A rare destination in Northwest China: Jinchang, Gansu, a major city in the Hexi Corridor and a famous city on the Silk Road
Preface
This is a young city. Enterprises flourished from mining, and the city was founded because of the enterprises. Founded in 1981, Jinchang City, known as the "Nickel Capital of China" for its abundant nickel production, has undergone a magnificent transformation, transforming itself into a "Flower City." More than 30 years later, the Nickel Capital has transformed itself into a vibrant city.
This is an ancient place. A key city on the Hexi Corridor and a renowned city on the Silk Road. The ruins of Sanjiaocheng Ruins evoke a sense of the pre-Qin era. The winding Yushan Gorge hides famous Silk Road temples and historical relics. The Han and Ming Great Walls, which traverse Yongchang County, bear witness to the vicissitudes of time. The towering bell tower bears witness to Yongchang's historical transformation.
In Jinchang, you can measure the world with your feet, walk through snow-capped mountains and grasslands, through Gobi and deserts, through fields and cities, and explore the civilization left on the Silk Road.
Jinchang
Jinchangcheck the details
Jinchang is located in the eastern section of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province, at the northern foot of the Qilian Mountains and the southern edge of the Alxa Plateau. A key hub on the ancient Silk Road and a major city along the Hexi Corridor, Jinchang thrived on mining and was established as a city because of its abundant nickel production. It is known as the "Nickel Capital of China."
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Jinchang Cuisine
In Jinchang, it's not dreams that awaken you every day, but delicious food. Grilled lamb chops, kangguozi (steamed rice cakes with a kang), chicken and mutton rolls... these delicious foods, both well-known and unnamed, captivate us every day, allowing us to discover Jinchang through our taste buds.
Jinchang's lamb is famously delicious, with a street dedicated to it, where locals and non-locals flock to eat. There are many ways to prepare lamb, from boiled lamb chops to braised lamb chops. My favorites are the kang-pan lamb chops and the grilled lamb chops, which are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with no hint of mutton. I ate them every day during my eight days in Jinchang and never got tired of them.
Sweet potato balls are the most addictive snack besides mutton. Potatoes are mashed into mashed potatoes, then kneaded into balls with sugar. After being fried in a pan, they are drizzled with sugar water. They are sweet, soft and sticky. Some balls are even filled with fillings, which have the fragrance of roses.
Mafu dumplings are very magical dumplings. They are made with potatoes, mafu and selected lamb as the main ingredients. They have thin skin, rich fillings and a mellow aroma.
Jinchang has a mutton street and a chicken street, with many specialty restaurants. Although the prices are not cheaper than those in big cities, the taste is enough to win people's hearts.
I strongly recommend Yongchang Old Restaurant in Yongchang County. It was highly recommended by the local guide and it was also the second restaurant I visited on this trip. For the locals, eating is about memories, and for us, it is the most convenient window to understand Yongchang's special cuisine.
Jinchang Accommodation
Although Jinchang is not a traditional tourist destination, there is a wide selection of hotels in both Jinchuan District and Yongchang County, which can meet the accommodation needs of different levels.
This time, we stayed at Jinchang Hotel in Jinchuan, which is located on Xinhua East Road in the city center. It has convenient transportation and more than 300 guest rooms. The hotel has been open for a long time and is a three-star hotel. It is a landmark hotel in Jinchang. The hotel is simple and elegant, and the rooms are spacious, bright, clean and tidy.
Jinchang Transportation
Jinchang, located in the eastern section of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province, at the northern foot of the Qilian Mountains and the southern edge of the Alxa Plateau, was a key city on the ancient Silk Road. While Jinchang's transportation isn't as convenient as that of the northwestern metropolises, it generally meets travel needs.
Jinchang Airport
We provide round-trip routes to Beijing Nanyuan, Shanghai Pudong, Chengdu and Xi'an. For other cities, you can first fly to Lanzhou and then transfer from Lanzhou to Jinchang.
Jinchang High-speed Railway
It is currently under planning and construction, and will be even more convenient after completion. Jinchang is a vast and rich place, so it is recommended that you drive or rent a car after arriving in Jinchang, so you can stop and go and capture the scenery along the way.
Recommended must-see attractions in Jinchang
Sanjiaocheng Ruins
The Sanjiaocheng Ruins are the earliest and only pre-Qin city site in the Hexi region. Surrounded by farmland, the ruins use a touch of loess and a piece of pottery to tell the memories of more than 2,000 years ago.
