Yumen Pass, Gansu, China

5DianneSkelton 5:00 PM Oct 12, 2019

Following the Ancient Silk Road
We enjoyed heading into the Gobi Desert to follow the Ancient Silk Road. You could feel the history of the Yumen Pass as a trading post. We loved it.

4jameshuang 5:00 PM Nov 2, 2014

The Pass to Western Regions in 121 BC
Yumen Pass (玉門關, Jade Gate) was established by Emperor Wudi (漢武帝) of Han dynasty soon after 121 BC. Yumen Pass was one of the two most west fortresses (Yumen Pass and Yuan Guan Pass陽關) on the ancient Silk Road. Once you pass these two gates, you are in the Western Regions (西域) and it was part of the road connecting Central Asia and China. When people were travelling out of China from there passes, it meant that they were going abroad. Therefore, it was not only the pass for caravans but a final outpost of Chinese territory. All caravans travelling through Dunhuang had to pass through one of these gates. The Yumen Pass is located about 93 km (57.8 mi) northwest of Dunhuang. It was abandoned in the 6th century and rediscovered in 1944. Today only a small square castle (roughly 26 m x 24 m) left at Yumen Pass. It was a military command center. The high of the wall is 9.7 m (31.82 ft) with 2 gates on the west and north. The natural tableland is on the north of the castle and was used for guarding the respective section of the area. We arrived around 4 pm and spent about 10 minutes walking to the castle. I believe the best view of the site is when you approaching the castle from the parking lot where you can avoid obstructing of the crowd. Once we were at the entrance of the castle, we were surprised by the small size of it. We were expecting a huge castle and found out it was quite a small loess rammed castle and amazingly survived for such a long time. We were wondering it might not be the main castle in the ancient time. We went outside the castle and saw the natural tableland from distance. We spent less than 20 minutes exploring the castle and then went to the small museum behind the parking lot. The museum only gave us some information of the history about the Yumen Pass. We also learned that the name of Yumen (jade in Chinese) was from trading of jade from the Central Asia to China passing through the Pass via the Silk Road. It is not so worthwhile to visit the Yumen Pass if you do not know the history behind it. I hope this review can give you some background of Yumen Pass. It is better to include Yumen Pass with other attractions in your “West Route Tour”.