Hexi Corridor - Jiayuguan | How to Make the Most of Your Visit (Part 2)

| How to Make the Most of Your Visit (Part 2). Following the previous article 📍📍【Xincheng Wei-Jin Dynasties Brick Wall Painting Tombs】✔️ ⏰Opening Hours: 8:30-20:00 💰Ticket Price: 31 yuan (purchase at the scenic area) 🚙Transportation: Chartered car, self-driving, or taxi (book return trip in advance, otherwise it might be hard to find one) 💡Located about 18 kilometers from Jiayuguan city in Xincheng Town, it is a tomb complex from the Wei-Jin period with over a thousand tombs 💡The attraction is quite niche, so niche that you might not have heard of it, but mentioning that the postman image on the Postal Savings Bank card was unearthed here might ring a bell (the original is in the provincial museum) 💡At the entrance of the tomb chamber, there will be a cultural management staff member to lead you in. When I went, I was the only visitor, so I shamelessly asked many questions, and in the end, they simply gave me a guided tour, for which I am very grateful 💡144 brick paintings depicting agriculture, banquets, animal husbandry, hunting, cooking, showcasing the life of the noble class in the Hexi region at the time (saw a lot of ancient barbecue) ✅The tombs are on a Gobi desert, from afar they look like desolate little mounds. Currently, Tomb No. 7 is only open for research and monitoring, and only Tomb No. 6 is open to tourists ✅Most of the burial goods have been stolen, and there are few exhibits. The main thing to see is the brick paintings inside the tomb chamber (photography is prohibited inside the tomb, the picture is of a replica exhibit in the exhibition hall) ✅Next to the tomb chamber, there's a cultural and creative shop where you can buy hand-painted brick paintings, one kind made from the original bricks of the tomb chamber (80-120 yuan/piece), and another kind made from ordinary clay (20 yuan/piece). The paintings on both materials are said to be hand-drawn by students from the China Academy of Art in 1988, and as one is sold, there's one less, so don't miss out❗️ 🌟If you're not interested in brick paintings, I don't recommend going out of your way, firstly because public transportation is inconvenient, and secondly because the area is really desolate. But if you're interested in culture, I highly recommend it (I joined a carpool for a one-day tour of three Jiayuguan attractions + Wei-Jin Tombs for 160 yuan, and since there was no one else, it turned into a private tour for me, which was very comfortable) 📍📍【Jiayuguan City Museum】✔️ ⏰Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 9:00-17:00 💰Ticket Price: Free 💡Located in Jiayuguan city, it's a very technologically advanced museum, mainly displaying the history and culture of Jiayuguan, local customs, and urban construction, especially the process of the people of Jiayuguan building an oasis city from scratch in the desert, which is very touching 🌟To further understand the city of Jiayuguan, visit the City Museum 🍭Food 🔸Barbecue, you must have a meal of roasted lamb, it's really delicious❗️ 🔸Min Jie noodles, although it's a Shaanxi cuisine, if you haven't tried it, you definitely should, it's full of ritual 🔸Steamed pancake, it's not a pancake, it looks like cold skin noodles, very thin, and like Min Jie noodles, it's also an intangible cultural heritage food ✅Jiayuguan is named after the pass, and the city was built because of the Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company ✅On the way to the Wei-Jin Tombs, the driver told me about the intricate relationship between Jiayuguan and the Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company. We drove through avenues shaded by green willows, past vineyards heavy with fruit, until we reached the desolation of the Gobi desert, making the city of Jiayuguan even more three-dimensional❗️ After finishing the barbecue, I ended my one-day tour of Jiayuguan and took a high-speed train overnight to the last stop—Dunhuang (I will continue to share travel tips for the Hexi Corridor in the next article)