The Sanjiaocheng Ruins are located in Sanjiaocheng Village, Shuangwan Town, Jinchuan District. Discovered in 1924 by Swedish archaeologist Andersson, the ruins have been excavated numerous times since the founding of the People's Republic of China by the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. The site, encompassing four tomb complexes, a city site, as well as housing, cellars, and sacrificial pits, covers an area of 4.3 million square meters. Over 3,000 artifacts have been unearthed, including stone tools, pottery, bronze, gold, iron, bone and horn artifacts, wool and linen textiles, and shell money.
The Sanjiaocheng Ruins are the only officially excavated site of their kind in the Hexi region of Gansu Province. Unearthed artifacts are exquisite and unique, and the cultural deposits are deep and long-lasting. Relics of the Bronze Age Shajing Culture, the site of a large settlement built by the Yuezhi (or Wusun) people from the Western Zhou to the Warring States Period, offer insights into the history of northern nomadic peoples from the pre-Qin period. Unprotected by any special means, the ruins have weathered thousands of years of sun, wind, and rain, leaving them covered in dust amidst the fields. Standing on this land, they exude a sense of pristine simplicity and antiquity.
Jinchuan Science and Technology Museum
Jinchang, the Nickel Capital, has witnessed more than half a century of mining by the older generation of mining pioneers at Jinchuan Nickel Mine, creating a valuable legacy in the history of my country's mining development. At the Jinchuan Science and Technology Museum, you can experience the glory of Jinchang, the Nickel Capital.
Jinchuan Science and Technology Museum is located in Jinchuan Science and Technology Plaza. From the periodic table of elements, mineral sculptures to the complete process flow, the magic of "turning stone into gold" is displayed here vividly. Here, you can explore the magical charm of the modern non-ferrous metal industry.
Purple Flower City
Located in the urban area of Jinchang City, it extends to Longkou Mountain in Shuangwan Town, Jinchuan District in the east, Longshou Mountain in the west, Jiudunwan in Ningyuanbao Town in the south, and Badain Jaran Desert in the north. The Zijin Flower City Scenic Area includes 11 attractions such as Zijin Square, Jinchuan National Mining Park, Jinchuan Park, and Sanjiaocheng Archaeological Site Park. It is the core scenic area for the development of ecological tourism in Jinchang City.
Jinchuan National Mining Park
When the old open-pit mines and waste slag mountains were reborn, they became a mountain-style mining park with the characteristics of a new industrial city in the Gobi Desert of Northwest China.
Jinchuan National Mining Park is located on the northern slopes of the Longshou Mountain Range, southwest of Jinchang City, Gansu Province. Construction began in 2009 to address the waste from open-pit mining on Longshou Mountain. The mining exhibition area features displays of old open-pit mines and equipment. Steam locomotives, dump trucks, down-the-hole drills, excavators, and other machinery juxtapose the mountainside, showcasing the historical evolution of mining in Jinchuan.
The mountain greening restoration area covers an area of 1 million square meters, playing a role in managing waste and restoring the ecological environment.
Purple Gold Garden
Coming out of Jinchuan National Mining Park, we arrived at Zijin Garden, a public, open space where lavender, verbena, and other Zijin herb plants are cultivated.
Flowers in full bloom is the most common sight in many Chinese cities, but a purple flower city blooming in the Gobi Desert in the northwest is a rare dream.
Yongchang Bell Tower
Yongchang, located in the eastern Hexi Corridor, was a key city on the Silk Road, a vital transportation route between China and other countries during the Han and Tang dynasties. The Bell and Drum Towers are unmissable landmarks in Yongchang.
The Yongchang Bell and Drum Tower, also known as the Shengjiao Tower, is located at the intersection of four streets in Yongchang County. It was built in the 15th year of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, nearly 400 years ago. The entire building structure is rigorous and magnificent. It is one of the important ancient buildings in the Hexi Corridor, witnessing the historical changes of Yongchang for thousands of years.
Yongchang is a city of diverse ethnic groups, and its Bell and Drum Tower embodies an architectural style that blends Mongolian, Han, and Tangut cultures. Its artistic form, composed of three key elements: the roof, the wooden frame, and the base, follows the Han Dynasty's practice. Its central location, overseeing the city's daily routines and curfew, was a Yuan Dynasty institution and a typical Mongolian architectural practice. Architecturally, the hipped roof was a common feature of the Yuan Dynasty. While most Yuan Dynasty palaces were demolished in the early Ming Dynasty, the Yongchang Bell and Drum Tower retains its Mongolian-style dome, a unique feature found in ancient Chinese architecture.
The sounds of morning bells and evening drums can be heard everywhere. Today, the Bell and Drum Tower has gone through hundreds of years of vicissitudes and has lost its former function, but it has long been engraved in the blood of Yongchang people, becoming an indelible mark of Yongchang and a symbol of Yongchang's cultural history.
