Gansu, rarely as Kansu (Chinese 甘肅 / 甘肃, Pinyin Gānsù), is a
province of the People's Republic of China. With its territory of
364,000 square kilometers, it is the seventh largest administrative
unit in China, covering areas between the Tibetan Plateau, the Loess
Plateau and the Inner Mongolia Plateau. It is crossed by the Yellow
River in the south and lies partly in the Gobi Desert.
Gansu's 27.7 million inhabitants are mostly Han Chinese, with large
minorities of Hui, Tibetans and Dongxiang. The largest city is the
provincial capital Lanzhou, which is located on the Yellow River in
the south of the province. Gansu is one of the poorer regions in
China, where mining is one of the most important economic sectors.
In history, Gansu is important as the place of origin of the Qin
Dynasty and as the location of numerous posts on the Silk Road, see
also Hexi Corridor. The monuments of the Silk Road and the former
Chinese border fortifications against Central Asia are now among the
tourist attractions in Gansu.
Gansu borders the Chinese provinces of Shaanxi, Sichuan and Qinghai,
the autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, as well
as the neighboring state of Mongolia. The predominantly mountainous
region is part of the Qilian Shan mountain range, some of which are over
6,000 m high, in the west, and borders the Gobi desert in the east. The
most fertile and populous part of the region is flowed through by the
Yellow River, Chinese Huang He. There are two autonomous districts in
the province
Gannan Tibetan Autonomous District (甘南藏族自治州)
Linxia Hui Autonomous District (临夏回族自治州)
Lanzhou (兰州市) ✈ – capital of the region and important transport hub.
Baiyin (白银市)
Dingxi (定西市)
Jinchang (金昌市)
Jiayuguan (嘉峪关市) has
merged with Jiuquan (酒泉市).
Longnan (陇南市) ✈
Pingliang (平凉市)
Qingyang (庆阳市)
Tianshui (天水市) ✈
Tunhuang ✈ with the Magao Grottoes
World Heritage Site
Wuwei (武威市)
Zhangye (张掖市)
The so-called “Silk Road” by Sven Hedin begins in the northwest of Gansu.
Yumen Pass (玉门关, Yùmén Guān, "Jade Gate"; 97 km from Tunhuang).
Within the "scenic park" at the top of the pass, which was already a
Chinese border post during the Han Dynasty, there are still remains of
the first large wall that was built 2000 years ago. Price: moderate
entrance fee.
Yardang Geopark (敦煌雅丹国家地质公园; 180 km (2¾ hours) from
Tunhuang City. Over the Yumen Pass). In addition to the sandstone
formations eroded by wind and rain, which in some cases have been given
names, the abandoned town contains the ruins of Aisikexiaer Castle.
Yulin Grottoes (榆林窟, Ten Thousand Buddha Gorge; from Tunhuang 163 km by
road on the G3011; from Guazhou 70 km (1½ h): no buses). 41 main
grottoes and several hundred smaller caves. The rock caves are carved
into the rock on the western and eastern sides of the valley, there are
thirteen caves on the east bank and eleven on the west bank. The murals
are stylistically similar to those of Mogao. Open: summer 9 a.m. to 5
p.m., winter 10 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
Tunhuang Grottoes. Not all of the
places mentioned there are open to the public.
Medieval Jiayuguan Castle is a beatiful fort with its unique Chinese architecture.
The cities marked with ✈ above have airports with domestic flights.
The “mother of all roads” runs through the length of the province,
the G312, mostly a motorway, which connects Shanghai with Korgz across
the whole of China.
The Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway line has also been upgraded to a high-speed line.
Gansu is famous for its diverse noodle dishes.
Lamian (拉面) is
a Lanzhou specialty, a long noodle made from soft wheat flour. Lamian is
made by twisting, stretching and folding the dough into strands, taking
advantage of the weight of the dough. The length and thickness of the
strands depend on how many times the dough is folded. In Lanzhou style,
the dough is worked intensively. It is pulled in straight, quickly and
without twisting or rippling. Some pullers regularly hit the noodle
against their work boards to ensure even stretching and uniform
thickness. Flour is sometimes used to dust the strands and prevent them
from sticking.
