Jiayuguan

Day 316 (May 10, 2019) – Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China

Jiayuguan was a short stop for us but it was full of surprises. We were headed there to see the western end of China's Great Wall and Jiayuguan Fort. Jiayuguan Fort used to mark the edge of China’s known land. When people were banished from the kingdom they were brought to the fort and shoved out the western gate, leaving them to figure things out for themselves in the desert.

The view out the train window between Lanzhou and Jiayuguan City.

The train ride from Lanzhou was otherworldly and beautiful. We were traveling through Gansu Province along what is called the Hexi Corridor. It was used extensively during the time of the Silk Road (and still today) to connect China with western Asia. To the north is the Gobi Desert and to the south are the Qilian Mountains and the start of the Tibetan Plateau, leaving only a narrow strip of easily traversable land. The scenery was of rolling plains and mountains, although I was surprised to see so much snow around us. Whenever I think desert, I think of heat, but we experienced firsthand that in this part of China it can get freezing cold.

Trying to stay warm as we walked around Jiayuguan City on the day we arrived.

Our first surprise was experiencing that cold when we got off the train in Jiayuguan City. We had passed through a few isolated showers on our way into the Jiayuguan Station and I think they brought a lot of cold air with them. We checked into our hotel and then went for a walk around town to find dinner. It was absolutely frigid. We put on all the layers of clothing we brought with us, including our stocking hats, to try and stay warm.

The classic Chinese street design that we found in almost every city. This is the sidewalk. To the left of the sidewalk is a lane for parked cars, then a lane for bike traffic, then a tree-lined median, then two lanes for each direction for normal traffic, followed by another median, followed by another bike lane, another parking lane, and then finally the sidewalk on the other side. These streets are seriously enormous. 

Jiayuguan seemed like such a classic Chinese city. It’s the massive streets that give away the Chinese design. Every city in China uses the same type of street layout. Going from the middle dividing line outwards, streets are constructed with two to three lanes of directional traffic followed by a median, typically lined with trees, followed by an additional lane of traffic for scooters and bikes, with a pedestrian walkway at the outer edge. With traffic flowing in both directions this makes for a street that is about 10 lanes wide. When two of these streets intersect one another, they create a paved intersection that looks about the size of a soccer field. When crossing a street, you need to pay attention at three key points: first looking for scooters and bikes in the first section, then cars in the center section, and then scooters and bikes again in the last section. We had to be especially careful with the scooters because all of them are electric and hardly make a noise. They can sneak right up to you without ever hearing them.

More streets of Jiayuguan.

Jiayuguan was an interesting city to see because it was a small city that was not at all touristy. It still had the classic Chinese city and road design, giving it the impression of being severely underpopulated. There were so few cars on the road compared to what the roads could accommodate, although it made the city seem more manageable. In the freezing cold we walked down a few of the grand avenues, through a market, and eventually ended up at a Sichuan restaurant for dinner.

The first beacon tower of the Ming Great Wall (along with some electrical boxes...).

The next day we hired a cab to take us around the Jiayuguan sites. Thankfully, the weather had significantly improved, and it was a beautiful day to be outside. It was chilly in the morning, but the sun was out, and it was warming up. Our first stop was the first beacon tower of the Great Wall. This was the furthest westward extent of the wall that stretches all the way back to Beijing, although discontinuously. This part of China’s Great Wall was built during the Ming Dynasty. I was very confused by all the different Great Walls of China. There isn’t just a single wall, there are multiple. And each was built during a different time period and each section was constructed from whatever material was found locally. I felt much more enlightened after reading the article on Wikipedia, which includes this really great map of all of China’s great walls. This section of wall and it’s western most beacon tower were built from rammed earth, which would normally not last very long but the desert climate has helped preserve it, although many sections have been restored.

The beacon tower sat on the edge of this cliff hanging over the river. In the distance are the snow-capped Qilian Mountains.

The beacon tower itself is really just a pile of dirt with a lot of history, but the surrounding scenery was stunning. I was most impressed by the thought of people building something so far out into the desolate landscape. The beacon tower sits at the edge of a canyon below the snow-capped Qilian Mountains. It was stunning. Although China’s utilitarian approach to cultural attractions was still very much evident. There was a giant electrical box sitting right in front of the beacon tower and directly behind it were power lines running over the great wall. A small tourist park was also built down near the canyon which included a zip line and small fake village. These things really aren’t necessary at a site packed with so much history and natural beauty.

I couldn't keep my eyes off these mountains.

Not much land goes unused in China. We noticed many power plants out in the desert. This is the Great Wall running in front of a power plant off in the distance. New meets old.

Our second stop was at a section of reconstructed wall called the Overhanging Great Wall. In this section the wall climbed up and over the side of a mountain. It was fun to walk along and interesting to imagine what it would have been like back in the day when the wall was intact and continuous. Long ago I’m sure the view from the top of the mountain would have looked out over empty desert but today it looks over plenty of human activity. There was a tank running military exercises in one direction and a power plant in the other. In between were roads lined with plots of suspiciously green trees. This land is not meant to support greenery, so seeing it out here was a clear sign of human presence.

We finally made it to the Great Wall of China!

Most of the land around this area is desert like this. But it's not empty land. We saw a tank running around the desert and heard lots of gunshots, which we assumed was for some kind of military exercise.

Looking back the other way, we saw clear signs of people. Power plants and way too many green trees for a desert.

Our last stop was at Jiayuguan Fort, a huge fortress complex built in the 1300s and one of the few gateways along the length of the Mind Dynasty Wall. At the time, this was the farthest extent of China to the west. We walked around the perimeter of the fort, taking way too many pictures. It was just too photogenic. The brown fort was the same color as the land and the blue sky above us seemed endless. The great wall itself continued off in the distance toward the huge snowy mountains, ending at the cliff-side beacon tower we saw earlier in the day. Jiayuguan might have been far from the rest of China but it was well worth the effort to get to.

The outside of Jiayuguan Fort.

A view of the entire fort.

The wall leading from Jiayuguan Fort to the first beacon tower, right before the canyon at the base of the closest hills. Much of the wall has been reconstructed and modern activities, like the construction of roads and train tracks, take priority over the presence and maintenance of the wall.

After our cab driver dropped us off in Jiayuguan City, we had an early hot pot dinner and went to bed as soon as we could. We were catching a train at four in the morning to head even further west, so our alarms were set to wake us up at two in the morning to start what was going to be a very long day.

A rickety pagoda on top of a desert mountain near the Hanging Great Wall.