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wei and jin dynasty tombs in the downtown area, tang dynasty beacon towers in the desert

as well as ancient cities and temples, ancient roads and rivers

depicting a silk road under a microscope

you can meet princesses on every ancient street in xinjiang. they wear beautifully embroidered silk robes, with gorgeous jewelry and headdresses, and they jingle when they walk. the ubiquitous travel photography shops dress these han girls up with white faces and striking features, leaving behind life photos. in kashgar, they are kashgar princesses; in kuche, they are qiuci princesses; in korla, they are loulan princesses. in short, they are all princesses of the western regions.

open the map of xinjiang today, and you can still see the ancient names of the western regions. outside kashgar are shule county and shache county, outside hotan are yutian county and pishan county, turpan has gaochang district and shanshan county under its jurisdiction, bayinguoleng mongol autonomous prefecture has yanqi county and yuli county under its jurisdiction, and along the edge of the tarim basin, there are ruoqiang county and qiemo county... the names of these counties were all well-known names of the 36 countries in the western regions in ancient times.

the western regions and the silk road have always contained a romantic imagination, composed of wind and sand, camel bells, music and beauties. for people living along the silk road, the silk road is life, daily life, the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, birth, aging, illness and death. today, through archaeology and cultural preservation, a more authentic history of the silk road has been discovered and told. the beacon towers of the tang dynasty in the desert, the tombs of the wei and jin dynasties in the downtown area, as well as the ancient cities and buddhist temples, the ancient roads and rivers, depict a silk road under a microscope.

pompeii under the wind and sand

in the morning, a soldier climbed up the wooden ladder to the top of the beacon tower. looking around, he saw the vast sea. on a clear day, he could see the neighboring beacon tower, which was ten miles away. he lit a fire, and the thick smoke went straight to the sky. this was a signal to the neighboring beacon tower to report peace. this fire was called the "peace fire", and he would light another one in the evening when the lights were turned on.

the beacon tower was built on a red willow sand pile. it was a trapezoidal solid earth mound with a base of about ten meters square. there were five other people serving with him. there were several houses on the sand pile, and there was a livestock shed under the sand pile, where cattle, horses, donkeys and camels were raised. not far away was the peacock river, along which a total of 11 beacon towers were deployed. every day they had to patrol the surrounding area to prevent the infiltration of the tibetans, and the beacon towers had to pass documents from the rear.

the ruins of the keyakkuduk beacon tower. photo: xinjiang institute of cultural relics and archaeology

a bird's-eye view of the keyakkuduk beacon tower site. photo: state administration of cultural heritage

in the vast desert, almost no one survives. these soldiers from the central plains came here from thousands of miles away and could only be replaced after four years. the only thing that accompanied them was loneliness and poverty.

he thought of his relatives far away again, sat at the table, dipped his pen in ink, and wrote a letter to his hometown. he did not finish the letter and put it aside. 1,200 years later, someone picked up the letter from the yellow sand, and the handwriting was still clear. it read: "my wife, don't worry, collect the wheat and sheep, and don't let them fall." the letter was not signed, and people only knew that a husband guarding the border was comforting his wife and asking her to take good care of the wheat and sheep.

in 2019, hu xingjun, a research curator at the xinjiang uygur autonomous region cultural relics and archaeology institute, led an archaeological team to this place. now, people call this beacon tower the keyakkuduk beacon tower, which is located in the lop nur desert, 90 kilometers away from yuli county. for three consecutive years, the archaeological team excavated here for 18 months. in addition to the remains of building foundations and daily necessities, 883 documents were excavated under the yellow sand, from which its original name was known: shadui beacon tower.

the soldiers of shadui beacon were very busy every day. they had to look out from the beacon tower, patrol and investigate, handle documents, transmit communications, grow food, raise livestock, hunt to make a living, and make all kinds of daily necessities by themselves using local materials. the grains of food, animal bones, hemp ropes and other daily necessities they discarded were buried deep in the soil, and people now know their daily lives through them. hu xingjun said that it can be seen that in ancient times, materials were scarce and transportation was difficult, and they needed to find ways to supplement their food, and these matters took up a lot of time and energy.

