On you next trip to China you should consider a special trip to visit the Hexi Corridor - the remains of the world's greatest wall and greatest road snake side by side, forced together by parallel mountain ranges.
Jiayuguan is almost but not quite, at the end of the Great Wall. The wall's last 8km struggle to the Beida River. Built at the "throat" of the Silk Road in the Hexi Corridor - the narrow passage between the 5,000 metre Qilian peaks and the dry, rocky Mazong mountain range - the spectacular 14th century Jiayuguan Fort. This was once the only gateway into China forover land travellers from the west.
If you travel to just outside Shandan Country, the Wall is astonishingly complete - except where over the ages shepherds have cut gaps to drive their flocks through. The Shandan section of the wall runs parallel to and only about 1km from the Zhangye-Wuwei highway.
Getting there: Shanghai's Pudong International Airport to Jiayuguan (a five hour journey) via Shanghai Airlines (
www.shanghai-air.com).
September 06, 2010, 07:26:19 PM
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