Jiuquan (酒泉) is a city with several hundred thousand inhabitants in the western part of the Gansu province in China. The city is approximately 1500 m above sea level.
Jiuquan was founded in 111 BC as a military outpost on the Silk Route to Central Asia.
In the proximity of the city is the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, built in 1958, where the first Chinese human spaceflight, Shenzhou 5 was launched on 15 October 2003 and the second in 2005.
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