jiejie

You know, I only went through Jiuquan on the bus heading for Jiayuguan, but besides seeming a more normal scaled city with a more typical Chinese feel and street activity, I also spotted a lot more places to eat!

If the Chinese would ever open to foreigners, the northbound road from Jiuquan up to Ejin Qi near the Mongolian border, I'd be the first one to advocate basing out of Jiuquan. Near Ejin Qi is the fabled Black City of Khara Khoto, whose ruins one can still see. Unfortunately, the road between Jiuquan and Ejin Qi goes through and near the Space Launch Center and is 100% off-limits to foreigners. There are police checkpoints and any foreigner found in a car or bus is booted off, turned around, etc. This means accessing Khara Khoto can only be done via Yinchuan and across the northern edge of Inner Mongolia--a very very long route indeed, and requiring backtracking same way out. The Jiuquan-Ejin Qi road cuts hours, maybe a couple of days off this trip, also offering the opportunity to do a non-backtracking loop route. Currently, only Chinese citizens have the opportunity to accomplish this.

For now, Jiuquan seems mostly useful as a Plan B staging location for the JYG Great Wall, in the unlikely event hotels in Jiayuguan itself get booked solid....which I'm not sure has ever happened.