TURPAN – WHERE TIME STOPS
UNDER THE SUNSET, THE WHOLE CITY WAS BRILLIANT AND BRIGHT YELLOW, THE SAME COLOR AS THE DESERT AND JUST AS REMOTE AND HARSH.
Under the sunset, the whole city was brilliant and bright yellow, the same color as the desert and just as remote and harsh.
THOUSAND YEARS OF PROSPERITY
Solitary. Harsh. Ruined. But unforgettable. Those are the emotions that pop into my mind when I arrive in Turpan - one of the key towns on the ancient silk road. Thousands of years ago, in the early period of the Tang Dynasty, the area of Turpan was very prosperous, many people passing through because it was a green, rich, luxuriant oasis in the heart of desert on the long trade route.
Turpan was recorded in the Book of the Later Han, Treatise on the Western Regions as follows: “Starting from Dunhuang, west through the Yumen Guan and Yang Guan across to Shanshan, and north over 1,000 miles to Yiwu, from Yiwu north to the fortress of Gaochang 1,200 miles distant.”
Turpan is the hottest place in China and sits in a basin 143 meters below sea level, absorbing the heat like a giant lens so the temperature sometimes reaches 50°C. But this place is an oasis thanks to the underground water and well system. Chinese scientists believe that under the scorching sand is a huge ocean, possibly 10 times larger than the water of five Great Lakes in North America.
Turpan was once part of Gaochang kingdom and Jushi Kingdom with the ancient citadel of Jiaohe. Jiaohe Citadel is considered one of the architectural wonders of the ancient world, dating back more than 2,300 years. The architecture in Jiaohe is quite unique with visible holes and niches suggesting the types of window frames and doors that exited long ago. Most prominent is the temple at the end of the main road. Based on the surviving pillar, the foundation of three blocks and four surrounding walls, this temple must have been quite imposing in its day.
Gaochang Kingdom is located at the foot of the Flaming Moutain in Tian Shan mountain range and is preserved intact. The citadel is made up of bricks and soil with three distinct parts. The outer part of the citadel has a circumference of up to 5.4 km surrounded by a wall of 11.5 m thick. The inner part of the city consists of houses in a special architectural style. Each brick is stacked on top of each other to form unique shapes. The most important part is the main plaza and the Buddhist temple. The ruins truly give an indication of how prosperous the city used to be.
DESERTED YELLOW LAND
When I came here, there were only two ancient citadels left, ruined and abandoned and without a single person visiting. Traveling in the low season, there was almost only my group here to add to the gloominess. The rich, bustling citadel on the fertile river now only has exhausted ditches, dilapidated houses, and dusty walls. The bustling scene of trading goods and camels, or people with costumes from other lands can now only be seen in the imagination. Under the sunset, the whole city was brilliant and bright yellow, the same color as the desert and just as remote and harsh. Jiaohe, Gaochang and other emirates in the Gobi desert have now disappeared with the dust of time, sweeping away all the quintessence and splendor of a historical time. I thought of this place like fireworks, glowing briefly and then dying, disappearing inevitably into darkness.
THIS PLACE LIKE FIREWORKS, GLOWING BRIEFLY AND THEN DYING, DISAPPEARING INEVITABLY INTO DARKNESS
My explorations, though, were exciting. On a bright sunny day, I crept into every corner of the ancient Tuyoq village, considered to be one of the few intact from the time of the Silk Road. Entire houses there are almost covered with yellow sand and are surrounded by bare trees, and collapsed walls. Most people in the village have gone to work elsewhere and close their houses, leaving pigties or crumbling chicken coops and neglected ladders. I walked through the dusty earth houses to climb to the village’s highest fortress. Standing on the fortress I zoomed in on the faint red mountains far away, looked down at the small church, down the winding road where my companions looked tiny, looking at the scene of desolate land with the sand around, the shallow creek below, the women still washing their clothes by hand and drying on the bamboo stick across the garden, just a fading yellow. In incredible view of a region of the world where time seems to have stopped.
In the late autumn afternoon, the sky was freezing cold, and the whole castle was hardly visited by anyone but us. The space was so quiet that you could hear each other’s breathing. For how long has this place has remained so empty? In the midst of the golden sunset, I stood still in front of these ruins, thinking sadly that time is too cruel. Quietly and respectfully, I touched each brick that was many times my age, trying to feel the remnants of a glorious time from the pages of history.