Where is the Hexi Corridor?

Hexi Corridor, located in the northwest of Gansu Province, was called Yongzhou and Liangzhou in ancient times, which is the main road for Chinese mainland to the western regions.

Hexi Corridor starts from northwest to southeast, starts from Majiaoling in the east, reaches Xingxingxia in the west, has Qilian Mountain in the south and Longshou Mountain, Heli Mountain and Mazong Mountain in the north (collectively referred to as Beishan). It is located in the west of the Yellow River and looks like a corridor, so it has its current name.

Hexi Corridor connects the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Inner Mongolia Plateau from north to south, and the Loess Plateau and Tarim Basin from east to west. The Silk Road in the Han and Tang Dynasties led to Central Asia and West Asia. This is a golden period in the history of cultural exchange between China and the West. It is not only an ancient battlefield in the past, but also a famous granary in Gansu, passing through Wushaoling.

After Gulangxia to Xiliang (Wuwei County), Ma Pingchuan, Qilian Mountain (a flat and vast plain) is four or five kilometers above sea level in the south. There are abundant permanent snow and prehistoric glaciers on the mountains above 4500 meters in Qilian Mountain, which melt in specific seasons every year, providing a steady stream of living water for a large number of oases and cultivated land in this area.

topography

The three geological characteristics of Hexi Corridor determine that the land resources in Hexi Corridor are also divided into three types of landforms:

(1) Qilian Mountain and Altun Mountain in the south of the corridor are composed of mountains and valleys uplifted by Paleozoic folds and Mesozoic-Cenozoic faults, most of which are above 3000-3500 meters above sea level.

(2) The central part is a corridor plain, and the east and west points of Hexi Corridor coincide, that is, Gulangxiakou in the east and Gan Xin border in the west, with an altitude of 1000-2000m. Gravel washed down from the north and south mountains is all over the corridor. Under the action of gravity, the proluvial is obviously distributed in a belt shape. From south to north, there are alluvial belt in the north of Nanshan, alluvial fan belt, alluvial belt and alluvial belt in the south of Beishan.

(3) Beishan and Alashan Plateau are located in the north, with low hills and hills that have suffered from wind erosion for a long time, and Longshou Mountain, Heli Mountain and Mazong Mountain stretching thousands of miles from east to west.

Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Hexi Corridor