Recently, the bright and prosperous Tianshui has made Gansu Province shine again and returned to people’s attention.
This magical land has always been a favorite among travelers, and I have drawn its outline with the tip of my pen many times. Gansu has both rough pride and delicate tenderness; it is both simple and elegant, as well as prosperous and dazzling.
Every inch of land and every corner is engraved with a unique story, exuding charming charm that makes people intoxicated and lingering.
In addition to Tianshui, which has attracted much attention, the names we are familiar with – Zhangye, Jiuquan, Lanzhou… all shine brightly in this magical land.
However, what I want to introduce to you today is a place that is both unpopular and full of “personality” – Yumen City. This county-level city is located in the embrace of Jiuquan City, Gansu Province.
When mentioning Yumen, many people may think of the ancient Yumen Pass, but there is no direct connection between them.
Yumen Pass, standing on the Gobi Desert 80 kilometers northwest of Dunhuang City, is an important pass on the Silk Road and witnesses the vicissitudes of history.
I hope everyone will not confuse the two when appreciating the beauty of Yumen, so as not to miss the unique charm of this land.
Cheapest place in China
Housing prices have always been a top concern for the public. When talking about the best places in China, perhaps the first impression that comes to people’s minds will be Hegang, Gejiu and other places.
However, the housing prices in Yumen City are unique in this hot land, and even more shocking.
Imagine that a spacious and bright 70-square-meter living room is sold for only 2,000 yuan, which means the price per square meter is only 28 yuan!
Such an unbelievable price may make you think that there is a fallacy in the numbers I wrote.
But please believe that this is not fiction, but the real magical housing prices in Yumen City.
In this land, low housing prices have become a unique landscape, attracting the attention of countless people.
Buy a house for 2,000 yuan
The locals said, “I don’t even want it for free.”
The low housing prices in Yumen City have long been famous all over the world and become a hot topic in the press.
Imagine that a spacious and bright 70-square-meter room costs only 2,000 yuan. For many people, one month’s salary is enough to easily own it.
Even if you have no intention of buying a house, the rent here is extremely low, ranging from only 20 yuan to 50 yuan per month. There are also some abandoned residences that are used as temporary habitats by scavengers.
The street scene of Yumen comes into view, and dilapidated houses can be seen everywhere, as if telling the vicissitudes of time.
The abandoned chairs outside the door, the mottled marks on the walls, the rusty iron marks on the stairs…everywhere seems to be a weathered old man, with the traces of time deeply imprinted on him.
However, it is these historical marks that give this city its unique charm and immeasurable value.
We can’t help but ask, what kind of changes has Yumen City experienced?
Yumen, Yumen
Before discussing why housing prices in Yumen are so low, it is necessary for us to have a deeper understanding of this legendary city.
The Yumen in history is like a bright pearl, shining brightly.
Wang Zhihuan’s “Why should the Qiang flute blame the willows, the spring breeze does not reach Yumen Pass” depicts for us the open-mindedness and broadness of the border guards; Li Bai’s “The wind blows for tens of thousands of miles, blowing across Yumen Pass” expresses the endless lovesickness under the moonlight on the border; Yang Changjun Li Ji’s “Three thousand new willows planted thousands of miles away, attracting the spring breeze to Yuguan” expresses the heroic ambition to open up new territories; while Li Ji’s “Wherever there is oil, there are Yumen people” highlights the city’s contribution to China. Dedication and responsibility for donating oil.
This city located in the northwestern part of Gansu Province is known as the “throat of the fortress, and the vassal power inside and outside”. It is also the glory of China’s No. 1 oil city.
Since oil was discovered and exploited on a large scale, Yumen has relied on this black gold to become a bright star in Gansu Province and has cultivated countless petroleum talents.
Among them, “Iron Man” Wang Jinxi is an outstanding representative born in this hot land.
Walking into Yumen is like walking into a world closely related to oil.
In 1939, the famous petroleum geologist Sun Jianchu dug China’s first oil well in Laojunmiao, Laojunmiao Well No. 1. This feat made Yumen famous overnight, a wild and wild land in the northwest. The place is also full of vitality.
In the glory days of the Yumen Oil Mine, crude oil production accounted for more than 90% of China’s total, with the highest annual output reaching 77,000 tons.
Thousands of workers and managers with advanced technologies gathered here, and the number of employees reached more than 7,000 at its peak. Someone once praised Yumen: “The Soviet Union has Baku, China has Yumen, and wherever there is oil, there are Yumen people.”
At that time, Yumen was undoubtedly very beautiful. With tall buildings rising from the ground and roads criss-crossing the city, the city is expanding at an alarming rate, as if it rose overnight.
In the 1980s, compared with surrounding counties and cities, Yumen people were the first to live in buildings and use liquefied gas. Every Spring Festival, people from Jiuquan, Gansu and even Xinjiang come here to admire the lanterns at Yumen.
