Tianshui  Tianshui is the second-largest city in Gansu Province, China. Its population is approximately 3.5 million. The city and its surroundings have played an important role in the early history of China, as still visible in the form of historic sites. Qin, whose House of Ying were the founding dynasty of the Chinese empire, developed from Quanqiu (present-day Lixian) to the south. After the invasions of the Rong which unseated the Western Zhou, Qin recovered the territory of Tianshui from the nomads. It became an important region of their duchy and, later, kingdom. Characteristically Qin tombs have been excavated at Fangmatan nearby, including one 2200-year-old map of Qin's Gui County. Under the Qin Empire, the area was part of Longxi Commandery but the Emperor Wu of the Han separated the region as the Tianshui Commandery as part of his expansion towards the Tarim Basin. The general Li Guang came from the city. The Han conquests and explorations eventually resulted in the development of the Northern Silk Road: Tianshui formed its junction with the Wei River, after which it followed the road past Mount Long to Chang'an (present-day Xi'an). Nearby are the Maijishan Grottoes, filled with thousands of Buddhist sculptures representing figures such as Buddha and the original male form of Guanyin, produced between the Wei and Song dynasties by monks travelling along the road and by local Buddhists. During the Northern Wei, the city was known as Hanyang and was the center of the Hanyang Commandery. During the Western Wei, this name was changed to Hanyang County. During the Tang and Five Dynasties, the city of Tianshui was known as Shanggui (). It alternated with Chengji (present-day Qin'an) as the capital of the province of Qinzhou (). Li County was separated from Tianshui's jurisdiction during the ninth year of Chenghua ( 1473) during the Ming dynasty. Under Qinzhou's former romanization of Tsinchow, Tianshui is a (currently vacant) diocese () of the Roman Catholic church. Tianshui is located in the valley of the Jie River, a major tributary of the Wei River. The city has a monsoon-influenced, cool semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk"), with four distinct seasons of comparatively equal length.