Lanzhou
Overview
Gansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
Province
Province (China)
A province, in the context of Chinese government, is a translation of sheng formally provincial level divisions, which is an administrative division. Provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, and the special administrative regions, make up the four types of province of administrative division...
in Northwest China. A 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...
, it is a key regional transportation hub, allowing areas further west to maintain railroad connections to the eastern half of the country.
Lanzhou is home to 3,616,163 inhabitants at the 2010 census and 2,177,130 in the built up area (urban) on 1,088 Km².
Originally in the territory of the Western Qiang peoples, Lanzhou became part of the territory of Qin (state)
Qin (state)
The State of Qin was a Chinese feudal state that existed during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods of Chinese history...
in the 6th century BC.
In 81 BC, under the Han dynasty
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
(206 BC–220 AD), it was taken from the Huns' Huandi Chanyu and made the seat of Jincheng
Jincheng
Jincheng is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Shanxi province of north China. It is an industrial city in an area where coal mining is an important industry. It has a population of 2.2 million....
commandery (jùn), and later of the Jincheng
Jincheng
Jincheng is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Shanxi province of north China. It is an industrial city in an area where coal mining is an important industry. It has a population of 2.2 million....
county (xiàn), later renamed Yunwu.
