Jiaohe Ruins
The Jiaohe Ruins (Chinese: 交河故城) is the site of ancient Chinese ruins found in the Yarnaz Valley, 10 km west of the city of Turfan, Xinjiang province, China.
From the years 108 BC to 450 AD the city of Jiaohe was the capital of the Anterior Cheshi Kingdom (simplified Chinese: 车师; traditional Chinese: 車師), concurrent with the Han Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, and Southern and Northern Dynasties in China. It was an important site along the Silk Road trade route leading west, and was adjacent to the Korla and Karasahr kingdoms. From 450 AD until 640 AD it became Jiao prefecture in the Tang Dynasty, and in 640 AD it was made the seat of the new Jiaohe County. From 640 AD until 658 AD it was also the seat of the Protector General of the Western Regions, the highest level military post of a Chinese military commander posted in the west. Since the beginning of the 9th century AD it had become Jiaohe prefecture of the Uyghur Khaganate, until their kingdom was conquered by the Kyrgyz soon after in the year 840.
The city was built on a large islet (1650 m in length, 300 m wide at its widest point) in the middle of a river which formed natural defenses, which would explain why the city lacked any sort of walls. Instead, steep cliffs on all sides of the river acted as natural walls. The layout of the city had eastern and western residential districts, while the northern district was reserved for Buddhist sites of temples and stupas. Along with this there are notable graveyards and the ruins of a large government office in the southern part of the eastern district.
It was finally abandoned after its destruction during an invasion by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan in the 13th century.
The site has been protected by the PRC government since 1961. There are now attempts to protect this site and other Silk Route city ruins. The Silk Route is applying for listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Filed under: Xinjiang on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Turfan or Tulufan (Uyghur: تۇرپان, Turpan, Turpan, Modern Chinese: 吐魯番, Pinyin: Tǔlǔfān; is an oasis city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. Its population was 254,900 at the end of 2003.
Turfan is located about 150 km southeast of Ürümqi, Xinjiang’s capital, in a mountain basin, on the northern side of the Turfan Depression, at an elevation of 98 feet (30 meters) above sea level.
Filed under: Xinjiang on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Nanshan Pasture
Towards the south of Urumqi City, the Nanshan Pasture is located in Kelawucheng Mountain, a branch of north Heavenly Mountain. Moreover, there are numerous valleys in the pasture. It is cool here in the summer, and is a good place to get away from the heat.
The pasture is a fertile place with charming mountains around. Among the mountains, White Willow Ditch is a unique, graceful peak standing side by side with snow on tops all year round.
Springs flowing in the deep valleys, horses running on the green field and you can see livestock scatters here and there. This is a natural pasture.
Besides the animal husbandry, the pasture also has great many tourist attractions. You can ride on horse or camel running through the valleys, walk across the woods picking mushrooms and enjoying the magical wild flowers, and climb up the mountain looking out. You can really enjoy the panorama views everywhere that you look.
The below the White Willow Ditch is very cool with dense woods. There’re 40 meters high and 2 meters wide waterfall flows from the top of the mountain, this fall makes a great deal of fog. Being a tourist, you may be interested in this view: when the sun were above the fall it creates a rainbow.
On the east side of the White Willow Ditch, which is on the other side of Wuku highway? Although it is not as beautiful as the west, we can find its attraction from the quietness.
Filed under: Xinjiang on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Urumqi
Urumchi(simplified Chinese: 乌鲁木齐; traditional Chinese: 烏魯木齊) is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, in the northwest of the country.
The largest city in the western half of the People’s Republic of China, Ürümqi has won a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most remote city from any sea in the world at a distance of about 1,400 miles (2500 km) from the nearest coastline (Ürümqi being the city closest to the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility). The city has an area of 10,989 km². The average elevation is 800 meters.
Filed under: Xinjiang on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Mogao Grottoes
The Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes (Chinese: 莫高窟) (also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and Dunhuang Caves) form a system of 492 temples 25km (15.5 miles) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years.[1] Construction of the Buddhist cave shrines began in 366 CE as places to store scriptures and art.[2] The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China.
