Hexi Corridor

The Hexi Corridor (Chinese河西走廊, Pinyin Hexi Zǒuláng ) ) or Gansu Corridor (Chinese甘肃 走廊/甘肃 走廊, Pinyin Gansu Zǒuláng ) is located in the province of Gansu in China. It covers an area of about 215,000 km ². As part of the Silk Road in ancient China, it is the most important passage to Xinjiang and Central Asia or Central Asia.

It lies on the northwestern shore of the Huang He, is a long, narrow passage of over 1000 kilometers in length and up to about 100 kilometers wide. The corridor extends from the steep slopes of Wushaoling the modern city of Lanzhou to the hills of Yumenguan on the border of Gansu and Xinjiang. Many of lying in his fertile oasis surrounded by desert and semi-desert. It runs between the Qilian Shan Mountains (as the northern border of the highlands of Tibet) in the south and Longshou Shan and Heli Shan in the north, to the Gobi desert followed. Is Bathed the corridor from Hei He and Shule.

As a result of the accumulation of melt water from the Qilian Shan, whose glaciers feed the sources of the rivers, is possible in a number of oases farming and animal husbandry. This important traffic route since ancient times is now crossed by the Lanzhou - Xinjiang Railway Line.