Post Station on the Silk Road: Discover Bachu

On the northwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert lies a lush green oasis. Bordering the Tianshan Mountains to the north and the Yarkand River to the south, it sits on the plain in the lower reaches of the Yarkand River. Like a graceful spring goddess, it adorns this ancient land beside the sea of sand. This is the ancient territory of Barchu, today’s Bachu County.

Bachu was a vital post station and a bright pearl on the ancient Silk Road, as well as the gateway to the three prefectures in southern Xinjiang. National Highway 314, Provincial Highway 215, the Sancha-Shache Expressway and the Southern Xinjiang Railway run through the county. Since ancient times, this has been a strategic stronghold known as a crucial thoroughfare. As an important town on the Silk Road, it served as a key passage for people, goods and capital radiating from Kashgar to the rest of the world, and played a pivotal role in economic and cultural exchanges across southern Xinjiang.

According to The History of the Han Dynasty, the northern rim of the Tarim Basin was home to numerous states including Shangu, Yanqi, Weixu, Yutou, Quli, Wulei, Qiuci, Wensu, Gumo and Shule. Yutou, also known as the Prefecture of Yutou, was one of the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Han Dynasty. The kingdom rose and fell repeatedly. In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial court established an autonomous prefecture here named Yutou Prefecture, with its seat at Wose’de City, also called Jushide.

Once a thriving oasis glistening like a pearl on the Silk Road, Yutou flourished from the 4th century to the 12th century before gradually fading away in the early Northern Song Dynasty.

After the 13th century, the drying-up of the Kashgar River turned this region into boundless desert over a thousand years, turning its history into a distant legend.

In 1906, the French explorer Paul Pelliot sailed down the Yarkand River from Hotan in search of ancient ruins. He excavated the Yutou ruins for nearly two months and looted a great many cultural relics, including more than 400 statues, wooden carvings and murals. Later, explorers from Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia and other countries carried away large quantities of artefacts from the site one after another.

Beneath this desert wasteland lies the splendid civilization created over nearly 1,300 years, from 200 BCE to 1000 CE.

This civilization blended Central Plains culture from inland China, ancient Persian culture from the West, and the indigenous Saka culture rooted right here.

Records in The History of the Han Dynasty and The Later Han Dynasty show that this land belonged to the small state of Yutou more than 2,200 years ago. In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial government reorganized it into Yutou Prefecture, directly under the administration of the Anxi Protectorate headquartered in Qiuci, no longer an independent tribal kingdom.

The ruins stretch in a long belt. Near Tangwang City are relics of Han Dynasty garrison farms, smelting workshops, handicraft workshops and Buddhist temples dating back to Yutou Kingdom.

The region prospered greatly between the 4th and 12th centuries. It used to be a floodplain of the Kashgar River with fertile land and dense population. It was also a key relay station on the northern route of the Silk Road. Hepingpu Post Station of the Northern Wei Dynasty, as well as Jizhuo Guan and Yuzhe Guan, imperial guest houses of the Tang Dynasty, were all located within Yutou’s territory.

Yutou witnessed the evolution and integration of multi-ethnic cultures, with ruins spanning the Han Dynasty up to the Song Dynasty. Over 4,000 cultural relics have been unearthed here, including murals, sculptures, coins, pottery, bronze wares and ornaments embodying diverse cultures. Inscriptions on these artefacts feature Brahmi, Sogdian, Kuchean, Kharosthi and ancient Chinese characters.

New Book of Tang: Geographical Records notes that in the Tang Dynasty, travellers journeying from present-day Kuqa to Kashgar had to pass Yuzhe Guan, a post station specially built for foreign envoys travelling to the imperial court. Strictly speaking, it was an officially operated imperial guesthouse, distinct from ordinary oasis relay stations. According to historical documents, Yuzhe Guan stood 120 li ahead of the ancient Dagancheng, placing it right in the heart of Tangwang City. The fact that the imperial government set up such a guesthouse here proves that Tangwang City was once a prosperous and influential town trusted by the imperial court, a conclusion backed by abundant historical evidence.

Numerous relay stations dotted the road to Tangwang City, among which Yuzhe Guan was the most famous. As its name suggests, it exclusively accommodated envoys coming to the Central Plains to have an audience with the emperor. The Tang people called it a "guan" (hostel), while Uyghurs named it Timuxar, a site with the imposing scale of a small fortress.

Yumulak Tim means round beacon tower. Standing about 5 kilometres south of Qiongtimu, it is a round mound with a remaining height of roughly 4 metres. Seven hundred metres north of the mound lie house foundations with several large red pottery jars scattered around, presumably for water and grain storage. These were likely barracks for the garrison soldiers manning the beacon tower.

Kexi Tim is located 4 kilometres southwest of Yumulak Tim. Though referred to as "tim" (mound), it refers to an archaeological site. Pottery shards unearthed here include red, grey, dark grey and sandy wheel-thrown wares with fine clay and high firing temperature, ringing sharply like metal when struck. The decorative patterns and animal-shaped handles are similar to those found at Qiongtimu, yet more numerous. A finely carved human face with high nose and deep eye sockets depicting local ethnic features was once picked up here. Kaiyuan Tongbao coins and small Kuchean copper coins have also been discovered on the site.

Ze Tim sits roughly 10 kilometres southwest of Yumulak Tim, with a remaining height of 12.5 metres. About 300 metres east of the ruins are traces of an irrigation channel 14 metres wide, with an ancient riverbed to its south. The ground around the mound is littered with pottery pieces, mainly daily-use vessels such as jars, urns, bowls, plates and cups. Two Karakhanid copper coins were collected here, proving that human settlements still existed here in the mid-10th century.

Further south of Ze Tim lie other ancient sites including Majianglek and Luotangfang (Camel House).