Filed under: Gansu on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Echoing-Sand Mountain
Chinese: 鸣沙山. The mountain is five kilometers (about three miles) away from the city of Dunhuang. Seen from afar, the mountain is just like a golden dragon winding its way over the horizon. As you approach you become aware that the sand has many colors ranging from red to yellow, green, black and white. On days when a strong wind blows, the fast shifting sand roars; but when the wind is little more than a light breeze, the sand produces gentle, dulcet sounds akin to music. It is the same when you are sliding down the mountainside. At first, the sand under your feet just whispers; but the further you slide, the louder the sound until it reaches a crescendo like thunder or a drum beat. Some say that the sand is singing, while to others it is like an echo and this is how the mountain gets its name.
Filed under: Xinjiang on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Crescent Lake
Chinese: 月牙泉 is a crescent-shaped lake in the oasis, 5 km southwest of the city Dunhuang of Gansu province, China. It was named Yueyaquan since Qing Dynasty. According to measurement made in 1960, the average depth of the lake was 4 to 5 meters, with maximum depth 7.5 meters. In the following 40 years, the depth of lake continually declined. In the early 1990s, the area of the lake had shrunken to only 1.37 acre with average depth of 0.9 meter (maximum 1.3 meter). Although local government had plans to restore the depth through filling with water, the lack of budget has delayed their actions. The lake and the surrounding deserts are very popular with tourists, who are offered camel and 4×4 rides.
Filed under: Xinjiang on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Sand dunes on the edge of Dunhuang
Dunhuang (Chinese: 敦煌, also written as 燉煌 till early Qing Dynasty) is a city in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China. It is sited in an oasis.
Dunhuang was made a prefecture in 117 BC by Emperor Han Wudi, and was a major point of interchange between China and the outside world during the Han and Tang dynasties. Located near the historic junction of the Northern and Southern Silk Roads, it was a town of military importance. Its name is mentioned as part of the homeland of the Yuezhi or “Rouzhi” (月氏) in the Shiji (史記), but this mention has also been identified with an unrelated toponym, Dunhong. Edges of the city are threatened with being engulfed by the expansion of the Kumtag Desert, which is resulting from longstanding overgrazing of surrounding lands.
Early buddhist monks accessed Dunhuang via the ancient Northern Silk Road, the northernmost route of about 2600 kilometres in length, which connected the ancient Chinese capital of Xi’an to the west over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei and emerging in Kashgar. For centuries Buddhist monks at Dunhuang collected scriptures from the west, and many pilgrims passed through the area, painting murals inside the Mogao Caves or “Caves of a Thousand Buddhas.”[A small number of Christian artifacts have also been found in the caves (see Jesus Sutras), testimony to the wide variety of people who made their way along the silk road. Today, the site is an important tourist attraction and the subject of an ongoing archaeological project. A large number of manuscripts and artifacts retrieved at Dunhuang have been digitized and made publicly available via the International Dunhuang Project.
Filed under: Gansu on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Located in
White Pagoda
the north of Lanzhou City, the White Pagoda Park owes its name to the amazing White Pagoda within it. With images of Buddha on its eight sides, the seven-story pagoda with a height of 17 meters (about 55.8 feet), is a pure white from top to bottom with the exception of the green top which greatly enhances the glamour of the whole building.
Legend has it that the White Pagoda was built in honor of a well-known Tibetan Lama who died of an illness in Lanzhou when on his way to Mongolia as representative of the leader of Sakyapa in order to meet Genghis Khan, founder of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Unfortunately, the original pagoda later toppled down. The present White Pagoda was constructed by an official in the reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and later extended by an imperial inspector in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Filed under: Gansu on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Lanzhou City
Lanzhou (simplified Chinese: 兰州; traditional Chinese: 蘭州) is a prefecture-level city and capital of Gansu province in northwestern China.
Area: 14,620 km²
Elevation: 1,600 m above sea level
China’s northwest geographical center
More than 20 km along urban corridor along the southern banks of the Yellow River.
Zonary basin
Location of mountains, located on the south and north sides of the city:
Qilian Ranges, Mt. Pingliang and Mt. Kongtong (the most famous in Taoism)
Rivers:
The Yellow River flows through from west to east.
Lanzhou is situated on the upper course of the Yellow River, where the river emerges from the mountains. It has been a center since early times, being at the southern end of the route leading via the Hexi Corridor across Central Asia. It also commands the approaches to the ancient capital area of Chang’an (modern Xi’an) in Shaanxi province from both the west and the northwest, as well as from the area of Qinghai Lake via the upper waters of the Yellow River and its tributaries.
Filed under: Gansu on October 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