even thousands of years later, hu xingjun still feels similar deprivation and hardship. in the barren desert, there is no infrastructure. the archaeological team relies on their own generators for electricity and has to drive more than 20 kilometers to transport water. there is no mobile phone signal, and only a weak signal can be received on the top of a nearby sand dune. every night, they stay at the great wall protection station 11 kilometers away from the beacon tower. the protection station is only 40 to 50 square meters. at night, more than a dozen team members who need to process data live in the house, and the remaining more than a dozen team members sleep in tents in the open air. hu xingjun once did not take a shower for a month.

this happens for six months every year, and work has to be stopped during the hot summer and cold winter. but they are reluctant to leave until the temperature drops to more than 20 degrees below zero. because of the strong wind and sand, once the work is stopped, when they come back, the sand will cover the excavated test squares, with a pile of one or two meters at the highest point, and they have to dig again. they hope to complete the excavation as quickly as possible. the archaeological team took a photo of the blue sky and white clouds and was praised for the magnificent scenery. hu xingjun smiled bitterly: "we have only encountered such weather for 20 days at most in three years." most of the days are windy and sandy, and the team members wear two layers of masks, which will be stained black every day.

in china, desert archaeology is a special skill of xinjiang archaeologists, and some unique skills have been derived from it, such as digging and sifting sand. after more than a thousand years of wind and sun, many relics have been broken, cracked, and faded, and are no different from sand. in the same area, archaeological team members have to sift the sand up to six or seven times to filter out human relics. fingernail-sized pieces of paper and silk fabrics, tiny gourd pieces, dried vegetable leaves, onion roots, and even grains that are not much bigger than gravel are just picked out. the lives of the tang dynasty soldiers guarding the border were also salvaged in this way.

archaeologists at the keyakkuduk beacon tower site sorted out documents unearthed. photo: state administration of cultural heritage

a native of the central plains named li juyuan was a veteran who guarded the beacon towers. he started as a soldier and was awarded a military honor. he served in the beacon towers in the western regions for 12 years. this is the information pieced together by hu xingjun from two document fragments, which happened to record li juyuan's resume at different times. hu xingjun said that the main function of the beacon towers was early warning, and they did not have much combat power, so there were not many opportunities to gain military merit. li juyuan was awarded a military honor by virtue of his many years of guarding the border, became a garrison commander, and embarked on a career in politics.

although the term of garrisoning the border was stipulated to be 4 years, it was often extended due to the difficulty of conscription. it was not uncommon for "old men to enlist but never return". for soldiers who served beyond the term, the court would increase welfare benefits, rewards and honors to stabilize the morale of the troops. a 58-year-old veteran was seriously ill, but he still guarded the border in the desert. it is unknown whether he returned to his homeland or died on the battlefield, but the document of the kayakkuduk beacon tower recorded his name: shi huaixiu.

after brushing off the dust on the documents, people can still see the names of kang lanyan from dunhuang, gansu, xu alui from fengxiang, shaanxi, pei daliang from luoyang, henan and others. these little people in the long river of history were fortunate enough to have their names left behind in this way.

the enemies they guarded against were mainly the tibetans. from the han dynasty to the tang dynasty, the western regions changed several times, and they separated and united with the central plains dynasties. during the reign of emperor gaozong of the tang dynasty, the anxi protectorate was established in qiuci, commanding the "anxi four towns" of qiuci, yutian, shule, and yanqi, and stationed troops to guard them. "the four-town system became the most important institution for the tang dynasty to maintain the silk road." professor meng xianshi of the school of history at renmin university of china said, "the silk road in the tang dynasty was more developed than in the han dynasty, and the role played by the four towns of anxi cannot be underestimated." however, due to the invasion of tubo, the court once withdrew from the four towns. it was not until the first year of changshou during the reign of wu zetian that the tang dynasty recaptured the four towns and stationed 30,000 han soldiers, which brought about a major change in the military situation in the western regions.

