Yumenguan: Guan Ming. Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. When the western regions imported jade, they were named after it. The Han dynasty was the gateway to all parts of the western regions. Therefore, it is located in Xiaofang City in the northwest of Dunhuang, Gansu. Yangguan and Yumenguan were once important military passes and traffic arteries on the Silk Road in Han Dynasty. Speaking of Yumenguan, everyone will immediately think of a well-known Tang poem, Wang Zhihuan's "Liangzhou Ci": "The Yellow River is far above the white clouds, and there is a lonely city of Wan Ren. Why bother to complain about the willow, the spring breeze is only Yumenguan. " The tragic and desolate artistic conception in the poem has aroused our yearning for this ancient fortress. Yumenguan, commonly known as Xiaofangcheng, is located 90 kilometers northwest of Dunhuang City. According to legend, during the Western Han Dynasty, the beautiful jade in the western regions and Hotan entered the Central Plains through this pass, hence the name. Drive west along 2 15 national highway, and the bus can reach Qaidam in Qinghai, western oilfield, Ruoqiang in Xinjiang and Lhasa in Tibet. Today, when you go to Yumenguan Scenic Area, you can enjoy the endless Gobi scenery and the illusory mirage. Realistic natural sleeping Buddha and Gobi desert plants. These scenery, blue sky, desert and green grass, constitute a vast and magnificent magical picture. When it comes to Yumenguan, we must first talk about the history of Zhang Qian's missions to the Western Regions. After the opening of the Silk Road, cultural and trade exchanges between the East and the West have become increasingly prosperous. In order to ensure the safety and smoothness of the Silk Road, around12107 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered the construction of "two customs", namely, Yangguan and Yumen Pass.
Today, the remains of Yumenguan in Han Dynasty are a small square castle, which stands on a gravel mountain in the east and west Gobi desert, with saline-alkali marshes in the south, Hala Lake not far from the north, the Great Wall in the north and the ancient Shule River in the north. The Great Wall twists and turns as far as the eye can see. Build a square beacon tower every five miles or 10 miles, and there are obvious house ruins around the beacon tower of the Great Wall. In the south of the East-West Great Wall, there is also a North-South Great Wall, which bypasses the west side of Yumenguan, goes south to Yangguan, and passes through the East-West Lane on the north slope of Guancheng to the Western Regions. Yumenguan Guancheng is completely rammed with loess, covering an area of more than 600 square meters. The wall is 245 meters long from east to west, 264 meters wide from north to south and 97 meters high. The wall is 37 meters wide, 4 meters wide under the east-west wall and 49 meters wide under the northwest wall, and it is open to the west and north. There are walkways with a width of 13 meters around the top of the city, and there are internal and external female walls. In the southeast corner of the city, there is a horse path with a width less than 1 m, and you can reach the top of the mountain by turning south against the east wall.