Suzhou town

The administrative center of the "prefecture-level city

Prefecture-level city

A prefectural level city , prefectural city or prefectural level municipality is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China, ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. Prefectural level cities form the second level of the administrative...

" of Jiuquan is the "District

District (China)

The term district, in the context of China, is used to refer to several unrelated political divisions in both ancient and modern China....

" of Suzhou (肃州区, Suzhou Qu), which occupies 3,386 square km in the eastern part of Jiuquan "prefecture-level city", and had a population of 340,000 as of 2002.
It is where modern mapmakers would usually place the "Jiuquan" label.

There is (or was) a large billboard at the entrance to the city that read: "Without Haste, Without Fear, We Conquer the World".

The District of Suzhou corresponds to the historic town of Suzhou (not to be confused with Suzhou

Suzhou

Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...

 in Jiangsu

Jiangsu

' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...

 province).
It was founded in 111 BC

111 BC

Year 111 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Serapio and Bestia...

 as a military outpost on the Silk Road

Silk Road

The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...

 to Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

 (the Hexi Corridor

Hexi Corridor

Hexi Corridor or Gansu Corridor refers to the historical route in Gansu province of China. As part of the Northern Silk Road running northwest from the bank of the Yellow River, it was the most important route from North China to the Tarim Basin and Central Asia for traders and the military. The...

). It is approximately 1500 m above sea level.

Being an important key point in the Hexi Corridor

Hexi Corridor

Hexi Corridor or Gansu Corridor refers to the historical route in Gansu province of China. As part of the Northern Silk Road running northwest from the bank of the Yellow River, it was the most important route from North China to the Tarim Basin and Central Asia for traders and the military. The...

, 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

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 general Zuo Zongtang

Zuo Zongtang

Zuo Zongtang , spelled Tso Tsung-t'ang in Wade-Giles and known simply as General Tso in the West, was a Chinese statesman and military leader in the late Qing Dynasty....

 took it in 1873 from its Hui

Hui people

The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...

 defenders commanded by Ma Wenlu during the Muslim Rebellion.

Transport

Jiuquan is served by China National Highway 312

China National Highway 312

China National Highway 312 , also referred to as Route 312 or The Mother Road, is an important highway that runs east-west across the breadth of People's Republic of China. It begins at the port city Shanghai and ends at Khorgas in the Ili River valley, on the border with Kazakhstan. In total it...

 and the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway.

It is also served by Jiuquan Airport

Space launch center

Jiuquan city (i.e. Suzhou) is the closest major city to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is a People's Republic of China space vehicle launch facility .The facility is part of Dongfeng Aerospace City , and is located in the Gobi desert, Ejin Banner , Alxa League , Inner Mongolia, situated about 1,600 km from Beijing.- History :It was founded in 1958,...

. Still, the space launch center is more than 100 km away from the city, and is actually located not in Gansu province, but in the neighboring Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It was built in 1958; the first Chinese human spaceflight

Human spaceflight

Human spaceflight is spaceflight with humans on the spacecraft. When a spacecraft is manned, it can be piloted directly, as opposed to machine or robotic space probes and remotely-controlled satellites....

, Shenzhou 5

Shenzhou 5

Shenzhou 5  — was the first human spaceflight mission of the People's Republic of China , launched on October 15, 2003. The Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F launch vehicle. There had been four previous flights of unmanned Shenzhou missions since 1999...

was launched there on 15 October 2003, making Yang Liwei China's first cosmonaut and a national hero. The second was in 2005.

External links

• Rocket launch site -- Astronautix