the shadui beacon tower was built at this time. according to the unearthed documents, the shadui beacon tower was built shortly after the first year of changshou (692 ad) and was abandoned around the time when the tubo army captured beiting in the sixth year of zhenyuan (790 ad). it was in use for nearly a hundred years. the shadui beacon tower was a grassroots military organization in yanqi town. based on the literature, it can be inferred that this beacon tower was a military early warning facility built along the "loulan road" by the tang dynasty to prevent the tubo forces from entering the tarim basin through the qinghai tuyuhun road and attacking yanqi town. on the historical stage of the silk road, this small beacon tower and its guards have their own precise location.

whenever he found a piece of paper with writing on it, hu xingjun was always very excited. like the dunhuang scriptures, the western regions documents are considered treasures by scholars and add first-hand information about history. for example, historical books have recorded the border defense systems of the tang dynasty, such as "jihui jiaopai" and "ping'an huo", but there are no detailed records of how they were implemented. through the documents and objects of the kayakkuduk beacon tower, people learned for the first time these details that were omitted in military history.

the document "han peng fu" unearthed from the kayakkuduk beacon tower. photo by xinjiang cultural relics and archaeology research institute

armor fragments unearthed from the keyakkuduk beacon tower site. photo: xinjiang institute of cultural relics and archaeology

documents briefly record that every day, beacons exchanged intelligence through "jihui jiaopai". many wooden signs were unearthed in the keyakkuduk beacon tower, which were cut from red willow branches, with holes at both ends and bark remaining on the sides. words were written on both sides of the signs, such as "on august 19, linhe beacon sent to mapu beacon", "linhe beacon was blocked on all sides but there was no movement", "on the 17th, the first sign was sent to shadui", etc. this is the first archaeological discovery of the "jihui jiaopai". the soldiers guarding the border used these wooden signs to weave an intelligence network. but why did shadui beacon still preserve signs that were not from neighboring beacons? the unearthed documents gave the answer. hu xingjun said that the documents of shadui beacon showed that when these signs were accumulated for a certain period of time, they would all be handed over to an institution called youyisuo. the youyi officials would check whether the daily inspections of grassroots beacon shops were standardized and detailed through the records on the wooden slips, and then register the wooden slips and store them in the warehouse. it can be seen that shadui beacon is not only an ordinary beacon tower, but also a place for gaming, and inadvertently became a miniature military archive.

stein once compared the ancient city of jingjue covered by sand to pompeii under volcanic ash. the kayakkuduk beacon tower also has a strong pompeii temperament, and a hundred years of frontier life are sealed in the sand dunes. the few records in history books and the vast and concise lyrics in frontier poems have been filled with more realistic details today.

the central plains enclave 10 meters underground

hundreds of years before li juyuan and shi huaixiu entered the desert to guard the border, some people from the mainland had already come to the western regions and settled in places west of the peacock river. unlike the soldiers guarding the border, their lives were more affluent, living in gorgeous palaces, wearing gold jewelry, having followers to drive them, and even building luxurious tombs for themselves.

on july 15, during the peak summer tourist season, some tourists in kuqa city, xinjiang, saw these ancient tombs up close for the first time. they walked down the long slope from the square at the intersection of youyi road in the east of the city and reached a depth of 7 to 9 meters below the road surface. after their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they could see a dozen dim spots sparsely distributed in the huge space. looking closely, each yellow area was a semicircular brick room made of blue bricks.

they are ancient tombs dating from the wei, jin and sixteen kingdoms period, dating from about 1500 to 1800. the 15 ancient tombs are surrounded not by soil but gravel. craftsmen from the central plains and hexi, with their sophisticated techniques for building tombs in soil, followed suit in the gravel layer of the gobi desert in the western regions. the tombs have remained in their original locations and have not been moved.

the qiuci wei and jin dynasty ancient tomb site museum was built on the original site of these ancient tombs and officially opened on july 15 this year. feng wei, deputy director of the qiuci museum, participated in the construction of the museum. he told china news weekly that the museum welcomed more than 20,000 visitors in the first month of its opening. for a museum in a county-level city, this is a high number.

