Ancient stone city

Shitoucheng is a famous ancient city site on the ancient road in Xinjiang. It is the intersection of the middle road and the South Road of the ancient Silk Road. Kashgar, Shache, Yingjisha and several passages from Yecheng to Pamir Plateau converge here.

The castle is built on a high hill, and the situation is extremely dangerous. Outside the city, there are many layers of broken or continuous walls. According to the situation of Shigang, they are built with blocks of stone and soil. They are undulating and tortuous, slightly square, with a circumference of more than 1300 meters. Up to now, the stone Hills between the partition walls overlap and the stones pile up, forming a unique stone city scenery. According to cultural relics, the ancient city was abandoned in the Tang Dynasty and was once the capital of the state of jiepanduo in the Tang Dynasty. After the unification of the western regions by the Tang government, the old stone city took on a new look. Today, the prosperity and authority of that year are gone, only the ruins are silent in the setting sun.

Although there are only ruins and walls left in the stone city, there are snow peaks around, grass beaches and rivers below. With the strong Tajik ethnic customs, the stone city has a rough and uninhibited beauty. Outside the city, there are multi-layer walls, which are broken or continued. The stone hills are overlapped between the partition walls, and the stones are piled up, forming a unique scenery of the stone city. Looking down from the east of the stone city, you can see a large area of very beautiful grassland, full of cattle and sheep, very beautiful. When the sun is about to set, the whole stone city will reflect a lot of light. At first, the whole city is only gray black, then there will be brick red and ochre. Standing on this pile of rocks, looking at the grassland at present and the naked mountain in the distance, it seems that people will forget the existence of time.

It is worth mentioning that the best time to see the stone city is at dusk, when the setting sun shines on these rocks, which makes it more desolate and heavy.

Address: less than 100 meters north of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Kashgar, Xinjiang

Longitude: 75.235356

Latitude: 37.780573

Tour time: 1-2 hours

Traffic information: from Kashgar to tashikorgan County, you need to buy a ticket at Tiannan road passenger station one day in advance. The ticket price is 55 yuan. There are only two buses a day, namely 10:00 and 11:00. Or you can charter a bus. Generally, tourists will stop by when visiting karakuli lake or hongqilapu port. You can walk about 10 minutes from the county seat to ancient stone city.

Ticket information: 30 yuan

Opening hours: all day