Yushan Canyon
Geography calls the narrow strip of land between the Qilian Mountains and the Longshou Mountains the "Hexi Corridor". This corridor is a cultural integration zone of the Silk Road and an important cultural gathering place.
The throat of the northern route of the Silk Road of the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Yushan Gorge of the towering Longshou Mountains, winds for more than 10 kilometers. Walking slowly, you can turn over the dusty years and pick up the remains of the civilization of the Silk Road.
▼Famous Tibetan temples along the Silk Road
Hidden at its narrowest point, the Yushan Gorge lies the ruins of a renowned ancient Buddhist temple: the Yushan Gorge Shengrong Temple. Numerous early murals in the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang were inspired by the Yushan Shengrong Temple and related content. Some historians claim that the Shengrong Temple came before the Mogao Grottoes. Yushan is also referred to as Yurong Mountain and Yugu Mountain in the mural inscriptions and signatures of over ten caves in the Mogao Grottoes.
Climbing up the mountain in front of the temple and overlooking Shengrong Temple, the temple in front of you was rebuilt after 10 years. Although the scale of the buildings and the number of monks are no longer comparable to those in the past, it has inherited the thousand-year history of Shengrong Temple and precipitated the thousand-year culture of Shengrong Temple, and is destined to be profound and magnificent.
▼Remains left in the canyon
This long and narrow valley has a long history and culture, and has left behind many ancient relics, the earliest of which can be traced back to the Neolithic Age. The Majiawanzi site of the Qijia culture, the ancient pottery kiln site, the Shengrong Temple site of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the six-body stone carvings of the Western Xia Dynasty, the Thousand Buddha Pavilion of the Western Xia Dynasty, the Shengrong Temple Pagoda (two large and small pagodas), the Huamen Gate stone carvings of the Yuan Dynasty, the tomb of King Gaochang of the Yuan Dynasty Yidu Protectorate, the Han-Ming Great Wall that runs east-west through Yongchang and the city barriers and beacon towers along the line, the tomb of General Mingwei, the site of the Sitaizi Temple and other ancient relics are still sealed in time.
There are relics left in the canyon, among which the most famous are the large and small pagodas of Shengrong Temple, a national key cultural relic. The pagodas are ancillary buildings of Shengrong Temple and are named after the temple. They were built in the Tang Dynasty and are the earliest existing ancient pagoda buildings in Hexi.
Dongzhai Quinoa
This was the first time I saw such a magnificent quinoa field, and it was also the first time I knew that in Jinchang, Hexi Corridor, besides the barrenness and desolation of the Gobi Desert, there is also the romance and hope of quinoa.
Dongzhai Town, Yongchang County, Gansu Province, a rising "quinoa town" on the Silk Road, sees the autumn breeze sweeping through the swirling crimson waves of wheat, the air carrying the scent of harvest. In the distance, the Qilian Mountains stretch out in the distance, and near, endless quinoa fields stretch as far as the eye can see.
Yunzhuang Temple
Climbing up the mountain road, we arrived at Yunzhuang Temple. In the Qilian Mountains, there are grottoes from the Wei and Jin Dynasties, temples built on the mountainside, lay Buddhists practicing in the mountains, and the Stone Buddha Cliff that has never been seen.
Since its founding, Yunzhuang Temple has experienced several periods of prosperity and decline, undergoing numerous reconstructions and renovations. All of the temple buildings were destroyed in the 1927 earthquake, and numerous cultural relics, including grotto statues and murals, were lost during the Cultural Revolution. The current temple, built in recent years by three monks on the original site, now stands alongside the now-empty grottoes.
Yunzhuang Temple, located in the Qilian Mountains approximately 10 kilometers from Nanba Township, Yongchang County, is the site of the Eastern Jin Dynasty's eminent monk Liu Saha's retreat and meditation. Experts and scholars have determined that the temple dates back to the early Jin Dynasty, with caves carved first and the temple later constructed. Reconstruction began in the sixth year of the Zhengtong reign of the Ming Dynasty, making it a renowned Buddhist sanctuary in Yongchang's history. Liu Saha, the eminent monk who participated in the construction of the world-renowned Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang and accurately predicted the Shengrong Ruixiang Temple, also excavated the remarkable Yunzhuang Grottoes and built the renowned Yunzhuang Zen Temple here.
The Yunzhuang Grottoes currently contain 21 caves of varying sizes, scattered along the sunny side of a monolithic rock face about 180 meters long and 60 meters high, beneath the main peak of Yunzhuang Mountain. Nine grottoes of varying sizes remain on the Stone Buddha Cliff, 2.5 kilometers southeast of the Yunzhuang Grottoes.
xidahe
Xidahe is located on the northern slope of Lenglongling, the main peak of the Qilian Mountains. Standing here, you can see the Qilian Mountains in the distance, and before you, Luanniao Lake at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. The lakeside is home to the ruins of the Han Dynasty Luanniao Ancient City. The lake flows through the high mountain canyon Kulong Gorge, nestled within primeval forest. A little further ahead is the historically renowned Shandan Military Horse Farm.
