Explain the reason why the ancient Silk Road passed through the northern foot of Qilian Mountain.

Qilian Mountain is a very important mountain in China. Many people know the Silk Road and the famous Hexi Corridor, which are the great corridors for the exchange of eastern and western civilizations, but people don't know the contribution of Qilian Mountain to Hexi Corridor and Silk Road, and they don't know that Qilian Mountain is a hero behind the scenes. The author of this paper went deep into Qilian Mountain and walked around. He will tell us the story of Qilian Mountain and its significance to Qinghai, Gansu and even China.

Qilian County, Qinghai: At the foot of Niuxin Mountain, next to Heihe River.

This is Niuxin Mountain in the north of Qilian County, Qinghai Province, which has already penetrated into Qilian Mountain. In autumn, Niuxin Mountain is covered with snow, and the sun shines on the harvested fields, making it a golden autumn scenery. The river in front of the mountain finally flows to Heihe River in Badain Jaran Desert, Inner Mongolia. Heihe River originates from the southern slope of Nanshan Corridor, flows eastward between Tuolai Mountain and Nanshan Corridor, and suddenly turns northward after meeting Babao River in Qilian County. Cut a steep canyon between Nanshan and Lenglongling in the corridor-Heihe Grand Canyon, which flows to Hexi Corridor and then to the depths of the desert in Inner Mongolia. As can be seen from the picture, although it is in the middle of Qilian Mountain, there are still forests, and wheat is harvested in the fields, which is obviously different from the surrounding southern Qinghai Lake, where nomadic people are in the world. Figure/Ma Fujiang

We were brainwashed by maps.

China people generally know Qilian Mountain, but not from geography books, but from history books. When China's history books talk about the Han Dynasty, the wars between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, they all mention Qilian Mountain. The Huns have a song that says, "The loss of Qilian Mountain makes my six animals unhappy;" The loss of Yanqi Mountain has made my married wife colorless. " Qilian Mountain is associated with Xiongnu. This is many people's impression of Qilian Mountain.

In addition to the description of Qilian Mountain in history books, many of our impressions of Qilian Mountain come from maps. Then the scale is very small, such as a map of more than 4 million 1 or smaller. For example, an atlas of China with the size of 16 in front of me, the scale of a cross-page national map is 1 divided by 160,000, and one centimeter in the map represents160 km. On such a map, Qilian Mountain can only be a line. In this small-scale national map without topography, not only Qilian Mountain, but also many majestic mountains or mountain systems have become a line, such as Qinling Mountain. Because I always look at this small-scale map without terrain (large-scale maps with terrain are confidential in China and have not been lifted), many people regard some huge mountains or mountain systems as those maps. Imagine a grown-up line. It can be said that for a long time, we have been brainwashed by this small-scale map without terrain. We have formed a wrong understanding of many mountains and rivers in the motherland. This misconception can only be corrected if you walk in front of those mountains and rivers in person. A friend of mine is a photographer. He told me about the shock he brought when he first came to Qilian Mountain. He said that he always thought that Qilian Mountain was a long mountain, climbing over mountains and mountains. It should be flat, Qilian Mountain is gone. But that year, he started from Zhangye in Hexi Corridor, crossed the famous ancient road-the border ferry in the north of Shandan Army Racecourse, and crossed the ridge line of Qilian Mountain. When he climbed the pass and stood on the commanding heights, he looked south. The sight in front of him shocked him. Qilian Mountain is not an isolated thin mountain at all, but a mountain with mountains and ridges.

In fact, Qian Shan Wanling is the true image of Qilian Mountain. Because Qilian Mountain is not a single mountain at all, but a group of roughly parallel mountain groups, which are northwest-southeast. This group of mountains is more than 300 kilometers long 1000. When my photographer friend boarded the ferry and looked south, a mountain group with a width of more than 300 kilometers appeared in front of him. How can we not surprise him and completely subvert his thinking?