Xigu District

Xigu occupies the westernmost end of the Lanzhou valley where the Yellow River enters the city from the upstream Tibetan Plateau direction. The valley at this point is dramatically narrowed — the river forces between the Yuchi Mountain on the north and a steep loess bluff on the south, creating the natural gateway that made Lanzhou the Silk Road chokepoint. Camel caravans carrying silk, cotton, and luxury goods westward to Central Asia passed through this geological bottleneck for centuries.

The industrial development of Xigu began in earnest in the 1950s with the construction of the Lanzhou General Petrochemical Works (Lanzhou Shi Hua) — China's first large-scale petroleum-cracking complex, built with Soviet technical assistance and opened in 1958. The complex was intended to process crude oil from the Yumen oilfields in the western Hexi Corridor and supply refined products to the northwestern economic development programme.

Yuchi Mountain Park, on the north rim of the valley above the industrial zone, provides elevated views over the petrochemical complex, the Yellow River, and the dramatic loess-cliff landscape of the valley walls. The views illustrate the extraordinary topographic compression of the Lanzhou valley — flat river bottom and sheer cliffs within a few hundred metres.

The transition from the industrial western valley to the Gobi Desert character of the Hexi Corridor begins a short distance west of Xigu — within 30 minutes by road, the irrigated lowlands of the Lanzhou basin give way to the arid gravel plains that extend to Jiayuguan and the Jade Gate Pass.