Jiayuguan

Jiayuguan is known as the western-most outpost of the Great Wall. There is a fortress there that has been restored and a section of the wall itself a few miles away that has been restored. The distance between Dunhuang and Jiayuguan isn't so great, but multiple and long detours made it a seven-hour trip. Still, along the way, the scenery was worth noting.

As barren as the landscape was, it was home to a number of herds of sheep. We saw sheep all across Gansu. This is probably due both to the feasibility of raising sheep in that environment and also to the fact that a large percentage of the population of Gansu are Muslim, which means they don't eat pork and, therefore, do eat a lot of mutton.

Despite the contrast in these two scenes, they are across the road from each other. There was an irrigation channel running beside the field on the left and none on the right. Water is the key to life out here, and we found all along the way, greenery on the horizon always meant a source of water nearby, whereas, a few feet away, the absence of water meant barrenness.

This was the view of the Jiayuguan fort from the highway. We arrived about 4 p.m. after a long day of driving through detours, but we still had time to view the fort rather thoroughly and go a few miles out of town to walk on a restored portion of the western Great Wall.

If you click on the bottom right photo and enlarge it, you can see snow-capped mountains in the distance. We followed that mountain range most of the next day; quite beautiful.