Hexi Corridor 

My real horse could not carry me that far to Zhangye City so, guess what I did? Change it to a metal one, but I still need to feed him.

Zhangye, known as Ganzhou in ancient times, is the granary of the Hexi Corridor and a national-level historic and cultural city. Marco Polo once stayed there for a year. The city is known for the world's largest indoor statue of Sleeping Buddha

This sleeping Buddha statue was first established in 196 AD and reconstructed and expanded during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is now the largest temple in Gansu Province. The major building is the Sleeping Buddha Palace in which there is a sculpture of Sakyamuni in the state of nirvana. The sculpture is made of wood and clay and is gilded.

This Palace is also famous for containing a rare Buddhist scripture written in gold and silver powder in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

What we see here are 10 secret closets that use to store 6,000 volumes of Golden Buddha Manuscript that given by the Emperor of Ming Dynasty.

The City is lighted up at night, and its nightlife is colorful. You can either go to Folk Custom Culture Village watching literal and artistic performances, or go to night fair. Besides the still opened shops, tourists can also go to the local bar to experience the unique lifestyle.

Jiayuguan is an ancient Han Chinese outpost. The Great Wall once extended beyond here, but in 1372, during the first few years of the Ming Dynasty, a fortress was built.

Jiayuguan used to be the last gate of China. It is along the Chinese boundary towards west. It used to be the split point between east and west. Also, it is a very important point on the Ancient Silk Road.

Jiayuguan has the special design to against the intruders. In case the enemy breaks in, the confusion wall will split the power in two.

Host:

It is too bad. It is the dead end. I have to go the other way.

Finally if the enemy get to the second gate, guess what, this is a trap

It is show time, the stage behind me use to be the entertainment center inside the military station. It showed all kind of operas.

Do you have enough good time? This used to be the best time for the soldiers who were living in the station. Don鈥檛 go away, I will be back.

Jiayuguan city is a quite modern setup on the desert. It is not much different than any other small towns in China mainland, although visitors can discover street scene that quite diverse than Beijing and Shanghai.