Xinjiang Travel Guide: One-Day Tour of Turpan – The Ancient City of Jiaohe
Xinjiang Tourism Consultation: (Same) 0991-8585456
The Ancient City of Jiaohe.
It is located on a 30-meter-high loess platform at the confluence of two rivers in Yarniaozi Gully, 10 kilometers west of Turpan City. It is about 1650 meters long, narrow at both ends and up to 300 meters wide in the middle, shaped like a willow leaf peninsula. This was the capital of the Qian Cheshi Kingdom, one of the thirty-six city-states in ancient Western Regions.
The ancient city is preserved in a very complete state. All buildings are constructed from rammed earth. The layout resembles that of Chang’an City during the Tang Dynasty. Within the city are markets, government offices, Buddhist temples, pagodas, streets and alleys, as well as workshops, residences, drill grounds, hidden trenches for soldiers, and mud statues in Buddhist shrines. The ancient city resembles a large willow leaf.
The Passage of Jiaohe. The southern gate is strategically located, with cliffs that make it ‘impossible for ten thousand men to pass if guarded by one’. The eastern gate stands majestically on a 30-meter-high cliff and was mainly used as a gateway for residents of the city to draw water from the river.
After years of brutal warfare, rebel forces led by Haidu, a Mongol noble, successively captured Gaochang and Jiaohe. Meanwhile, at the ruins of the ancient city, a coach took us to visit an ancient Uyghur village.
Xinjiang Tourism Consultation: (Same) 0991-8585456