these tombs were first discovered in 2007, when kuche was preparing to build an underground commercial street on youyi road. excavators dug down a 400-meter-long section of youyi road and unearthed some ancient tombs built with blue bricks. local cultural relics protection personnel rushed to clean them up, and archaeologists from the xinjiang cultural relics and archaeology institute inspected them and determined that these were not ordinary tombs, but high-level brick chamber tombs that are very rare in xinjiang. formal archaeological excavations were then launched, and the true identities of these tombs were revealed.

feng wei reminded china newsweek to pay attention to the zhao wall in tomb no. 3. this is a wall standing at the front of the tomb, just like the zhao wall in the courtyard - the tombs of the ancients were built to imitate the living environment before death. the decorative patterns on the zhao wall are very complete. there are six bricks arranged in two rows at the top, engraved with patterns such as the azure dragon, white tiger, vermillion bird, and black tortoise. below the six decorative bricks, there are bricks inlaid in the shape of rafters and brackets in buildings, symbolizing the building where the deceased lived before death. under the imitation wooden bracket, there is also a pattern of a bear warrior, raising his front paws to support the bracket. these patterns all come from the central plains culture. the architectural style of building zhao walls on the doors of brick chamber tombs is also transplanted from the mainland, and has been found in tombs in shaanxi, gansu, qinghai and other places.

in the qiuci wei and jin dynasty ancient tombs site museum, the wall of the tomb door of tomb no. 3 is in typical central plains style, inlaid with imitation wood brackets and rafters, and the bricks are carved with patterns such as blue dragons and white tigers. photo/reporter ni wei

tomb no. 3 is a relatively well-preserved tomb, which is still sealed. tomb no. 1 is completely open because the top had collapsed on a large scale when it was discovered, and the structure is clear at a glance. this is a double-chamber tomb, imitating the layout of the front hall and the back chamber. the bones originally buried in the back chamber appeared in the front chamber during the excavation. it is possible that they were stolen and then washed into the front chamber after experiencing the impact of underground floods. in the back chamber, archaeologists found a piece of rotten wood painted with red lacquer and traces of gold foil, which is most likely the remains of a coffin. based on the shape of the tomb and the luxurious burial utensils, archaeologists infer that the owner of the tomb should be a senior general who came here from hexi to garrison.

unfortunately, almost all of the tombs were visited by tomb robbers, who dug holes in the dome of the tombs, and some of the holes caused collapse. the decent burial objects have naturally disappeared, and the existing burial objects are mostly pottery jars, coins, etc., and some gold foil and gold jewelry have been fortunately preserved.

tomb no. 14 is very special. it buried as many as 59 dead people in multiple burials. there was no custom of burying people alive with the dead at that time. according to dna testing, most of these people were not relatives. why were they buried together? what was their relationship? what kind of story is behind this crowded tomb? some people speculate that they might be a general and his confidants. but the real reason may never be known. it is regrettable that no epitaphs or other texts were found in any of the tombs, and there is no definite evidence for the information of the tomb owner.

after the 10 ancient tombs of youyi road were unearthed in 2007, they were immediately selected as the top ten archaeological discoveries in china that year, attracting close attention in the fields of archaeology and history. the design and construction of these tombs were completely derived from the central plains, and the decorative themes were similar to those of tombs in dunhuang, jiuquan and other places in gansu. the distribution range of brick chamber tombs extended more than 1,000 kilometers westward from the hexi corridor. the second excavation launched in 2010 discovered another 5 tombs. these 15 tombs are distributed in similar areas and have now become exhibits under the spotlight of the museum.

walking among these tombs, you can hardly feel that this is the western regions, thousands of miles away from chang'an and luoyang. because the tombs are in the shape of the central plains, the decorations of the azure dragon, white tiger, vermillion bird, and black tortoise are all from the central plains, the types of burial objects are all from the central plains, and the human bone dna is from the central plains... this is an enclave of central plains culture buried ten meters underground in the western regions.

