Jiayuguan History

Overview
Dubbed "No. 1 Strategic Pass in the World", Jiayuguan Pass is the starting point of a section of the Great Wall constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was rebuilt, reinforced and garrisoned in 1539. In the Qing Dynasty (1636-1911), was an office for checking merchants and travelers.

During the early period after the establishment of Ming Dynasty, the remnant armies of Yuan Empire and Turpan constantly invaded Hexi Corridor area. The general Feng Sheng was ordered to construct a defensive pass to protect from the invasion from Yuan and Turpan. He chose the Jiayu Mountain as the final siting where is easy to hold but hard to be defeated. The construction started in the year 1372, and completed quickly as the first-stage project which consisted of several ramparts surrounded by some barracks. The subsequent construction costed 168 years to complete and finally became the western starting point of the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty.

Natural factors like wind erosion, weathering, earthquakes and floods, as well as human factors like construction and other activities had caused much damage over time. Even though the Jiayuguan Pass is still the most intact surviving ancient military building. Several restorations had been conducted to protect the civil engineering structure of its fort, towers and walls. Repair work started in May, 2012 and cost about 305 million yuan (about $15 million).The whole maintenance project included the Jiayuguan section of the Great Wall, the Jiayuguan world cultural heritage monitoring center and Jiayuguan world heritage exhibition.

Jiayuguan - An Ancient Stop Alongside China Silk Road
JiaYuGuan as a City, was at first a settlement on the Silk Road, an encampment near an oasis which was located in the narrowest part of the Hexi Corridor Pathway. As the home of one of the Three Main Fortresses on the Great Wall; Shanhai Guan in the East, JiYongGuan near Beijing, and JiaYu Guan in the West, the City is known throughout China and gained historic fame as the "Magnificent Pass Under Heaven" for the rugged beauty of its far flung location. JiaYuGuan derives its place in history not from its grand size but from its strategic location inside the Hexi Corridor.

The Hexi Corridor is strategic mountain pass corridor which gives access from Central Asia, along the Tarim River, through Gansu Province and its Capital Lanzhou, directly to the Central Provinces of China. Located in between the Qilian Mountain Range in the South and the Mazhong (Horse's Manes) Mountains in the North, the Hexi Corridor begins around Dunhuang in West Gansu Province from where it travels south-eastward via JiaYuGuan and Wuwei to Lanzhou to end at the Yellow River. Thus the Hexi Corridor forms an easily traveled natural highway between otherwise impassable mountains. In history this bottleneck was an unavoidable stop-over on the Silk Road and has been known as a vital crossroads and communication point of Cultures.

After a first opening of a Silk trading Road west was established, the settlement at JiaYuGuan was one of the farthest Han Outpost in the Empire. During the early Tang Dynasty Era (618 AD - 907 AD) the Famed Monk Xuanzang, who is credited with bringing vital knowledge of Buddhism from India into Chinese Civilization, Jiayuguan is also an inevitable place.