Lanzhou Lamian (兰州拉面), a beef noodle soup,
consists of a spicy clear broth, finely chopped beef, tender Chinese
radish slices, plenty of coriander and spring onions, deep red chili oil
and handmade Lamian noodles.
Gansu covers an elongated territory that stretches from central China
to the northwest of the country, where it has a short border with
Mongolia. In the northwest, Gansu borders Xinjiang, to the east lie
Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Shaanxi. To the south and west lie Sichuan
and Qinghai. The province covers a length of around 1000 km and an area
of 364,000 km², making Gansu one of the larger provinces in China.
A large part of the province lies more than 1000 m above sea level.
The west of Gansu is characterized by the Qilian Mountains, which are up
to 5500 m high and have forests, snow-capped peaks and glacial rivers,
while the Gobi and Alashan deserts extend to the north and east.
Grassland, mountains and loess areas dominate in the south of the
province, where the rivers have cut deep valleys into the landscape. In
total, around 70% of the territory consists of mountains or plateaus.
The snow line is at 4000 meters, the forest line at 3300 meters, and
grassland occurs up to an altitude of 2800 meters. Most of Gansu is at
risk of earthquakes.
Between the Qilian Mountains, the
Longshoushan and Helishan and west of Wushaoling, the
1200-kilometer-long Hexi Corridor runs northwest, through which the
Heihe and Shule He flow. The Hexi Corridor has a dry climate and the
area consists mainly of semi-deserts and deserts. Meltwater from the
glaciers of the Qilianshan feeds a number of bodies of water, around
which there are oases with agriculture and livestock farming. The Hexi
Corridor has been an important transport route since ancient times and
was part of the historic Silk Road from central China to Xinjiang and
Central Asia. The Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway line also runs through it.
The Zhangye Danxia Geopark National Park is located on the northern
foothills of the Qilian Mountains. The landscape there, rich in shapes,
patterns and colors, was created from layered formations of red
sandstone from the Tertiary period and was shaped by plate tectonic
processes and erosion over millions of years.
Gansu's largely
continental climate is characterized by large daily, seasonal and
regional fluctuations. The annual average temperature is between 4 °C
and 14 °C, the January temperature is up to −26 °C and the July
temperature is up to +26 °C. In general, Gansu is one of the drier areas
of China, with annual precipitation ranging between 30 mm and 700 mm.
Most of the precipitation falls in the summer months (June to August).
On the high plateau, annual precipitation is usually well below 100 mm,
in the mountains between 100 and 500 mm.
The region that belongs
to Gansu was already known in ancient times under the name Gansu or Hexi
(west of the river). The most populous part of Gansu is located in the
middle reaches of the Yellow River (Huang He), where it comes from the
high plateaus of western China. These loess areas are among the regions
of origin of Chinese civilization. In the southern part of Gansu, the
Huang He makes a large bend to the north. The northwestern part of Gansu
is characterized by dry areas and oases; this is where the Silk Road
begins.
The territory of present-day Gansu has been inhabited for 6,000
years. During this time, the Gansu Corridor has always served as a
connecting link between China and Central Asia. During early Chinese
history, Gansu was an area that was only partially and temporarily under
the control of the central government. During the Han Dynasty, the
region became part of the Chinese Empire for the first time after the
expulsion of the Xiongnu and received strong development impulses when
trade via the Silk Road reached its first peak and trade was conducted
with the neighboring Central Asian peoples, but also with the Romans.
However, trade came to a standstill around the second century AD due
to numerous military conflicts. At the same time, Buddhism came to China
via the Silk Road and the success of this newly introduced religion is
probably due to the generally unstable political situation in the
country. Two of the four largest temple groups and temple grottos in
China are now located in the Gansu area (Mogao Grottoes, Bingling
Temple).
