Jiayuguan, one of the key iron & steel bases along the New Asia - Europe Continental Bridge, is the western terminal of the world famous Great Wall as well as the third biggest gliding bade in the world.

1. Natural Environment

1-1. Geography & Climate :

At latitude 39.42'N and longitude 98.07'E, Jiayuguan is the west part of Hexi Corridor. With an annual temperature of 7.3'C and an annual rainfall of 82mm, it is frigid temperate.

1-2. Districts & Population:

Jiayuguan administers one city and one distrct, i.e,Jiayuguan City and Jiayuguan District. It covers an area of 1329.5 square kilometers. Among them 60 sqare kilometers of it has been built up. Jiayuguan has a total population of 119,700 and 90,000 of them is urban residents.

1-3. Natural Resources:

In Jiayuguan 21 kinds of reserves have been explored in ,ore than 40 places. Among them there are 8 preponderant minerals: iron,manganese, copper, gold, limestone, mirabilite, moulding fluorite, barite. Jingtie Mountain iron ore has a total reserves of 4,830,00 tons,With a formed productive capacity of 5,000 tons, it is the biggest tunnel-digged metallurgy ore at home; Xigou limedtone ore, an opencast mining, deposits 2,060,000 tons. It has an annual output of 800,000 tons; the total deposit of moulding fluorite in Dacaotan is 98, 000, 00O tons. Also the adjacent area is richly endowed by mirabilite and other mineral resources which can be exploited, such as chromium, maganese ,fluorspar and iceland spar.

Jiayuguan owns favourable condition of territory. Wrthin the boundary of it, vast smoothland is supplied for building & developing. With the graver layer texture , it has a strong natural bearing capacity. Under this circumastance, the time limit of a project can be greatly shoriened and the cost of it can be

lowered , too.

To mention the hydropower resource in Jiayuguan, there is Taolai River running across this area, with an annual average discharge of 0. 688 m3. The overall capacity of the reservoir, which is formed by channeling the water from Taolai River into Dacaotan, is 64 million m3. Jiayuguan is rich in groundwater in three places , with an annual net deposit of 0.73 billion m3, and an annual supply volume of 0.16 billion m3, and a permitted exploring volume of 3.53 m3 per second while the present actual exploiting volume of 1.47 m3 persecond. All this hydropower resource stipplies a favdurable condition for the production of industry and agriculture as well as the development of this city,

1-4. Tourism Resource:

Jiayuguan is rich in tourism resources, too. The world famous ancient Silk Road bisects the area from west to east. And it is also the western terminal of the Great Wall of Ming dynasty. At present, there are many tourist areas : the magnificant Jiayuguan Pass, enjoying great prestige both at home and aborad: the well--known First Fortress of the Great Wall ; the outward flying appearance of the Great Wall 5 the Great Wall Museum supplying extensive knowledge ; the Black Mountain rock drawings, which show the ancient relics of painting and the Xincheng underground galleries in the tombs of Wei & Jin dynasty. Besides these there are other natural landscapes and tourist attractions , such as the sparkling & crystal clear Qilian Mountain "Qiyi'' Glacier, the wirldfirst--class Jiayuguan International Gliding Base and the wonderful image of castles in the air. In recent years, more and more people are coming  to visit the western desert scenery. The tourism is flourishing.