Yongchang County is a county located in the province of Gansu

Gansu

' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...

 in China. It belongs to the prefecture of Jinchang

Jinchang

Jinchang is a prefecture-level city in China's Gansu province.-Geography and climate:Jinchang City is located in central Gansu province, west of the Yellow River, north of the Qilian Mountains, and south of the Alashan Plateau. The southwest of the city borders Qinghai Province and the northwest...

. The ancient North Silk Road passes through Yongchang County; numerous Han envoys were sent west along this trackway, some parties exceeding 100 members late in the first millennium BC. The Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

 sent one mission to Parthia, which was reciprocated at around 100 BC: Roman emissaries were captured by the Chinese in 30 BC along the Silk Road at Yongchang.

Liqian

During recent years, the county has entered the sight of media because many of the inhabitants of Liqian village (骊靬) are thought to be descendants of a Roman legion

Roman legion

A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...

. The history records of the town indicate that it was founded by captured combatants of the Battle of Zhizhi

Battle of Zhizhi

The Battle of Zhizhi was fought in 36 BC between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu chieftain Zhizhi Chanyu. Zhizhi was defeated and killed. The battle was probably fought near Taraz on the Talas River in eastern Kazakhstan, which makes it one of the westernmost points reached by a Chinese army...

 during 36 BC. In a geography book of the eastern Han Dynasty it is recorded that "Local people call the ancestors of the Roman prisoners-of-war Lijian" the word Lijian being the Chinese name for something or someone of Greco-Roman origin. A number of the town's inhabitants still bear some features of Europeans. A DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 test was conducted in early 2007 in the attempt to find genetic

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 evidence supporting this claim. The result of this specific study was negative. The study concluded: "Overall, a Roman mercenary origin could not be accepted as true according to paternal genetic variation, and the current Liqian population is more likely to be a subgroup of the Chinese majority Han

Han Chinese

Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...

".