In the fourth century AD, the Toba Rebellion brought an
abrupt end to trade along the Silk Road. Gansu was ruled by several
dynasties descended from or related to the Toba. One of these Toba
rulers later gave rise to the Sui Dynasty in the late 6th century. The
Sui restored central authority over the empire and expanded its borders
far beyond Gansu, including building parts of the wall in what is now
Gansu. The name of the province also dates from the Sui period; it was
formed from the two prefectures (州) Gan (around Zhangye) and Su (around
Jiuquan).
The Battle of Gansu was fought in 623 by soldiers from
the Tuyuhun Kingdom and the Tang Dynasty. Before and during the battle,
the Tang general Chai Shao distracted the Tuyuhun soldiers with an
erotic dance by two dancers.
After the fall of the Sui, the Tang
practically continued the Sui policy. The wall was extended to Dunhuang
and the Chinese empire was expanded far to the west, into what is now
Kyrgyzstan. However, Chinese hegemony was repeatedly threatened by the
Turkic peoples of Central Asia, such as the Uighurs and the Tibetans. In
751, the Chinese army suffered a heavy defeat against Islamic troops
from Central Asia, and in 781 the Tibetans conquered Dunhuang and held
it for several decades.
After the end of the Uighur Kaganate,
many Uighurs moved to Gansu and founded the Gansu Uighur Empire, which
existed from 848 to 1036.
In the 10th and 11th centuries, the
Buddhist Tanguts established a powerful state in what is now Gansu and
Ningxia with the Western Xia Dynasty, which dominated northern China
together with Liao in the 11th century. In 1227, however, the now
weakened Xia were destroyed by the Mongols; the Mongols later
established the Yuan Dynasty and incorporated what is now Gansu into
their empire. Under Mongolian leadership, numerous settlers from Central
Asia came to the region.
Under the Ming and later the Qing,
western expansion gradually resumed, with Gansu and especially the
capital Lanzhou becoming the main starting point. In 1666, the province
of Gansu was first created. From the 18th century onwards, what is now
Qinghai and Tibet came under the rule of the Chinese Empire; in
1781–1784 and 1862–1877, the Muslim Hui Chinese rebelled in vain against
Qing rule. After long conflicts and wars, what is now Xinjiang was
incorporated into the Chinese Empire again in 1757, meaning that Gansu
was no longer a border region. At the same time, the relatively
underdeveloped region was the center of strong Muslim settlements;
However, these were viewed with disfavor by the Han and massive unrest
among the Muslims broke out, devastating large parts of the region. The
rebellions were bloodily suppressed, but continued in Gansu and later
Qinghai, which was then administered by Gansu, until 1895; the result
was a decimation of the Muslim population in both areas.
After
the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Gansu was initially part of the territory
of the warlord Feng Yuxiang in the 1920s, until he broke with the
Kuomintang and was attacked and defeated by KMT troops and
Muslim-Chinese Hui warlords allied with the KMT. As a result, civil war
raged from 1928 onwards; however, the Kuomintang allies retained
extensive control and during the Second Sino-Japanese War there was no
danger of Japanese attacks in Gansu. The Hui warlords of the Ma clique
(Xibei San Ma), who were allied first with Feng and then with the KMT,
ruled not only Gansu but also the neighboring region of Qinghai from
1912 to 1949. In August and September 1949, Gansu was conquered by
communist troops.
Until 1954, Gansu and its neighbors were under
the administration of the Northwest Administrative Council. Only then
did Gansu become an independent province again; in 1958, Ningxia was
separated from Gansu and became its own autonomous region for the Hui.
The communists began an industrialization program, which was given
impetus primarily by the completion of a railway line between Lanzhou
and Urumqi (1963).
Strategically, Gansu is of the utmost
importance to China, so that several units of the People's Liberation
Army are stationed in the province.
