Brief  Introduction: The ancient Yangguan Pass is located 70 kilometers southwest of Dunhuang City along the Hexi Corridor. The local people also call the site of Yangguan pass as the antique beach. As the wind happens,a lot of relics ,such as ancient coins,jewelys,arrow heads ,potteries,will be found easily. So it got the name the antique beach. The famous poem about Yangguan pass was written in Tang dynasty ,which is translated as “Please drink one more cup of wine ,there might be no more friends out of Yangguan pass”.The poem implied that the Yangguan pass was a customs to the west regions at that time.

Yangguan pass was an important pass for the Han Dynasty(205B.C.--220A.D.) to defend against the invasion of the nomadic people in the northwest. Yangguan Pass was built around 107 BC. of the Han dynasty ,where there used to be a commander in charge of military affairs .It was also an important gateway on the Silk Road from the central Plains to the Western regions and Central Asia

The ancient fortress of Yangguan was built in the desert. Archaeologists found that Yangguan occupied the dangerous terrain which is described by the sentence “one good man could hold a hundred,fighting down ".Yangguan and Yumenguan were both important passes on the Silk Road,which were in the south and north separately. The famous monk ,Xuanzang in Tang dynasty came back through the Yangguan pass to central China after he finished studying Buddhism from India.

From Han Dynasty(205BC.—220AD.) to Tang Dynasty(618 AD.—906AD.), Yangguan has been a must pass along the South Silk Road, which was a strategic point that the ancient military strategist had to contend for. According to historical records, Yangguan was set as the Yangguan Duwei in the Western Han Dynasty. In the Wei and Jin dynasties(220AD—419AD)Yangguan county was established here, and Shouchang County was established here in the Tang Dynasty.With the decline of the Silk Road after the Song and Yuan Dynasties(960-1368AcD), Yangguan Pass was gradually abandoned.

In 2003 the Yanguan Pass Museum was built up at the foot of Dungdung Shan hill under the proposal of Mr. Ji Yongyuan, a famous painter in Dunhuang. The brilliant history of Yangguan pass along the silk road and many cultural relics are shown in this museum, which will bring a general idea about the Yangguan pass andsilk road to the tourists before they visit the remains.

The Level: AAAA

Admission fee : 50 yuan/person, Shuttle Bus : 10 yuan/person

Opening Time: 08:00-18:00

Better Seasons to Visit: April to October

Visiting Time:1.5—2 hrs

Travel Tips:1, It is located near the Gobi desert where it is hot in summer and cold in winter, so please prepare suncream, sun glasses,enough water in summer time and thicker wearing in winter time;

2,The free explaining service of Chinese-speaking docent will be provided in the museum. If you know some Chinese ,you may choose to follow him or her. If you do not know Chinese, you may try to know more by the simply translation in the museum;

3,In the museum you may take photos without flash;

4,After the two exhibition halls of the museum, you may choose to go to the site of ancient by shuttle car, camel or donkey cart by yourself. (The Price List: camel ride 60 yuan/person, horse ride 50 yuan/person, donkey cart 20 yuan/person  )

5, Near the museum you will pass by a small grape village where you will have choose to taste the local grape, rasins and local flavor in the restaurants.

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