GanSu Province China Map: LanZhou GanSu 

   Lying on the upper reaches of the Yellow River (Huang He) and strategically located along the Silk Road, GanSu Province covers an area of 454,000 Square Kilometers (175,290 Square Miles).    GanSu has a population of more then 26 million people, 8% of which are from the Bonan, Dongxiang, Hui, Kazakh, Manchu, Mongolian, Salar, Tibetan, Tu, Uyghur, Yugur minorities and 92% Han Chinese.
   Beginning in Chang'an (XiAn) the Silk Road winds its way through to LanZhou (Capital of GanSu), JinChang, ZhangYe, JiuGuan, JiaYuGuan Pass (a fort at the end of the Great Wall built in the early Ming dynasty) and then onto the oasis town of DunHuang before continuing on to KaShi (Kashgar) in XinJiang. And from there onwards to Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey).
   Other well known sites in GanSu are the Mogao Grottoes (Caves of the Thousand Buddhas) near DunHuang, the Labrang Monastery (the biggest outside of Tibet) in XiaHe and the BinglingThousandBuddhaCaves in LanZhou.
   Starting in the south GanSu is surrounded by SiChuan, ShaanXi, NingXia, Inner Mongolia, XinJiang, and QingHai provinces.

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