the xinjiang qiuci wei and jin dynasty ancient tomb site museum, which opened on july 15, displays 15 brick and stone tombs from the wei and jin dynasties on the original site. photo by our reporter ni wei

feng wei pointed to the tomb bricks and said that the bricks were of very uniform size, basically about 33 cm long, 18 cm wide and 6 to 8 cm thick. "they are exactly the same as the bricks used in the hexi area of ​​gansu at that time. they should have been a standard at the time, or they were made by craftsmen from hexi who came here."

but local culture also influenced immigrants from the central plains. for example, multiple burials, which were rare in the central plains, were very common here. the brick chamber tombs in the youyi road tomb group were all multiple burials, and many human bones were buried twice. this kind of multi-person burial and secondary burial custom was popular in the han and jin tombs around the tarim basin. the custom of burying coins with the tomb owner, holding coins in the mouth or in the hand, was a distinct style of the han and jin tombs in the central plains and hexi. the han people took root in qiuci, and funeral ceremonies had already adapted to local customs and absorbed all cultures.

how did the owners of these tombs come from the central plains to the western regions and eventually end up resting here?

since 60 bc, the western regions, which were originally ruled by the xiongnu, were included in the territory of the han dynasty. by the eastern han dynasty, qiuci had become the center of the han dynasty's management of the western regions. the subsequent wei and jin dynasties inherited the ruling foundation laid by the han dynasty in the western regions and continued to effectively govern the western regions.

wu yong, a researcher at the xinjiang uygur autonomous region cultural relics and archaeology institute, said that in 384 ad, fu jian, the emperor of the former qin dynasty, one of the sixteen kingdoms, ordered general lü guang to preside over the military and political affairs of the western regions. when lü guang attacked qiuci, he saw that qiuci had "three walls, and the outer wall was the same as chang'an city. the houses were magnificent, decorated with jade and gold." it can be seen that han culture had a profound influence on the qiuci region at that time, and the construction of the city was also modeled after the central plains. later, lü guang appointed his son lü fu to guard gaochang around qiuci, and "ordered the sons of ministers to follow him." "the people who accompanied him may have been the nobles and merchants in hexi. therefore, the funeral customs popular in the central plains and hexi were also brought here." wu yong believes.

wu yong said that the wei, jin, southern and northern dynasties were an era of great migration and integration of various ethnic groups in my country, and the influence of central plains culture on the western regions was more profound than that of the han dynasty. these large brick chamber tombs coexist with a large number of smaller brick chamber tombs and vertical pit tombs. those buried here should be the garrison officers, wealthy merchants and their followers who were stationed in the western regions.

finding ancient kingdoms in cities and deserts

a famous ancient country in the western regions can no longer be found in today's administrative divisions.

qiuci, from the han dynasty to the tang dynasty, was once the core area of ​​the western regions. qiuci is the hub connecting the north and south of the tianshan mountains, the throat of east-west traffic, and the heart of the silk road. the unique geographical advantages made qiuci the largest country in the western regions. during the reign of emperor gaozong of the tang dynasty, the anxi protectorate was moved from xizhou to qiuci, and the center of the tang dynasty's jurisdiction over the western regions was established here. "if qiuci is conquered, only one percent of the western regions will be conquered." ban chao, a general of the eastern han dynasty, once asserted.

on the map, you can still find the "kucha ancient city" today, which is a national key cultural relic protection site. however, if you travel thousands of miles to pay tribute to the vast and desolate land, when you stand in front of the ruins, you may only get confusion and disappointment - the magnificent name "kucha ancient city" is now just an ordinary mound of earth, surrounded by parks and high-rise buildings.

the ruins of the ancient city of qiuci, a national key cultural relic protection site. photo by our reporter ni wei

the ancient kingdom of qiuci is located in kuche city, aksu prefecture. kuche is divided into the old city and the new city. the old city was the core urban area during the ming and qing dynasties, and it still preserves the ancient monuments such as the kuche grand temple built during the jiajing period of the ming dynasty. the "old city of qiuci" is located at the junction of the old city and the new city. the location marked by the cultural relic protection monument is a site that protrudes more than 2 meters above the ground and is about 20 meters long. the facade has lost its original shape under the wind, sun and rain, and has become a round mound.

