I visited the pass along with a group of nine employees from Shenzhen's Guan Shanyue Art Museum on Sept. 20 after visiting the Dunhuang Grottoes. This was the second time I had been to the attraction I first visited in 1995.
When we arrived at the pass at around 9:30 AM, I immediately noticed a number of environmental changes had been made.
Twelve years ago, the tourist bus could take me directly to the Eastern Dam Gate, which stands on a slope northeast of the outer city of the Jiayu Pass. But, today, all tourists have to get off their buses near the newly-built main entrance gate, about 10 minutes walk from the Eastern Dam Gate.
There were no shops outside the pass before. But today there is a whole block of shops near the main entrance gate selling various souvenirs, medicines and agricultural specialties.
The price of an admission ticket was around 10 yuan (US$1.3) in 1995, but today it has risen to 65 yuan.
After going through the entrance gate, we came to a large man-made lake, called "The Nine-Eye Spring."
The lake and the greenery and flowers around its banks reminded me of a picturesque scene in south China, rather than the barren desert of northwest China. I wondered why the government of Jiayuguan City had spent money building a lake which didn't quite seem to fit the natural environment around the Jiayu Pass.
Twelve years ago, I was deeply impressed by the grand scene of the Jiayu Pass standing magnificently alone in the Gobi desert along the ancient Silk Road. However, today, my impression was dramatically different even though the main building complex was the same.
When Chinese people speak of a pass, they are referring not only to a space between two mountains, but also to a type of military fortress built at strategic points.
The Jiayu Pass is such a military fortress. The two Chinese words "Jiayu" literally mean "beautiful valley."
Built in 1372 during the Ming Dynasty, the Jiayu Pass is one of the best-preserved passes in China as well as the largest pass on the ancient Great Wall. It is located on a strategic passage of the ancient Silk Road at the western end of the Hexi Corridor in today's Gansu Province.
According to historical records, Feng Sheng, a general of the Ming Dynasty, and his troops were sent to chase and kill remaining members of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) army. After reoccupying the region of the Hexi Corridor, Feng was ordered by the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to build a pass at the frontier to keep out the enemy.
One day, when he rode to the valley at the foot of the Mazong Mountain in the north and Qilian Mountain in the south, the narrowest passage along the Hexi Corridor, Feng believed he had found the right site to build a pass.
The extant building complex of the Jiayu Pass is composed of inner and outer courts. The outer court covers an area of 33,500 square meters while the inner court covers 25,000 square meters.
The pass has eastern and western gates with facing towers. The two gates are protected by trap courts.
A trap court works like this: if the enemies try to get in, they have to pass one of the high gates. If they are lucky enough to get through, they will end up in a trap and a hail of arrows will pour down on them from all directions. So the gates of the outer court are actually a decoy to the main gates of the inner court.
The Jiayu Pass has three towers, one in the middle and the other two above the main gates. The towers are very high and provide distant views in all directions. They were built on square platforms 9 meters high with three-story pavilions each 17 meters high.
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