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Along the Yellow River and beyond

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Explore every city and autonomous prefecture in this edition. Each has its own places and a complete article library.

Gansu
Lanzhou Jiayuguan Jiuquan Zhangye Jinchang Wuwei Baiyin Tianshui Pingliang Qingyang Dingxi Longnan Linxia Gannan Zhongshan Bridge Mogao Caves Maijishan Grottoes Labrang Monastery Giant Buddha Temple

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Some stories describe broad landscapes, distributed practices or events rather than one verifiable point. They remain available through their city or prefecture; no marker is inferred.

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Jiuquan.

Jiuquan administers Dunhuang, whose county became a city under Jiuquan in 1987. The county-level city includes the Mogao cliff, Crescent Spring and the Han passes west of the oasis. Together these sites show how water, worship and frontier routes shaped Dunhuang within the larger Jiuquan prefecture.

Timber eaves along the cliff façade at the Mogao Caves.
Mogao Caves cliff façade

Stories

Timber eaves along the cliff façade at the Mogao Caves.

A cliff built in clay and pigment

At Mogao, a gravel cliff became a thousand-year archive of Buddhist art. Cave 17, the small chamber beside Cave 16, preserves the story of a library hidden behind a painted wall.

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Crescent Spring among the dunes at Mingsha Mountain.

A spring in the lee of Mingsha

A crescent-shaped pool rests among the dunes south of Dunhuang. Its water, reeds and changing outline make a small oasis within a much larger field of moving sand.

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The earthen remains of Yumen Pass in the desert.

Two Han passes on the western routes

Yumen Pass and Yangguan guarded different approaches west of Dunhuang. Their earthworks, beacon lines and associated remains recall the Han frontier and the routes that crossed the Hexi Corridor.

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Places

Wooden pavilion built over a Mogao cave entrance

Jiuquan

Mogao Caves

A cliffside Buddhist sanctuary where painted rooms, clay figures and changing communities left a thousand years of work in Dunhuang.

 A broad view of the spring among dunes, with reeds, water reflection and a pavilion at the bank.

Jiuquan

Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring

A dune field and a small crescent pool meet at Dunhuang’s southern edge. Their striking closeness is a living landscape shaped by wind, groundwater, plants and decades of protection.

 The earthen remains of Yumen Pass in the desert.

Jiuquan

Yumen Pass

A Han frontier site west of Dunhuang, named as a component of the Silk Roads property, with Yangguan to the south.

 The long southern section of Suoyang City's outer earthen wall, standing in the Gobi desert.

Jiuquan

Suoyang City Ruins

A rammed-earth city in Guazhou County, on the gravel edge of the Hexi corridor oasis belt.

 Excavated remains of the Xuanquan post station in the desert near Dunhuang.

Jiuquan

Xuanquan Posthouse

A Han posthouse in Dunhuang's Mogao Town, known for buildings in earth and for Han wooden slips.
Photo credits and rights
  1. Mogao Caves cliff façadeAuthor not specified on source page · Rights status not determined Photo source ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  2. Crescent Spring among the dunesAuthor not specified on source page · Rights status not determined Photo source ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  3. Yumen Pass in the desertAuthor not specified on source page · Rights status not determined Photo source ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  4. The southern outer wall of Suoyang City.Zanhe · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  5. Excavated remains of the Xuanquan post station near Dunhuang.Author not specified on source page · Rights status not determined Photo source ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  6. Timber eaves and a raised pavilion protect and frame a cave opening in the cliff.Windmemories · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.
  7. A 2015 photograph of the water reflection, reeds and Mingsha ridges.Zossolino · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗ Orientation normalised, proportionally resized and encoded as WebP; no crop or retouch.