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Zhangye
Zhangye is a town that has lost much of
its former glory. It lies about 450km northwest of the capital
Lanzhou, and nowadays is most famed as both a small station
on the Lanzhou-Urumqi rail line, and for its production
of lethal liquor, including Zhangye Rice Wine (Zhangye huangjiu),
Zhangye Nan Wine (Zhangye nanjiu) and Siluchun Spirits (Siluchun
baijiu). Things were not always this way.
As early as 5,000 years ago, Zhangye was
a popular dwelling place, a natural area of plain, surrounded
by twin mountains, Qilianshan and Helishan. At this time
the area was considered Tibetan, part of the large area
of influence that the present day province struggles to
remember. Even today the Tibetan influence is still here,
especially a little to the south around the village of Mati.
In 111 BC, during the Western Han Dynasty, Zhengye was officially
designated as an administrative town. The town grew to prominence
along with the famed Silk Road, when virtually every merchant
and traveler planning on going to Xinjiang and beyond, from
central China (Zhongyuan), had to pass through Zhangye.
By the Ming Dynasty (1364-1644 AD), the town had grown into
a critical garrison for soldiers guarding the Great Wall.
For a period in the Ming, the town even served as the capital
of Gansu province.
The signs of this glory are now all
but faded in the city itself. A few attractions remain to
signify this, most notably China's largest indoor reclining
Buddha, a large minority population, including a scattering
of Tibetans, and the crumbling Great Wall that runs to the
south of the town. Most visitors here seem content with
no more than a day here. Of more interest are the areas
out of town, and while the tourism industry is happy to
promote the famous Horse's Hoof Temple (Mati si) some 60km
away, of better value are the villages and little, lesser
known temples, of the Sunan Yugu (Tibetan) Autonomous Prefecture,
around Mati.
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