介绍:
Located in Nanhu Village, along the Hexi Corridor and 43 miles southwest to Dunhuang City in Gansu Province, the Yangguan Pass is one of the two important western passes (the other is the Yumen Pass) in the Western Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu ordered to build it for the purpose of strengthening the frontier defense as well as developing the remote western region.
In Chinese, yang means “sunny”, but it can also be used to mean “south” (the sunny side of a hill being the southern side). Because the pass lies to the south of the Yumen Pass, people gave its name the Yangguan Pass. Together with the Yumen Pass, it has witnessed the prosperity of the ancient Silk Road.
Many Chinese get to know this important pass mainly from the poem Farewell to Yuaner to Take Office in Anxi, written by Wang Wei, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. From the last two lines “Oh, my friend, I sincerely entreat you to have another cup of wine; you will see no more friends west out of the Yangguan Pass”, we can see the Yangguan Pass has always been the place of desolation and sadness since ancient times. In the Song and Ming Dynasties, because of the decline of the Silk Road, the pass was gradually forgotten by people.
For years and years, the flowing dunes have eroded the pass into a broken beacon tower, standing alone in the boundless desert.
Today’s Yangguan Pass is not only a historic place of recalling the remote past, but also a hometown of tasty grapes. Come here, appreciate the beauty of rise and fall of the old Silk Road, enjoy the natural view combined by oases, deserts and snow peaks, and taste the juicy fruit.
