Jiuquan, at the western end of the Hexi Corridor, is named after a spring beneath the city whose water was said to resemble wine. Today this ancient Silk Road city is charting a new path by turning its cultural heritage into development momentum.
In Dunhuang, Gansu province, where evaporation is 50 times greater than rainfall, land once considered barren is now thriving thanks to subsurface drip irrigation and organic soil treatment.