Jiuquan
—  Prefecture-level city  —
酒泉市
Jiuquan Park Jiuquan Park
Location of Jiuquan Prefecture (shaded in yellow) within Gansu
Jiuquan Location of Jiuquan Prefecture (shaded in yellow) within Gansu
Coordinates: 39°46′N 98°34′E / 39.767°N 98.567°E / 39.767; 98.567Coordinates: 39°46′N 98°34′E / 39.767°N 98.567°E / 39.767; 98.567
Country	China
Province	Gansu
Area
• Total	191,342 km2 (73,878 sq mi)
Population (2002)
• Total	962,000
• Density	5/km2 (13/sq mi)
Time zone	China standard time (UTC+8)
Website	http://www.jiuquan.gov.cn/

Jiuquan (Chinese: 酒泉; pinyin: Jiǔquán) is a "prefecture-level city" in the westernmost part of the Gansu province in China. It is one of the largest cities in the world by area.

History[link]

The entire "prefecture-level city" (that is, a multi-county administrative unit - an equivalent to the traditional Chinese prefecture) stretches for more than 500 km from east to west, occupying 191,342 km²; its population as of 2002 was 962,000.

The city's name came from legendary tale of the young Han general Huo Qubing, who poured a jar of precious wine into a local creek in order to share the taste with his troops, in celebration of their crushing victory against Xiongnu forces. The creek was later named Jiu Quan ("Wine Spring"), which became the name of the Han prefecture established there. It was an active military garrison during the Later Han Dynasty.^[1]

It is known in popular legend as the place where rhubarb was first grown and is also the town where the Portuguese Jesuit missionary and explorer Bento de Góis (1562–1607) was robbed and died destitute.^[2]

Administrative divisions[link]

Map
#	Name	Hanzi	Hanyu Pinyin	Population (2004 est.)	Area (km²)	Density (/km²)
1	Suzhou District	肃州区	Sùzhōu Qū	350,000	3,349	105
2	Yumen City	玉门市	Yùmén Shì	170,000	13,500	13
3	Dunhuang City	敦煌市	Dūnhuáng Shì	140,000	26,960	5
4	Jinta County	金塔县	Jīntǎ Xiàn	140,000	14,663	9
5	Guazhou County	瓜州县	Guāzhōu Xiàn	90,000	21,350	4
6	Subei Mongol Autonomous County	肃北蒙古族 自治县	Sùběi Měnggǔzú Zìzhìxiàn	10,000	55,000	<1
7	Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County	阿克塞哈萨克族 自治县	Ākèsài Hāsàkèzú Zìzhìxiàn	10,000	31,374	<1

Geography[link]

Jiuquan has a cold desert climate (Koppen BWk), with long, cold winters, and hot, somewhat dry summers. Monthly average temperatures range from −9 °C (15.8 °F) in January to 21.7 °C (71.1 °F) in July, with an annual mean of 7.5 °C (45.5 °F). The range between daytime and nighttime temperatures is high throughout much of the year. With sunny weather and low humidity dominating year-round, the area hosts one of the launch sites for the PRC's space programme.

Suzhou town[link]

The administrative center of the "prefecture-level city" of Jiuquan is the "District" of Suzhou (肃州区, Suzhou Qu), which occupies 3,386 square km in the eastern part of Jiuquan "prefecture-level city", and had a population of 340,000 as of 2002. It is where modern mapmakers would usually place the "Jiuquan" label.

There is (or was) a large billboard at the entrance to the city that read: "Without Haste, Without Fear, We Conquer the World".^[3]

The District of Suzhou corresponds to the historic town of Suzhou (not to be confused with Suzhou in Jiangsu province). It was founded in 111 BC as a military outpost on the Silk Road to Central Asia (the Hexi Corridor). It is approximately 1500 m above sea level.

Being an important key point in the Hexi Corridor, Suzhou often found itself to be a defended fortress, taken with a heavy loss of life, as was the case when Meng Qiaofang took it from Ding Guodong in 1649, or when the Qing general Zuo Zongtang took it in 1873 from its Hui defenders commanded by Ma Wenlu during the Muslim Rebellion.

Transport[link]

Jiuquan is served by China National Highway 312 and the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway.

It is also served by Jiuquan Airport

Space launch center[link]

Jiuquan city (i.e. Suzhou) is the closest major city to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Still, the space launch center is more than 100 km away from the city, and is actually located not in Gansu province, but in the neighboring Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It was built in 1958; the first Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 5 was launched there on 15 October 2003, making Yang Liwei China's first cosmonaut and a national hero.^[4] The second was in 2005.

See also[link]

People's Republic of China portal

• Silk Route Museum

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.
• Winchester, Simon (2008). The Man Who Loved China. HarperCollins, New York. ISBN 978-0-06-088459-8.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jiuquan

• Official website
• Rocket launch site -- Astronautix