The City of Jiayuguan, simply called Jiayuguan City, is a prefecture-level city of Gansu Province, northwestern China. Jiayuguan City is a 4-hour drive away from the World Heritage Mogao Caves in Dunhuang City, and a 2.5-hour drive away from splendid rainbow mountains in Zhangye City.
The City is named after “the Jiayuguan Fort”, the westernmost point of the Great Wall within the city. For centuries, Jiayuguan City became a major tourist destination in Gansu Province for its associations with the Great Wall.
Jiayuguan City used to be an oasis in the Gobi Desert that originally marked the western border of the Chinese Empire. It also lies at the bottleneck of the Hexi Corridor, the ever most important route from ancient North China to Central Asia for traders and the military.
Such a strategic location also made this city a key node on the Ancient Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes connecting the East and the West. As an inland trade port, Jiayuguan City ever witnessed over one-third trade of tea exports from China to Central and Western Asia and even European countries and accommodated a large number of envoys, merchants and camel teams traveled to and from.
Jiayuguan City was also a melting pot made up of people from many different races and ethnic backgrounds. Ethnic groups such as Yuezhi, Wusun, Tibet, Mongolia, and Uighur had all gathered around the city.
Today’s Jiayuguan City remains a much-visited destination for travelers to experience some sort of remnant of its ancient silk road charms. Apart from the best-known Jiayuguan Fort of the Great Wall, many other tourist attractions are worth your attention, such as the Jiayuguan International Glider Base, one of the world’s top three largest glider bases, Zixuan Winery, the largest private wine estate in Asia and the China Peacock Garden, the largest peacock breeding base in Asia.