The 2020 census found a permanent resident population of 25,019,831
in 8,769,671 households. This corresponds to a population density of
68.70 inhabitants per square kilometer. This makes Gansu one of the more
sparsely populated provinces in China. The 2010 census showed a total
population of 25,575,254 people. Between 2010 and 2020, the population
of the province thus decreased by 555,423 inhabitants. Of the total
population, 12,700,948 (50.76%) were men and 12,318,883 (49.24%) were
women. The same census found that 4,853,543 people (19.40%) were under
14 years old, 15,905,297 people (63.57%) were between 15 and 59 years
old, 4,260,991 people (17.03%) were between 60 and 64 years old, and
3,147,817 people (12.58%) were over 65 years old in Gansu. The Han
population was 22,363,438 (89.38%) and the minority population was
2,656,393 (10.62%). Compared with the sixth census in 2010, the Han
population decreased by 801,318 people, while the population of various
ethnic minorities increased by 245,895 people.
The 2000 census
showed that around 8.7% of the population (2.2 million people) belong to
national minorities, with the three largest in terms of numbers being
the Hui Chinese (almost 5%), Mongolian Dongxiang (almost 2%) and
Tibetans (almost 2%). Mongolians, Kazakhs, Manchus and Salars also live
in Gansu. Smaller peoples who live almost exclusively in Gansu are the
Bonan, Yugur and Tu. The latter two peoples are known for having
preserved their original languages more than other peoples; in
addition to Sino-Tibetan languages, Turkic and Mongolian languages are
also spoken in Gansu.
Until the end of the 19th century, the Hui
and other Muslim peoples (Salar, Kazakhs, Bonan, Yugur and Dongxiang)
made up almost 90% of the population (8.35 million of 9.3 million
inhabitants) in the province (which at that time still included
Ningxia), compared to Buddhist Chinese, Mongolians and Tanguts (although
the data is uncertain). Around 90% of the Han Chinese living in Gansu
today have moved to Gansu since 1953, mainly from Shaanxi, Shandong,
Beijing and Shanghai, although immigration has largely come to a
standstill since the 1980s. While members of the minorities tend to make
a living from livestock farming, many newcomers are employed in
agriculture.
The traditional religions in Gansu are Lamaism and
Islam. The Labrang monastery is one of the most important Lamaist sites
in China and is located in Gansu. There are occasional religiously
motivated unrests.
According to the 2000 census, urbanization was
only about 24%, with the largest city, Lanzhou, having a population of
about 3.1 million. The proportion of people living in cities rose from
14.4% to 46.4% between 1978 and 2017. In addition to the provincial
capital Lanzhou (2,438,595 inhabitants in the urban area in the 2010
census), important cities are Tianshui (544,441 inhabitants), Baiyin
(362,363 inhabitants), Wuwei (331,370 inhabitants), Jiuquan (255,739
inhabitants), Yumen, Jiayuguan, Dunhuang, Pingliang and Jinchang.
At the district level, Gansu was divided into twelve prefecture-level
cities and two autonomous districts in the 2020 census.
Below the
district level is the county level with 86 administrative units in 2020,
including 57 counties, 17 urban districts, seven autonomous counties and
five county towns. At the municipal level, there were 1,356
administrative units, including 127 street districts, 892 large towns,
305 townships and 32 ethnic communities.
Almost half of Gansu's
area (43.2% at the turn of the millennium) is minority areas (national
regional autonomies). In these areas, minorities make up about 56% of
the population. Over 18% of Gansu's area is autonomous areas for the
Mongolians, compared to about 17% for Hui and other Muslim peoples and
13% for Tibetan tribes.
In 2015, the GDP per capita was 27,458 yuan (4,134 US dollars / PPP: 7,906 US dollars) per year (ranking 31st among Chinese provinces). The level of prosperity in the province was only 51% of the Chinese average, roughly on a par with Guatemala. Gansu was the poorest province in the country. It is an economic development area and is supported by the central government.
