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Lanzhou,
capital of Gansu Province,
is a
major stop on the ancient "Silk Road" west of
Xi'an. Situated on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, Lanzhou has
been important for thousands of years because of the Hexi Corridor, or
“Corridor West of the Yellow River,”
in which early Chinese civilization began. About 3,000 years ago, in the
Zhou Dynasty, agriculture began to take shape in the basins of the Jin
and Wei Rivers
that
formed the corridor, marking the beginning of the great Yellow River
basin civilization.
Starting in the Qin
Dynasty, merchants and traders traveling from Xi'an to central Asia and
then on to the Roman Empire, or the other way round, broke their long
journey at Lanzhou. To protect this corridor and important
communications hub, the Great Wall was extended under the Han as far as
Yumen, in the far northwest of present-day Gansu Province.
Lanzhou became capital
of a succession of tribal states during the turbulent ventures that
followed the decline of the Han
Dynasty. During
this time of turmoil, people began to turn
to ideologies that satisfied their need for hope. Taoism developed into
a religion, and Buddhism became the official religion in some of the
northern states. Buddhist art also flourished, and shrines were built in
temples, caves, and on cliffs. From the fifth to the 11th centuries,
Dunhuang, beyond the Yumen Pass of the Great Wall, became a center for
Buddhist study, drawing scholars and pilgrims from afar. It was a period
in which magnificent works of art were
created.
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