Text Alzhan Kusainova photo Shutterstock

Gansu Province is located on one of China’s remote borders, making it a frontier stronghold of the Heavenly Empire. This region became known to the world for the first time when it became part of the Great Silk Road.

Many centuries ago, through what was known as the ‘Gates of Dunhuang’, merchants set off with their caravans laden with traditional Chinese valuables – silk, jade, gunpowder and paper – to Europe, via the steppes of Central Asia. Neighbouring religions also passed through this gateway into what was originally Confucian China: Buddhism from India, Christianity from Europe as well as Arabic Islam. It is no surprise that it is now one of the most multicultural regions in the country, where representatives of many Chinese minorities live side by side. Tibetan Lamaist monasteries peacefully coexist here with the minarets of the Dungans and Uighurs, the Taoist temples of the Chinese and the Buddhist temples of the Mongols.