WAR IN CHINA: Gateway Gunned

In Kansu, China's most northwestern province, is situated the sizable city of Lanchow, for centuries China's gateway to Central Asia and beyond. Also through this city the Tartar, Turk, Hun, Mongol, Buddhist and Christian first entered the broad, populous Chinese basin below the Great Wall.

A mile above sea level, Lanchow lies in a cup surrounded by mountains at the point where the Yellow River intercepts the old desert route from Turkestan to Peking. Inside its mud walls and high gates is found a desert melting pot of Mongols, Turks, Tibetans, Manchus. Moslems...

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