This sparsely populated province in Northwest China has had a great impact on the development of Chinese history. It’s the origin point for the state of Qin, which conquered all of China and unified it as a single entity in 221 BC. What Gansu is most famous for, though, is the Gansu Corridor, a traversable land bridge flanked by inhospitable terrain, connecting the Chinese historical heartlands with the wider world and beyond. It’s through this stretch of land that the Silk Road begins and connects with the West. It’s the way by which Buddhist missionaries from the Kushan Empire came to spread their teachings throughout China. It’s also the way Islam would spread from Central Asia.
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