Hexi Corridor

Hexi Corridor or Gansu Corridor refers to the historical route in Gansu province of China. As part of the Northern Silk Road running northwest from the bank of the Yellow River, it used to be the most important passage from ancient China to Xinjiang and Central Asia for traders and the military. As early as the first millennium silk goods began appearing in Siberia having traveled over the Northern Silk Road including the Hexi Corridor segment. The ancient trackway formerly passed through Haidong, Xining and the environs of Juyan Lake, serving an effective area of about 215,000 km?. It was an area where mountain and desert limited caravan traffic to a narrow trackway where fortification could control who passed.

More specifically, Hexi is a long narrow passage stretching for about 1000 from the steep Wushaolin hillside near the modern city of Lanzhou to the Jade Gate at the border of Gansu and Xinjiang. There are many fertile oases along the path. The strikingly inhospitable environment surrounds them: the vast expanse of the Gobi desert, the snow-capped Qilian Mountains to the south, the Beishan mountainous area, and the Alashan Plateau to the north.