All the strategic passes in the mountains are fortified.

The military forces were ordered to sit down at the approaches to the city.

When all three of us were at the pass, two unhappy truths became clear.

Jiayuguan Pass was not so much as the "Strategic pass Under the Heaven" as an important communication center in Chinese history.

And so it happened that we reached the pass at six, not at four, near collapse, and with a certain trembling in our knees that wasn' t just from exhaustion.