Founded during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), there was originally just the Fort here, built onto an existing watchtower and completed in 1372. With primitive working tools it took thousands of laborers dozens of years to complete the project. Goats, and even ice, were used to convey building materials to the site. With completion, the fort became the strategic end of the Great Wall, demarcating the apparently advanced east from the allegedly desolate and dangerous west. Many Chinese still feel this way today, even after the completion of the Gansu Expressway.

The town itself grew up around this Fort, thriving from both its protection and location on the Silk Road. Nowadays, however, the town has lost much of its charm, bisected by main roads, including the expressway, and plagued by uninteresting buildings. Most of the sights that tourists will want to see are out of the city, so that the only plus side to staying in the place are views of the snow-capped mountains that surround it.

Meanwhile, the local luminous jade cup for drinking is also well l-known from then on. Due to its strategic position and historical significance, there are many attractive relics in Jiuquan such as Bell and Drum Tower, Jiuquan Park and Jiuquan Arts and Crafts Plants for producing the jade cups.

Jiuquan Park has a history of ever 2000 years, famous for an old spring and its interesting story. The clear spring water flows northward into a lake which has a landscaped island in the center, a stone bridge crossing and willows weeping around it, which make the park a worth visit spot.

PLACES TO VISIT IN JIAYUGUAN
First Beacon Tower Jiayuguan Fort Heishan Rock
Overhanging Great Wall Yang Pass
Yumen Pass Under Grand Gallery
Wei-Jin Art Gallery July First Glacier

LOCAL CUISINES OF JIAYUGUAN
There are few dishes or specialties that distinguish the cuisine of the fort and its surrounds. What you can sample here are combinations from across China, which the local chefs are able to churn out with their ambidextrous hands--steamed dumplings from Tianjin, beef noodles from Lanzhou, Yangrou Paomo (mutton soup with bread) from Xi'an, kebab from Xinjiang and roast chicken from Henan, to name but a few. The main problems that non-Chinese speakers will have is in both finding a decent restaurant, since there are few in town, and in ordering a decent meal, since almost none have English speakers or menus.

A good start for finding your ideal meal is to try some of the hotels in town, since although still without English, the service is mostly fair and the dishes varied. The best of the lot for selection is the Fulihua Restaurant in the Wumao Hotel (Wumao binguan), although the restaurant in the Jiayuguan Hotel (Jiayuguan binguan) is also good. For cheaper, and perhaps more interesting, food you should also try the Night Market on Jingtie lu, just past the Wumao Hotel heading southwest, where you can find a variety of fast cooked food, mainly noodles and kebabs. There are also some good restaurants in the area around the railway station, especially the Linyuan Restaurant (Linyuan jiujia) that serves spicy Sichuan cuisine at affordable prices.

SHOPPING - LOCAL SPECIALITY OF JIAYUGUAN
Compared with its lackluster entertainment, shopping in Jiayuguan is more exciting. There are a variety of goods that can be purchased, most are very popular with the Chinese and, although not exceptional, are worth looking into. Best of the specialties include the "self-illuminating" cup, rubbings of Wei & Jin tomb murals, stone carvings and assorted Carpets.

The most famous of specialties here is the "Self-Illuminating" Cup (Yeguan bei) that is made of jade from the nearby Qilianshan Mountain. These translucent cups, immortalised in thousands of Chinese poems, are so named because when they are filled with wine and penetrated by the ghostly rays of the moon, it shines with luxuriant brightness.
The area around the city of Jiayuguan is filled with tombs from both the Wei (386-556 AD)and the Jin (265-420 AD)Dynasties, and many of these are home to numbers of colourful and vivid murals (Weijin bihua muhua tuopian). There is now a thriving trade in copies, usually Rubbings, of these original cultural pieces, and this is a good way to get some insight into those bygone days.
For those with interests in Chinese calligraphy, the Jiayu Inkstones (Jiayu shiyan) have a history of over 1,700 years. As with the "self-illuminating" cup, the inkstones are carved from stone taken from the nearby mountains. The stones normally have strips of different colours, from a range including blues, greens, reds and yellows.

This area is a stronghold on the new tourist Silk Road, and as such there are no lack of stores selling these handicrafts and more, at allegedly knock off prices. Since not always genuine, it is probably best to head to the more established stores, such as the state owned Jiayuguan Handicraft Shop on 8 Shibei lu.

TRANSPORTATION TO AND WITHIN JIAYUGUAN

Thanks to its footing as a major tourist destination on the Silk Road, Jiayuguan has in recent years rapidly become a transport hub only slightly less important than the provincial capital Lanzhou or Dunhuang. The city can now conveniently be accessed either by air, railway or bus.

By plane: There are five weekly flights from Lanzhou and Dunhuang to Jiayuguan, not flying on Tuesday and Saturday. There are also infrequent flights to Xi'an (RMB1,180) and Urumqi. For detailed information, go to the CAAC office at 4-3 Xinhua nanlu in town, to the south of the Jiayuguan Hotel, or call them at 0937-6226237. The airport is about 12km northeast of the city proper and a taxi should cost around RMB40. A cheaper choice is the CAAC bus, which meets every flight.

By railway: Traveling by train is also fairly convenient. The railway station is just 5km from the city center, a RMB10 ride by taxi The Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway line traverses the city proper. There are regular trains to Beijing, Chengdu, Korla, Lanzhou, Shanghai, Urumqi, Xi'an and Zhengzhou. For tourists traveling between Lanzhou and Jiayuguan, the tour train leaves one city in the morning and arrives at the other in the evening. The ticket office is at 8-2 Lanxin zhonglu (Tel: 0937-6288777).

By bus: State-level Expressway No.312 connects Lanzhou with Xinjiang via Jiayuguan. From here, you may either go north to Mongolia or head straight south to Golmud, Qinghai Province. There are five daily buses between Dunhuang and Jiayuguan, a leg of about 400km that takes about nine hours. You may also take a daily sleeper coach to Lanzhou (RMB160, 16 hours). There are also quite a number of buses to Zhangye. Be careful of the indirect buses, which may double the original five-hour journey. The long-distance bus station lies on the main highway in the city proper, about 1km southwest of the central roundabout.

City Transport: You can find different modes of transport in town--taxis, motorbikes, minibuses and buses form a huge pool around the Jiayuguan and Changcheng Hotels. To go to each attraction, you will generally be charged about RMB12 for each hour the driver has to wait, although you have the discretion to drive the price down with your bargaining technique. It is also fairly easy to travel in town by hiring a bike for about RMB2 or RMB3 per hour, so long as you do not mind braving the occasional gusts of sandy and dirty wind. Hotels with bike hire include the Jiayuguan, the Changcheng and the Youth Hotels.

CLIMATE OF JIAYUGUAN

The climate in Jiayuguan is both temperate and dry, distinguished by large temperature discrepancies between one season and the next. The annual temperature here is 6`C, while the precipitation averages 80mm. The coldest month is January and the hottest is July. Generally speaking, the optimum time to pay the fort a visit is from May to early October.