Guìdé

Guide lies in a high valley of the Yellow River, west of the road from Xining toward the Tibetan Plateau. Its fields occupy a sheltered basin among the mountains, with the river flowing east through the district. In the early Ming, troops built an earthen town here and established a military post; construction of the walls was completed in 1380. The fortified settlement guarded routes between the agricultural valleys and the highlands, while local communities continued to live along the river and its tributaries.