The streets were crowded and lively, and even a two-section long bus could hardly carry such a large flow of people.
However, as time flies, why has Yumen, which was once so glorious, fallen into this situation? The reason for this is worthy of our in-depth exploration.
Ghost town? Dead city?
Through the previous introduction, many friends must have gained insight into the destiny of Yumen City as a resource-rich city.
Resource-based cities often have an unavoidable fate, that is, in the frenzy of resource extraction, if industrial transformation is not planned in time, once the resources are exhausted, the city will wither like autumn leaves. Yumen City is the epitome of such a fate.
Thinking back to 1959, Yumen’s oil production capacity reached its peak, reaching 1.406 million tons. At that time, it was like a bright pearl, lighting up the northwest sky.
However, after decades of mining, by 1998, the once glorious production capacity had shrunk to only 380,000 tons per year, falling rapidly like a meteor.
Although some people noticed that Yumen was entering a downward spiral, many people still held on to a glimmer of hope. After all, there were 50,000 jobs in Yumen at that time, 36,000 of which were closely connected with the oil industry.
However, the expected turnaround did not come as expected. Instead, it faced the dilemma of corporate depression and massive population loss.
Yumen, this once prosperous city, has been reduced to a deserted land in just a few decades.
In 1995, 20,000 oil workers sadly left Yumen. In the following years, more than 10,000 workers and more than 50,000 residents moved out.
The loss of population is like taking away the source of life from Yumen, causing it to quickly lose its former vitality.
In 2009, Yumen City was listed by the country as the second batch of resource-exhausted transition cities. This once glorious city is now desolate.
Walking through the streets of the old city, it is almost impossible to meet pedestrians. The once prosperous trade city has been reduced to ruins, with rows of empty houses.
What is even more distressing is that due to uncontrolled oil exploration and neglect of environmental protection, the overall ecology of Yumen City has been severely damaged.
Air pollution, water and soil pollution have put people living on this land under tremendous pressure to survive.
The frequent earthquakes and mudslides in the Qilian Mountain seismic zone have brought endless disasters to the city.
Under such a predicament, the Yumen City Government had to make the difficult decision to relocate to the new urban area as a whole.
The once old city has gradually become a “dead city”. Department stores and bookstores have been closed one after another. Dilapidated buildings can be seen everywhere. Only a traffic light is shining alone, as if telling the glory and loneliness of this city.
The spring breeze has arrived at Xinyumen
The loneliness of Yumen is certainly depressing, but in recent years, this land has quietly glowed with new vitality.
Yumen stands quietly on the Qinggan-Ningxia New Ring Road, becoming a unique landscape in the eyes of travelers.
It relies on the snow peaks of Qilian and is nourished by Shulezeen. Humanities and mountains and rivers are intertwined into a beautiful picture, where thickness and beauty coexist harmoniously.
When you set foot on this land, you can visit the gelding city, trace the relics of the tea and horse trade in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and appreciate the majesty and solemnity of the strategic location; or look at the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty and explore the traces of Yumen Pass, where you can see the beacons of the isolated city that have stood for thousands of years. Telling the vicissitudes of time.
In addition, the exquisite murals of Changma Grottoes, the heroic achievements of the Iron Man Memorial Hall, and the hardships of developing the first oil well are all historical marks that cannot be missed in Yumen.
The natural scenery here is even more breathtaking.
The beauty and magnificence of Magic Mountain Park, the endless passion of rafting in Chijin Gorge, the skylight and color of Yuze Lake, and the beautiful flowers in Rose Valley of Qingquan all make people linger here.
Nowadays, with the rise of new cities, Yumen has vigorously developed the wind power industry by virtue of its special terrain of two mountains and a valley, becoming the “New Energy Capital of China” and the only “Top 100 County in Western China” in Gansu.
Walking into the new city, blue sky, white clouds and twinkling stars have become the norm. Clear water, green banks and fish swimming in the shallow bottom have become common sights, showing a beautiful picture of ecological and livable life.
Here, you can taste the crystal-soft hand-caught mutton, the special mutton soup that warms and removes dampness, the sweet and glutinous honeydew melon, and the fragrant and delicious Qingquan ginseng fruit in the Silk Road New City at the beginning of the lanterns. Every bite will make you intoxicated. Among them, there is endless aftertaste.
Although Yumen once experienced loneliness, this Gobi desert has now transformed into a new green energy city.
With the “Iron Man Spirit” as its soul, Yumen City has ushered in a new trend in the development of wind power, photovoltaic, and solar thermal industries, showing great vitality.
Therefore, if you come to Gansu because of Tianshui, you might as well take the opportunity to visit Yumen. Maybe you will find new surprises here and feel the unique charm and vitality of this land.