Jiuquan lies in the western part of the Hexi Corridor, surrounded by the Altyn Tagh Mountains, Qilianshan Mountains and Mazong Mountain (Northern Mountain).
The rocket carrying the three-member crew of the Shenzhou XIX mission, China's 14th manned spaceflight, lifted off early on Wednesday morning, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert.
Last Saturday, two new provincial highways, the S245 and S240, officially opened to traffic, connecting Hami (Xinjiang) and Dunhuang (Gansu). These routes reduce the travel distance between the two cities by at least 60 kilometers, adding another major transportation corridor between Xinjiang and Gansu.
Jiuquan is famous at home and abroad for its Dunhuang culture, frontier culture and space technology and was selected as "The Most Popular Well-Known Western City".