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Gansu, China is located in north-western China. Gansu's population is located in north-western central China, along the historic Ming dynasty frontier, Gansu province is home to 26,033,400 people. Most of the population, 73%, is still rural. Gansu is 92% Han and also has Hui, Tibetan, Dingxiang, Tu, Manchu, Yugar, Bonan, Mongolian, Salar, and Kazakh minorities.

Gansu’s capital is Lanzhou; Lanzhou is located in the southeast part of Gansu. The Yellow River (Huang He) gets most of its water from Gansu province. The Yellow River also flows straight thru Lanzhou.

The landscape in Gansu is very mountainous in the south and flat in the north. The mountains in the south are part of the Qilian mountain range. At 5,547 meters high, Qilian Shan Mountain is Gansu’s highest elevation. It is located at latitude 39N and longitude 99E.

The Jiayuguan Pass of the Great Wall

Jiayuguan Pass, the largest and most intact pass, or entrance, of the Great Wall. Jiayuguan Pass was built in the late Ming dynasty, somewhere around the year 1372. It was built near an oasis that was then on the extreme western edge of China. Jiayuguan Pass was the first pass on the west end of the great wall so it earned the name “The First And Greatest Pass Under Heaven.” Legend goes that the official in charge asked the designer to calculate how many bricks would be used. The designer gave him the number and when the project was finished, only one brick was left. It was put on the top of the pass as a symbol of commemoration.

Mogao Grottoes

The Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang represent an astonishing collection of Buddhist art and religion. Originally there were 1,000 grottoes, but now only 492 cave temples remain. Each temple has a large statue of a buddha or bodhisattva and paintings of religious scenes. In the year AD 336 a monk named Le Zun (Lo-tsun) came near Echoing Sand Mountain, when he had a vision of golden rays of light shining down on him like a thousand Buddhas. Le Zun started to carve the first grotto to memorize the incident. During the Five Dynasties period they ran out of room on the cliff and could not build anymore grottoes. Now they have started to find old paintings that were painted over in the Five Dynasties.

Silk Road And Dunhaung City

The historic Silk Road starts in Chang’an and goes to Constantinople. On the way merchants would go to Dunhaung in Gansu. In Dunhaung they would get fresh camels, food and guards for the journey around the dangerous Takla Makan shamo (desert). Before departing Dunhaung they would pray to the Mogao Grottoes for a safe journey, if they came back alive they would thank the gods at the grottoes. Across the desert they would form a train of camels to protect themselves from thieving bandits. The next stop, Kashi (Kashgar), was a welcome sight to the merchants. At Kashi most would trade and go back and the ones who stayed would eat fruit and trade their bactrian camels for single humped ones. After Kashi they would keep going until they reached their next destination.

Natural resources

Land

• 166,400 km² grassland
• 46,700 km² mountain slopes suitable for livestock breeding
• 46,200 km² forests (standing timber reserves of 0.2 km³)
• 35,300 km² cultivated land (1,400 m² per capita)
• 66,600 km² wasteland suitable for forestation
• 10,000 km² wasteland suitable for farming
• 455,000 km² total area

Minerals

3,000 deposits of a 145 different minerals. 94 minerals have been found and ascertained, these include nickel, cobalt, platinum, selenium, casting clay, finishing serpentine, and five other minerals whose reserves are the largest in China. Gansu has advantages in getting nickel, zinc, cobalt, platinum, iridium, copper, barite, and baudisserite.

Energy

Among Gansu’s most important sources of energy are its water resources: the Yellow River and other inland river drainage basins. Gansu is placed ninth among China’s provinces in annual hydropower potential and water discharge. Gansu produces 17.24 gigawatts of hydropower a year. 29 hydropower stations have been constructed in Gansu. Each station capable of creating 30 gigawatts each. Gansu has an estimated coal reserve of 8.92 billion tons. The province also has an estimated 700 million tons of petroleum. Gansu also a very good potential for wind and solar power development.

Plants and Animals

Gansu has 659 species of wild animals. Some of which are the giant panda, snub-nosed monkey, antelope, snow leopard, deer, fawn, musk deer, and bactrian which is a two humped camel. It also has 24 other rare animals which are under a state protection. Gansu is home to 441 species of birds.

Gansu province is second place in China for most medicinal plants and herbs, including some odd ones like hairy asiabell root, fritillary bulb, and Chinese caterpillar fungus.