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Travel through time and space, follow the Silk Road to the Great Wall!

Issuing time:2024-07-29 16:13
Driving along the Hexi Corridor, the Great Wall always appears outside the car window among the snow-capped mountains, oases and Gobi Deserts.


Gansu is long and narrow, like a jade ruyi. The middle of the ruyi is the famous Hexi Corridor. More than 2,000 years ago, Zhang Qian set out from Chang'an and walked through this famous corridor, opening up the Chinese Silk Road legend. Since then, the Silk Road has coexisted with the Great Wall.


The total length of the Great Wall in Gansu is 3,654 kilometers, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the total length of the Great Wall in the country.Thousands of years have passed, but the Great Wall still exists. Walking along the Silk Road along the Great Wall, you can hear the echo of history.


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Kip Kou Watch


At first glance at the name Shandan, many people would think it is a place in Shaanxi.


"Did you know that the world's first World Expo was held in our Shandan?" Before introducing the Great Wall, Bai Yuzhang, deputy director of the Han Ming Great Wall Protection and Research Center of Shandan County, Gansu Province, first gave an "interlude".


More than 1,400 years ago, China ended its centuries-long division and once again ushered in a great unification. Emperor Yang of Sui visited Hexi and summoned the King of Gaochang and envoys from 27 countries at Yanzhi Mountain in Shandan to "show the prosperity of China."


The reason for choosing this place is not unrelated to the Great Wall. The construction of the Great Wall turned Zhangye on the Hexi Corridor from a battleground to a hub for trade between China and foreign countries.


The Great Wall leads to the Silk Road, and the Silk Road created Shandan.


Shandan is known as the "Open-air Great Wall Museum" where the Han Ming Great Wall stands side by side.Standing on a high place, you can see a long "earth dragon" stretching into the distance. This is what the locals call the "border wall", and books call it the Ming Great Wall. A few dozen meters in front of the "earth dragon", there is a trench almost parallel to it. Many people don't know that this is the Han Great Wall.

When Zhang Qian opened up the Western Regions, a new geographical passage was born along the Hexi Corridor. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established four prefectures, namely Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang, and built a new Great Wall. However, due to the limited national strength, the country could only build trenches by relying on the dangers of mountains and rivers.


Compared with the Great Wall of Han Dynasty, the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty is more "conspicuous".The 271-kilometer Ming Great Wall in Shandan was built with rammed earth and is currently the best-preserved section of the rammed earth Great Wall in China.In Xiakou Village, Laojun Township, the Great Wall built with rammed earth is three or four meters high. Looking from the gap, it is actually one or two meters thick.


"It's easy to go up the mountain, but hard to go down. It's easy to go out, but hard to leave you..." 72-year-old villager An Cunwu sang while tamping the soil under his feet. The song describes the scene when the workers who built the Great Wall said goodbye to their relatives. Whenever tourists come to visit this section of the Great Wall, An Cunwu will personally demonstrate the methods used by the ancients to build the Great Wall.


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At the Great Wall in Shandan County, an old craftsman demonstrates his rammed earth city-building skills.


The Hanming Great Wall meets and watches here,Next to the Great Wall is the ancient city of Xiakou. Chen Ziang, a Tang Dynasty poet, once described the throat of the ancient Ganliang Road as follows: "The gorge is in the south of the desert, crossing the border of China." The gorge in the poem is the ancient city in front of us.


Xiakou Ancient City was a place where troops were stationed along the Great Wall and an important post station on the Silk Road. In the past, camel caravans passed through here along the Silk Road, reaching Dunhuang in the west and Chang'an in the east.


Walking into the ancient city of Xiakou, on the central axis, there stands a street-over building with its head held high, on top of which is inscribed a plaque: Terrifying the Universe.


Nowadays, most of the villagers in the nearby villages have moved away, mainly because of the lack of water in Shandan. Water shortage is the reason why the rammed earth Great Wall can be preserved for a long time, but it is not conducive to agricultural production. "From the perspective of agricultural production, we hope for more rain; but from the perspective of cultural relics protection, we hope for less rain." Bai Yuzhang is a native of Shandan and has a deep love for this land.

United We Stand


Heading west from Zhangye, we crossed the vast Gobi Desert and suddenly saw green trees in front of us. We arrived at Jiayuguan.


Some people say that planting a tree in Jiayuguan is like raising a child, because every time you plant a tree here, you have to dig up the gravel, transport the soil from other places, and drip irrigate it carefully before it can be planted and survive.


Planting trees is so difficult, so building the Great Wall must be even more difficult.


Jiayu Pass, known as "the most magnificent pass in the world", has three layers of city walls, a city inside the city and a moat outside the city, forming a double-layered city and defense situation.The Guancheng is magnificent and has three gate towers, each three stories high and with three layers of eaves.It is unique in the Great Wall.


