Sùzhōu

Suzhou, also known as Jiuquan, stands in an oasis at the western end of the Hexi Corridor. The town grew where water from the Qilian Mountains made cultivation possible amid the dry plains. Since the Han established Jiuquan Commandery, it has been a stopping place on the roads linking China with the lands beyond the western passes. Its walls, garrison and markets gave shelter to soldiers, merchants and travellers crossing a frontier of desert and mountains.

In the Ming period Suzhou guarded the approaches to Jiayuguan, the great pass to its west. The eastern suburb was enclosed by an additional earthen wall in 1466, with three gates and a moat; in 1574 the main city's walls were faced with brick. As the Ming frontier contracted, people from the Hami region were moved to the eastern suburb, and embassies from the western lands increasingly passed through Jiayuguan.

The town's inhabitants included Muslim communities as well as people following Buddhist and other traditions. Mosques formed part of its religious landscape in the Ming and Qing. Under the Qing, renewed expansion beyond the pass changed Suzhou's position from an outermost frontier stronghold to a station on routes reaching farther west. Its oasis nevertheless remained an important source of food and water for the long journey across the corridor.