Jiuquan

 prefecture-level city (China)  Add category

Jiuquan is a prefecture-level city in the westernmost part of Gansu province, People's Republic of China.
Jiuquan, or “Wine Spring,” is a major stopover on the "Silk Road" northwestwards from Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province. From the second century B.C., commissioners and high-ranking officers were dispatched by the rulers of Western Han Dynasty (306 B.C.- 34 A.D.) to develop the region. As the traffic along the "Silk Road" became busier and more important, the prefecture of Jiuquan was established more than 1,600 years ago to protect this vital artery.
A few miles away from the city stands the Jiayuguan Pass, the western end of the Great Wall. The Great Wall used to end at Yumen (about 50 miles to the west of Jiayuguan) before the pass was abandoned during the Ming Dynasty. The walls in the northwest region were originally constructed under the Han, and remains of the Han wall have been found near Dunhuang, but the portions of the wall standing at Jiayuguan date from the early Ming, and are about six centuries old. Standing on the terrace of the gate tower, one can look back at the wall winding its way along the mountain ridges. To the south are the snow-capped Qilian Mountains, and to the west, the desert. In a tomb chamber at Dingjiazha, Jiuquan, are some of the country's earliest murals, dating back to the East Jin Dynasty (317-430 A. D.).