Snow-capped mountain lakes, alpine canyons, Han Dynasty ruins, and plateau pastures do not require much description to prove that the Xidahe Scenic Area is more beautiful than its name.
Xida River, formerly known as Dahekou, is one of the three major rivers within Jinchang City. It originates at the northern foot of Lenglongling in the Qilian Mountains. Modern glaciers hold snow year-round. Melted snow flows south to north through its main tributaries, including the Dawulonggou, Luanniaogou, Pingqianggou, Naoerdungou, and Gusonglinggou. After converging at Daheba, it becomes the Xida River and flows into the Xidahe Reservoir.
The Xidahe Reservoir, completed in 1974, has a natural gorge on its northeastern edge, known as the Two-and-a-Half Gorge. A dam was built there, intercepting the roaring river and forming a green plateau lake. Without a closer look, it's easy to mistake it for a natural lake. The reservoir actually has a more elegant name, Luanniao Lake, though locals rarely use it.
Kulong Gorge
The canyon is dozens of kilometers long, with dense forests, flowing rivers, towering rocks, and thousands of "caves" connected together, forming a beautiful painting.
The name "Kulong Gorge" isn't random; it's related to the canyon's unique topography. According to local guides, there are trap-like "holes" every few steps in the canyon's grassy terrain. While the reason for these holes isn't known, you can faintly hear the sound of flowing water coming from them.
Ruins of Luanniao Ancient City
Shandan Military Horse Farm
The Shandan Damaying Grassland, covering 2,192.5 square kilometers, is no ordinary horse ranch; it's a pilgrimage site for horse lovers. The Shandan Military Horse Farm boasts a long history, having been a royal horse breeding ground since ancient times. During the Qin Dynasty, this area was a nomadic area for the Yuezhi people, and was later occupied by the Xiongnu king Hunye Wang.
The Damaying Grassland, where the Shandan Military Horse Farm is located, is a representative example of the Qilian Mountain grasslands, boasting flat terrain and abundant grass and water. Shandan horses are a superior breed bred from a cross between local Mongolian horses and fine horses from the ancient Western Regions. They are well-proportioned, sturdy, and robust. Despite their small size, they excel as both a rider and a load carrier, and are particularly well-suited for long-distance travel. Their exceptional endurance and adaptability make them particularly well-suited for long-distance travel.
Imperial City Grassland
Huangcheng Grassland is also known as "Xiaritala" Grassland. "Xiaritala" means "golden grassland" in Yugur language. It is located in Huangcheng Town, Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Zhangye City. It is rich in water and grass and suitable for livestock and grazing. It was once the pasture of the Xiongnu King, Uighurs, and Kuoduan Khan, the Mongolian King of the Yuan Dynasty.
At the foot of the Qilian Mountains, the former site of the Imperial City still stands, and from an aerial perspective, the square city walls are clearly visible. To protect the Qilian Mountains, the Imperial City Grassland is now closed to the public, making it impossible to penetrate the hinterland and slowly appreciate its beauty. Instead, I wandered around the Imperial City Reservoir, gazing at the grassland from afar, a solace.
Huangcheng Reservoir is located in the Huangchengtan Basin of the Huangcheng Grassland on the eastern edge of Sunan County, 48 kilometers from Yongchang County. Built and managed by Yongchang County, it boasts the grandeur of a plateau lake, reflecting the majestic Qilian Mountains and creating a unique charm.
Badain Jaran Desert
The Badain Jaran Desert, located in Alxa Right Banner in western Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, covers a total area of 47,000 square kilometers and is China's third-largest desert. Over 10,000 square kilometers of its northwest portion remain untouched by human activity. Named my country's most beautiful desert by National Geographic, its unique beauty is evident in its peculiar peaks, singing sand dunes, lakes, sacred springs, and temples.
Although the Badain Jaran Desert Scenic Area is located in Inner Mongolia, most people choose to reach it from Jinchang. Jinchang's city center is approximately 120 kilometers from the desert, offering convenient transportation and providing the best access to the desert. The expressway is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2018, shortening the distance to 90 kilometers, making it even more convenient.
Deserts are typically water-scarce, but the depths of the Danbajarin Desert boast over 100 lakes and numerous springs. Dotted among the layers of sand dunes, these lakes and springs create the most beautiful scenery in the desert.
Nortu is the largest and deepest lake in the Danbajarin Desert. The lake is covered with reeds and water birds are playing around, making it easy to forget that it is deep in the desert.
