Jiayuguan Travel Guide

Jiayuguan City is near Jiayuguan Pass, the largest pass in the Great Wall. The pass was built in the late Ming dynasty, about 600 years ago, and is located in the northwestern part of Gansu Province.

Anciently, Jiayuguan was a pass of strategic importance to the ancient "silk road" and an influential center for cultural exchanges between east and west. The pass was built by Fangsheng, who was granted the power to conquer the west in AD. 1372. The city consists of an outer city, inner city, citadels outside the city gates, additional walls, city moat, and the Great Wall on both south and north sides of the city.

Jiayuguan was rebuilt, reinforced and garrisoned in 1539 in the Ming Dynasty. An office for checking merchants and travelers was established there in the Qing Dynasty.