General's Building

　　Introduction      This was the first building to stand within a thousand li of the Gobi Desert, marking the dawn of a new era in Golmud’s history. Shortly after the Spring Festival in 1954, General Mu Shengzhong led his transport corps on a five-day trek to the banks of the Golmud River. The landscape was a masterpiece of nature, yet there were no streets, trees, or houses. The general and his troops set up camp here, building makeshift shelters on the barren land.

　　    It wasn’t until 1956 that residents began making adobe bricks and firing tiles to construct this building—the General's Building. From then on, Golmud bid farewell to its ancient wilderness and embarked on a monumental transformation. What was once an endless Gobi Desert, dotted only with a few tents, evolved into today’s Golmud, Qinghai’s second-largest city, where “half the city is green with trees and half is covered in buildings.” The mirage on the Gobi finally became reality.

　　 Golmud, Qinghai