Jiuquan

Jiuquan (酒泉) is a "prefecture-level city" in the westernmost part of the Gansu province in China. The entire "prefecture-level city" (that is, a multi-county administrative unit - an equivalent to the traditional Chinese prefecture) stretches for more than 500 km from east to west, occupying 191,342 square kilometers; its population as of 2002 was 962,000. The administrative center of the "prefecture-level city" of Jiuquan is the "District" of Suzhou (肃州区, Suzhou Qu), which occupies 3,386 square km in the eastern part of Jiuquan "prefecture-level city", and had the population of 340,000 as of 2002. It is there where the modern mapmakers would usually place the "Jiuquan" label. The District of Suzhou corresponds to the historic town of Suzhou (not to be confused with Suzhou in Jiangsu province). It was founded in 111 BC as a military outpost on the Silk Route to Central Asia (the Hexi Corridor). It is approximately 1500 m above sea level. Being an important key point in the Hexi Corridor, Suzhou often found itself to be a defended fortress, taken with a heavy loss of life, as was the case when Meng Qiaofang took it from Ding Guodong in 1649, or when the Qing general Zuo Zongtang took it in 1873 from its Hui defenders commanded by Ma Wenlu during the Muslim Rebellion. area code: 937