there are still many such mounds in kuqa. the ancient city of qiuci, a cultural relic protection site, is a group of ruins consisting of a series of mounds. under the ground, there are other undiscovered ruins. in 2021, during the follow-up excavation of the youyi road tomb group, archaeologists accidentally found a section of the eastern city wall and moat of the ancient city of qiuci underground.

the most qiuci-style remains have to be found outside the city. 20 kilometers northeast of the city of kuche, on the alluvial plains on both sides of the kuche river, stand two earthen buildings. in the tang dynasty, this buddhist temple spanning both sides of the kuche river was so large that when xuanzang passed by here to seek buddhist scriptures, he stayed for more than 60 days, preached and taught, and had a wonderful debate with the monk mu cha juduo. "more than 40 miles north of the deserted city, connected to the mountains and separated by a river, there are two monasteries, both named zhaohuli, and the east and west are named differently. the buddha statues are solemnly decorated, almost beyond human efforts." the location recorded in "the great tang records on the western regions" is still very accurate today. zhaohuli grand temple, also known as subashi buddhist temple, is one of the heritage sites of the world cultural heritage "silk road: the road network of chang'an-tianshan corridor".

in 1908, british explorer stein visited kuche and returned a few years later. he recorded that the numerous temples and cave temples in kuche reflected the prosperity of ancient buddhism and the prosperity of the people who maintained these temples. before stein's arrival, german, french, and russian expeditions had visited kuche and conducted detailed excavations. "they transported the best murals in the heser and kundula caves to the berlin ethnographic museum," stein wrote. the heser and kundula caves, which are now known as the kizil caves in baicheng county and the kumtura caves in kuche city, all belonged to the ancient qiuci kingdom.

ten kilometers north of kuche city, there is another heritage site of the "silk road: chang'an-tianshan corridor" - kizilgaha beacon tower. from a distance, the more than ten-meter-high earthen mound stands on the plain in front of the mountain, which is very eye-catching. in the late western han dynasty, the western regions protectorate was moved to qiuci, and a large number of beacon towers and garrisons were deployed near qiuci to protect the central town. kizilgaha beacon tower is located on the main traffic route after yumen pass, heading west to ancient qiuci, shule and wusun at the northern foot of tianshan mountain.

the kizilgaha beacon tower site in kuche is one of the heritage sites of the "silk road: road network of chang'an-tianshan corridor". photo by our reporter ni wei

the mysterious 36 kingdoms in the western regions have all become a thing of the past. the exploration craze in central asia and xinjiang a hundred years ago brought this history back to people's eyes. due to the changes in the natural environment and the changes in history, when explorers and archaeologists found these ancient cities in the desert, they had all become ruins, leaving only broken walls. after the exploration and looting of foreigners such as sven hedin, stein, and pelliot, huang wenbi, the "first person in xinjiang archaeology", also traveled all over xinjiang and left first-hand archaeological data. in recent decades, following the footsteps of their predecessors, archaeologists have returned to the western regions and started excavations at the ancient cities of loulan, the niya ruins of the jingjue kingdom, and the jiaohe ancient city of the gaochang kingdom.

most of these ancient cities are still difficult to reach because they are located in the desert. for example, in 1991, archaeologist wang binghua went to the niya ruins of the jingjue kingdom in the desert. he had to travel 30 kilometers in the desert. he hired locals as guides and used desert vehicles from the oil department, but was terrified and lost in an endless primitive poplar forest. the ancient jingjue kingdom is hidden deep in the oasis of the lower reaches of the niya river in the heart of the taklamakan desert. even among the generally small-scale western regions, it is particularly small and exquisite, with only a few thousand people. after the river dried up, the jingjue people had to leave the niya ruins, and their homeland eventually became a wasteland.

