page_title: Gansu
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Gansu / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: View from within the Zhangye Danxia National Geological Park.
context_page_description: Gansu is a landlocked province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
  The seventh-largest administrative district by area at 453,700 square kilometres, Gansu lies between the Tibetan and Loess 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. The Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province. Part of Gansu's territory is located in the Gobi Desert. The Qilian mountains are located in the south of the Province.
  Gansu has a population of 26 million, ranking 22nd in China. Its population is mostly Han, along with Hui, Dongxiang and Tibetan minorities. The most common language is Mandarin. Gansu is among the poorest administrative divisions in China, ranking 31st in GDP per capita. Most of Gansu's economy is based on the mining industry and the extraction of minerals, especially rare earth elements. Tourism also plays a role in Gansu's economy.
  The State of Qin originated in what is now southeastern Gansu and went on to form the first known Empire in what is now China.
context_section_description: Gansu has an area of 454,000 square kilometres (175,000 sq mi), and the vast majority of its land is more than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level. It lies between the Tibetan Plateau and the Loess Plateau, bordering Mongolia (Govi-Altai Province) to the northwest, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia to the north, Shaanxi to the east, Sichuan to the south, and Xinjiang to the west. The Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province. The province contains the geographical centre of China, marked by the Center of the Country Monument at 35°50′40.9″N 103°27′7.5″E.
  Part of the Gobi Desert is located in Gansu, as well as small parts of the Badain Jaran Desert and the Tengger Desert.
  The Yellow River gets most of its water from Gansu, flowing straight through Lanzhou. The area around Wuwei is part of Shiyang River Basin.
  The landscape in Gansu is very mountainous in the south and flat in the north. The mountains in the south are part of the Qilian Mountains, while the far western Altyn-Tagh contains the province's highest point, at 5,830 metres (19,130 ft).
  A natural land passage known as Hexi Corridor, stretching some 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from Lanzhou to the Jade Gate, is situated within the province. It is bound from north by the Gobi Desert and Qilian Mountains from the south.
  Gansu generally has a semi-arid to arid continental climate (Köppen BSk or BWk) with warm to hot summers and cold to very cold winters, although diurnal temperature ranges are often so large that maxima remain above 0 °C (32 °F) even in winter.  However, due to extreme altitude, some areas of Gansu exhibit a subarctic climate (Dwc) – with winter temperatures sometimes dropping to −40 °C (−40 °F). Most of the limited precipitation is delivered in the summer months: winters are so dry that snow cover is confined to very high altitudes and the snow line can be as high as 5,500 metres (18,040 ft) in the southwest.
caption: Danxia landform in Zhangye
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