The name Yumen Pass began when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty opened the road to the West and set up the four counties of Hexi, and was named because the West took the road here when importing jade.

There is a saying in a poem that we learned, “The spring breeze never leads to Yumenguan”. How did Yumenguan come about? Let me tell you about it. Come and learn knowledge together!

Detailed content

01

The ruins of Yumen Pass are located at the western end of Hexi Corridor, on the south bank of Shule River, surrounded by Gobi, desert and meadows. The site area starts from Cangting chert in the east, to Xianming chert in the west, and to Sandun in the south. The core area is centered on the ruins of Xiaofangpancheng, which is linearly distributed from east to west, with a length of 45 kilometers from east to west and a width of 0.5 kilometers from north to south. The current remains include 2 city sites, 20 beacons and 18 sections of the Great Wall site.

02

Since Yumen Pass is located in a good location, it is a must for many places to travel, and most of the commercial transactions also pass through Yumen Pass. This area has the symbolic status of the east-west traffic boundary in the geographical area. Since ancient times, it has been the east and west traffic important channel.

03

According to “Han Shu · Geography”, Yumen Pass and another important pass, Yangguan, are both located in Longle County, Dunhuang County. At that time, the traffic between the Central Plains and the Western Regions was two passes. It was once an important military pass and the Silk Road traffic route during the Han Dynasty. Han Ban Chao had been in Jueyu for a long time. When he was old, he wanted to return home. He wrote to him, saying, “I don’t want to go to Jiuquan County. I wish I could be born at the Yumen Pass.”.