Agriculture produces about a fifth of the GDP, but employs three
fifths of the workforce. The most important products are grains such as
wheat, corn, and millet; rice does not thrive due to climatic reasons.
Vegetables, potatoes, and pulses, especially soybeans, are also grown.
Gansu is also an important producer of cotton, nuts, tobacco, and hemp.
Livestock farming is dominated by goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, horses,
camels, and yaks, and about 30% of the area is used as pasture. Gansu is
also known as a source of herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Forestry is practiced in the Qilian Mountains.
Gansu's
agriculture is threatened by environmental degradation such as soil
erosion, drying out, soil salinization, overgrazing and desertification.
In 2000, industry contributed 45% to GDP and employed less than 20% of the workforce. The main industries are the extraction of raw materials, heavy industry and construction. The main products mined are coal, crude oil and natural gas, iron ore, nickel, cobalt, zinc, platinum and selenium. Industry is still largely state-owned, with state-owned companies generating three quarters of industrial production. Important industrial products are building materials, petrochemical products and machinery. Lanzhou is the center of industry (nuclear energy, oil processing, hydropower), while Jiayuguan is the center of steel production in Gansu. There are also arms factories in Gansu, and Chinese atomic bombs are built in the province.
The service industry generated around 36% of GDP in 2000. The most important economic sectors here are trade and transport; tourism is playing an increasingly important role and has become one of the most important sources of income for this traditionally poor province. The most important sights include parts of the Great Wall, Buddhist cave temples and other religious sites, the wild landscape in the Gobi Desert and the wildlife with giant pandas and golden monkeys.
Gansu has a high potential for generating energy from hydropower, even though it is one of the drier areas in China. In 2017, around 134.9 terawatt hours of electrical energy were generated in Gansu. Around 63.5 terawatt hours were generated from hydropower and wind power; the Yellow River in particular is used to generate electrical energy. There is also a great deal of potential for wind energy. When the Gansu wind farm is finally completed, wind turbines with an installed capacity of 20,000 MW will provide around 50 TWh of electrical energy. The remaining 71.4 terawatt hours come from thermal power plants.
Gansu's transport network is very sparse, but the province's most important cities are easy to reach. Gansu's transport infrastructure is of great importance for the whole of China because it connects important parts of the country in the northwest to the rest of the People's Republic. This includes the 2,300 km of railway line (most of which is on the Lan-Xin line from Lanzhou to Urumqi) and the 1,300 km of navigable waterways, especially on the Huang He.
In 2000, the illiteracy rate was 14.3%, which is one of the worst
figures in China. Although the figure has improved significantly since
1990, a lack of education remains a problem, particularly in rural areas
and among ethnic minorities.
The city of Lanzhou is an
educational center, where several universities and research institutes -
including military research - are located.
The western end of the Great Wall of China, built in 1372, is
located in Gansu Province. Jiayuguan is a fortress surrounded by
12-meter-high walls. The building plan for the fortress is said to
have been so precise that only a single brick remained, which is
still kept here today.
Dunhuang is now so famous that it has
become a fairground: camel rides, jeep tours, dune surfing. The most
important attraction is the Mogao Grottoes, 492 Buddhist cave
temples that are up to 1,600 years old, with 2,400 statues and
45,000 square meters of murals.
The provincial capital
Lanzhou, a city of three million, was developed into an industrial
center within four decades. The city is also the starting point for
the transport routes to Qinghai and Tibet as well as to Xinjiang.
Sandwiched between a mountain range, Lanzhou lines the southern bank
of the Huang He for more than twenty kilometers.
About 280
kilometers south of Lanzhou, at an altitude of about 3,000 meters,
is the town of Xiahe in the administrative district of the same
name. The area is close to the historical Tibetan cultural region of
Amdo, from which the current 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) also
comes. The Labrang Monastery in Xiahe is one of the most important
Tibetan monasteries outside the borders of the Tibet Autonomous
Region. About 10 kilometers from Xiahe is the Sangke Grassland, an
impressive, wide grassland.