Why was Jiayuguan built here?Zhang Bin, director of the Jiayuguan Great Wall Protection Institute, explained that water is the source of life. The Silk Road runs along the water source, and so does the Great Wall. Jiayuguan is steep and majestic, comparable to the "national gate". Climbing the tower and looking out, the Great Wall extends from both sides of the pass, forming the boundary between the oasis and the Gobi Desert.Separated by a thin line, there is abundant water and grass inside the pass, but no grass can grow outside the pass. It is a truly spectacular sight.


"The construction of Jiayuguan took 168 years, and it has been repaired many times since then, and it has not been interrupted until today."Zhang Bin pointed to the mottled marks on the wall and said. This dark man was originally a sports student. In the past 20 years, he has walked almost all the Great Walls in Gansu.Great Wall ResearchThe "outsider" has grown into a real "gatekeeper".


When Zhang Bin was participating in the last round of renovation of the Great Wall, he consulted the materials and was shocked by an incident. In 1984, Beijing Evening News and Beijing Daily launched a social sponsorship activity called "Love China, Repair the Great Wall". When the news reached Jiayuguan City, the whole town took action.It is said that every citizen of Jiayuguan donated a brick to the Great Wall.


That is the true meaning of “unity of purpose, strength of strength”.


This reminds us of the words on the stone tablet of "Jiayu Pass" in the Guancheng Scenic Area: "If you have not climbed Jiayu Pass, you are not qualified to talk about the Great Wall. If you do not know the Great Wall, you are not qualified to talk about China."

West of Yangguan


Continue westward along the Great Wall from Jiayuguan and you will reach Dunhuang.


"Going from east to west, this was the last city of Chinese civilization. Coming from the west, this was the first city they encountered." Liang Sicheng once described Dunhuang in this way.


After the Han Dynasty controlled the Hexi Corridor, it "established four counties and occupied two passes". The two passes refer to Yangguan Pass and Yumen Pass on the Great Wall. The southern line of the Silk Road passes through Yangguan Pass, and the northern line passes through Yumen Pass. Yangguan Pass and Yumen Pass, one in the south and one in the north, are like a safety barrier for Dunhuang.


Dunhuang is located on the edge of the desert, and sometimes even getting soil is difficult. People used local materials to build a defense barrier layer by layer of red willow and sand and stone.Despite the harsh environment, the longest and best-preserved existing Great Wall of Han was created.


At the Yangguan Museum, Deputy Curator Wu Fengping recounted the origins of the Great Wall and Dunhuang: Xuanzang, who traveled west to seek Buddhist scriptures, returned to the Tang Dynasty from Yangguan; the frontier poet Cen Shen visited Yangguan many times and wrote "I have been on official business for two years and have passed Yangguan twice"; on the south wall of Cave 321 of Mogao Grottoes, you can clearly see that the Great Wall and the wilderness are the same color...


After years of baptism, there is no trace of Yangguan anymore. Only a depression called "Gudongtan" and the Yangguan beacon tower in the distance remain.


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Yumen Pass, deep in the Gobi Desert, is known as the "Little Fangpan City". Walking into the city, you can still feel the majesty of the pass. 5 kilometers to the west, you can still see a section of the Han Great Wall standing tenaciously.

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In the northwest of Dunhuang city, the former site of Yumen Pass, "Xiaofangpan City", is seen under the setting sun.


"If Dunhuang is a thick history book, Yangguan Pass and Yumen Pass are the first page of this book." Wu Fengping is a native of Dunhuang, and her explanation is full of emotion.


Tourists often cannot hide their disappointment when they fail to see the Yangguan Pass. Wu Fengping did not say much, but led everyone to talk about the relics, sand tables, and pictures, from the Great Wall to the Silk Road, from the farewell ceremony of breaking willow branches to the "Yangguan Avenue". After listening, the tourists apologized to her, "I didn't know the Yangguan ruins have such a long history, I want to get closer and take a closer look."


Wu Fengping found that many people did not know where Yangguan and Yumenguan were, and even some children in Dunhuang did not know. She lobbied schools in Dunhuang to organize students to visit Yangguan. If the distance was too far, the scenic spot could send a car to pick them up. The local principals listened to her suggestion and agreed with it. Now, almost all schools in Dunhuang have organized groups to "go west to Yangguan".


Today, Yangguan Pass and Yumen Pass are as desirable as Mogao Grottoes and Crescent Lake for Chinese and foreign tourists. At Yangguan Pass, tourists of different skin colors gathered in front of the statue of Wang Wei and listened to the tour guide tell them in Chinese, English and Japanese that "there are no old friends after leaving Yangguan Pass". At Yumen Pass, tourists wore Hanfu costumes and checked in for souvenirs.


Wu Fengping particularly agrees with this statement: The Great Wall belongs to China and the world.


Just like the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang,Thousands of years ago, world civilizations met here, and thousands of years later, this place still attracts the whole world.

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