
Zhangye once was a stopover on the Silk Road and borders Inner Mongolia in the north and Qinghai in the south. It has a large area of 42,000 km² and is blessed with numerous streams, abundant sunlight and fertile soil, making it an important agricultural center for Gansu. Zhangye is in the center of the Hexi Corridor and the area was the frontier for much of China's history, forming a corridor to the Central Asian portion of the empire.