WU-WEI

Pinyin Wuwei, city in Kansu sheng (province), China. Situated at the eastern end of the Kansu Corridor (through which the Silk Road ran southeast to northwest) to the north of the provincial capital, Lan-chou, Wu-wei became an important defensive area under the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220). It has kept the same name ever since, having been since T'ang times (618907) the seat of a prefecture called Liang-chou, known under the Ch'ing dynasty (16441911/12) as Liang-chou prefecture. A traditionally strategic point, it is located where roads from Lan-chou in the south and from Yin-ch'uan (in modern times in the Hui Autonomous Region of Ningsia) to the east joined to form the main Silk Road. An ancient city with many monuments, since the late 1950s Wu-wei has been an important rail junction on the line from Lan-chou to the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang. A spur line runs east to join the main Lan-chouYin-ch'uanPeking line near the Kansu-Ningsia border. Wu-wei is the chief market and collecting centre not only for the irrigated area surrounding the city itself but also for the products (especially wool) of the pastoral nomads who live in the surrounding grasslands. Pop. (mid-1980s est.) 10,00050,000.