a series of archaeological excavations since the 1990s have discovered a large number of precious cultural relics and ancient language documents at the niya site, shocking the global western regions historian community. these discoveries also depict how a small ancient country with a small population was integrated into the international trend because of the silk road. the ancient jingjue kingdom is located at the crossroads of the southern silk road. after the silk road was unblocked, colorful brocade silk was worn by the royal family and nobles of jingjue, and luxury goods such as bronze mirrors and lacquerware entered their lives. the jingjue kingdom, which had never used writing, began to circulate chinese and kharosthi scripts, leaping into the civilized era of information exchange. a more profound change is the evolution of the production method. the han people's farming brought advanced agricultural technology. they learned how to drive cattle to plow the land and arrange water channels reasonably. the technology of raising silkworms, weaving, and smelting metals also made great progress.

jingjue is an ancient country with no descendants, and so is loulan. in contrast, there are still many "descendants of qiuci". because the ancient city of qiuci was located in a very advantageous location and the river flows to this day, cities were built here in successive dynasties. therefore, the cultural heritage left by qiuci has been valued and protected in recent decades.

the xinjiang uygur autonomous region cultural relics bureau showed china newsweek the ancient sites: xinjiang has a total of 2,991 ancient sites, more than 70% of which are earthen sites. among them, there are 212 beacon towers, 101 ground buddhist temples, 58 cave temples, and 124 ancient city sites at the autonomous region level and above. there are 950 field cultural relics caretakers, who look after xinjiang's 529 national and autonomous region-level cultural relics protection sites, 77% of whom are ethnic minorities.

in areas where low-level cultural relics protection units are located, there are no special institutions or professionals to manage these outdoor cultural relics. "due to factors such as geographical environment, transportation conditions and funding, the supervision and inspection of outdoor cultural relics, especially county-level cultural relics protection units, still needs to be strengthened," said the xinjiang uygur autonomous region cultural relics bureau.

yin qiuling is a senior grassroots cultural relic protection worker in kuche. she came to the kuche cultural relics management office after graduating from kashgar normal university in 1991. there are many cultural relics and historical sites in kuche. every year, only a handful of three or two people have to inspect the cultural relic protection sites in the city. "every day, i push aside all the work of the unit, from 8 or 9 in the morning to 11 or 12 at night, and it takes at least one and a half months to finish the work." she recalled to china news weekly. some cultural relic protection sites are in remote mountainous areas, such as the stone tombs of ancient nomadic peoples. i visited them last year, but i may not remember the specific location this year, so i have to search for them again and again.

history has changed countless times, various ethnic groups and trends have come and gone, and the original qiuci culture is hard to find. only the silent ruins have witnessed those times.

but qiuci is trying to "revive" and has been requisitioned by the local government as a cultural tourism ip. kuche, located at the end of the duku highway, was previously regarded as a transit station by travelers. when kuche began to develop cultural tourism, qiuci culture became a god-given label. now, the statue of qiuci monk kumarajiva stands on the side of the ming and qing city wall, and qiuci music and dance, which was famous on the silk road, has also been "resurrected" on the stage of the folk art festival, which was re-arranged based on the murals.

left: a statue of kucha monk kumarajiva stands in the old city of kuche. top right: a pottery steamer, a funerary object unearthed from the youyi road tombs in kuche, is used for steaming and cooking food and is a typical central plains cooking utensil. bottom right: a six-handled jar, a funerary object unearthed from the youyi road tombs in kuche. photo by our reporter ni wei

the most popular new attraction in kuqa this year is a cultural block called qiuci alley, which is home to coffee shops, milk tea shops, cultural and creative shops, and some shops have become popular online stores. but behind these popular online stores live the indigenous people, and the original ecology is still there. one morning in august, in front of a check-in wall covered with colorful carpets, the "qiuci princess" kept adjusting her poses for photos. under a tree a few meters away, an old uyghur man was rocking back and forth in a rocking chair, closing his eyes to rest, and his life was no different from usual.

where is the qiuci culture now? "as mr. ji xianlin said, xinjiang is the only place where the four major human civilizations of china, india, greece and islam converge. coupled with the local qiuci culture, it has always been a place of tolerance, constantly absorbing foreign cultures and creating new cultures. but if you want to say what qiuci culture from the han and tang dynasties remains in today's life, it's really hard to say." yin qiuling said with a smile, "or, you can go to qiuci alleys for a walk."