Jiayuguan was once the tangible edge of Chinese civilization –- where the Great Wall ends and the desolation of the Gobi Desert begins.

Now, four hours beyond those limits in a locked-down location along the Ruoshui River, China has built a gateway to the new final frontier.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center is the nation's preeminent "space city"—one of only three places where humans are blasted into the cosmos. Six manned flights have departed from here, including last month's Shenzhou 11 mission to China's own orbiting lab. Manned trips to the moon and Mars in the next decades also are being discussed.

The center also is the launching place for China's most-important machines. The world's first quantum-communications satellite, designed to provide hack-proof transmissions for the military, left here in August. The government and military, which ultimately controls the space program, don't announce every launch, but the nonprofit Space Foundation estimates that at least 82 attempts have been made from the site since 1970.

Foreign media typically aren't allowed near the launchpad. Authorities made a tightly controlled exception for the Shenzhou 11 blastoff, providing a rare opportunity to visit the oasis-like city, which rises from a moonscape reminiscent of the remote U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada known as Area 51.