Yumen Pass is the name of a pass of the Great Wall located west of Dunhuang in today's Gansu Province of China. During the Han dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD), this was a pass through which the Silk Road passed, and was the one road connecting Central Asia and China, the former called the Western Regions.

to 'The Western Regions' left China through the famous Yumenguan, named for the many jade caravans that passed through it. The original Jade Gate was erected by Emperor Wudi In Han dynasty and its ruins may still be seen about 80 kilometers to the northwest of Dunhuang.

In the third and fourth centuries turmoil swept through Central Asia, disrupting overland trade, and the sea route via India began to supplant it. By the sixth century, as caravans favored the northern route via Hami, the pass was abandoned. In 1907, Sir Aurel Stein found bamboo slips naming the site as Yumenguan, and in 1944 Chinese archaeologists discovered relics that confirmed this. With its 10-meter-high mud walls pierced by four gateways, the square enclosure covered more than 600 square meters in the midst of unbounded desolation.