Jiayuguan Attractions

The First Mound under the Heaven

On the bank of the Taolaihe River, 5 km away from the Jiayuguan, The First Mound under the Heaven, is the first watch tower in the western end of the Great Wall. People also refer to it as "Taolaihe Mound" because it is located on the bank of the Taolaihe River. It was built in 1533 by General Lipan, and serve... read more »

Fresco Tombs

The Fresco Tombs located in the northwestern Gobi desert 20 km away from Jiayuguan City, and between Xincheng Township of Jiayuguan City and Dingjiazha Township of Jiuquan City.

These fresco tombs were discovered in 1972 and ten of them have been dug up. Most of the dug tombs are family tombs in... read more »

Jiayuguan Gliding Base

Jiayuguan Gliding Base, ranking the third largest gliding base in the world, is a comprehensive aviation club where the main business is gliding. Every July, an international gliding festival is held there.

It covers an area of about 100 mu (mu is measurement unit of area in Chinese; one mu is ... read more »

Great Wall Museum

The Great Wall museum opened to visitor in October 1989 and it is the first one to exhibit the Great Wall culture in a comprehensive and systematic way.

The Museum covers an area of 12,312 square meters with an exhibition area of about 1,766 square meters. Its main building takes a shape of a typical signal ... read more »

Heshan Stone Carvings

These carvings are distributed on the cliffs along the Heshan valley 20 km away from the city in the northwest. These shallow carvings on the dark-purple rocks look rough and clumsy. They show ancient people's activities like hunting, dancing, and arrow-shooting. This spot is included in the provincial relic's prote... read more »

Jiayuguan Pass

The Jiayuguan Pass, known as the "Strategic pass Under the Heaven", is at the western end of the Great Wall. The Jiayuguan Pass was one of great strategic importance. The existing Jiayuguan Pass walls were built in the time of Ming Dynasty. The construction of these walls began in 1372. It was not until 1539 ... read more »

July First Glacier

The glacier was named after the time when it was found in July 1st 1958 by the Snow and Glacier Research Team of Chinese Academy of Science. The altitude of the lowest part of the glacier is about 4300 meters and that of the peak is 5150 meters. Its total area is 3 square meters and its total length is 30.5 km. It i... read more »

Qilian Mountain

In the Qilian Mountain, there exists virgin forest, which covers an area of 157,000 hectares with wood reserve of about two million cubic meters. The plants there include spruce, cypress, poplar and willow, and various shrubberies. The Qilian Mountain is one of the major forest zones in Gansu Province. In the dense ... read more »

The Suspended Wall

The Suspended Wall is a part of the Great Wall.  The wall here was built on the ridge with the gradient of 45 degrees. It is high in the air and it looks as if it fell down from the top of the hill. So people refer to this section of the Great Wall as the "Suspended Wall". The Suspended Wall, the exte... read more »