The Yulin Caves located in Guazhou, Jiuquan city, Gansu province. [Photo provided to gogansu.com]

Guazhou county, under the jurisdiction of Jiuquan city in Gansu province, is a thousand-year-old town located just a hundred kilometers away from Dunhuang.

Situated at the western end of the Hexi Corridor, it serves as a crossroads for the provinces of Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia. Historically, it has been a pivotal transportation hub for eastward and westward trade, a convergence point for four great civilizations, and a melting pot of diverse ethnicities.

Upon entering Guazhou, one can indulge in an exquisite cultural feast. Over 1,300 years ago, the monk Xuanzang passed through here on his journey to the west. The renowned calligrapher Zhang Zhi studied here and pioneered calligraphy, wielding his brush to write the "Champion's Scroll," which stands unparalleled throughout history. The ancient city ruins of Suoyang city, a World Cultural Heritage site, have slumbered here for a millennium, preserving the grandeur of ancient military defense and agricultural irrigation systems from the prosperous eras of the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties. It is also the birthplace of the Yulin Caves, where the Tang Dynasty murals in Cave 25, known as "The Pure Land of the West" and "The Sutra of Infinite Life of the Buddha", are hailed as peerless masterpieces.