat.

A colorful folk culture is alive in Qingyang, including crafts such as perfumed pouches, paper-cuts and shadow puppets in addition to folk customs such as yangge (a popular rural folk dance), shehuo (a traditional activity to celebrate the earth god and the fire ancestor) and pit kiln houses that feature a distinctive Loess Plateau style.

Dingxi city

Dingxi is a town of folk arts. Carvings, paper cuttings, shadow puppetry, local operas and the most popular style of folk songs, Hua'er, are all attractions of the city.

Dingxi is an important Chinese medical herb production area with more than 300 Chinese medical herbs discovered in the area. Angelica and Codonopsis production in the city accounts for 70 percent and 40 percent of the entire country’s output, respectively. Lintao county in Dingxi is an ideal place for the growth of edible mushrooms of all kinds thanks to its ample sunshine and large temperature variance.

Longnan city

Longnan city is situated in the southeast of Gansu province, neighboring Shaanxi province in the east and Sichuan province in the south. Within Gansu, Longnan borders Tianshui in the north and Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture in the west.

Longnan has 34 kinds of minerals and 445 mineral deposits, among which lead, zinc, gold, antimony, copper, manganese, mercury, limestone and six other minerals are dominant minerals. Longnan is rich in water resources. It has a total of 3,760 rivers, including the four major river systems of the Jialing River, Bailong River, Baishui River and the western Hanshui River.

Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture

There are in total twenty-two ethnic groups living in Linxia, including Han, Hui, Dongxiang, Bonan, Salar, Tibetan and Tu, among which the Bonan and Dongxiang are unique to the prefecture.

The prefecture is also home to the nation's largest Muslim community and is one of only two Hui autonomous prefectures in China, with Islamic culture, customs, snacks and ethnic architecture frequently seen on the street. Islam, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism all meet in the prefecture.

Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture

Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture is situated in the southwest of Gansu province, neighboring Dingxi and Longnan in the east and Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture in the north.