Stone City

Xinjiang Shitou City, located on the north side of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, with an altitude of 3100 meters, is a famous ancient city site on the ancient road in Xinjiang. The castle is built on a high hill, and the situation is extremely steep. There are multiple layers of broken or continuous city walls outside the city, with overlapping stone hills and piles of scattered stones between the walls, creating a unique stone city scenery. During the Han Dynasty, this area was the royal city of Puli Kingdom, one of the thirty-six states in the Western Regions. After the Tang Dynasty unified the Western Regions, the Congling Garrison was established here. In the early Yuan Dynasty, there was a large-scale construction and expansion of the city walls, and the old stone city was given a new look. In the 28th year of the Guangxu reign, the Qing court established the Boli Hall here to repair and supplement the old city. In 1954, Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County became the capital

The location of Stone City has a superior geographical environment: there is a grassland under the city, surrounded by several grasslands. In ancient times, several mountain roads from Kashgar, Yingjisha, Yecheng, Shache to the Pamir Plateau all gathered here. To the west, several major mountains in Central Asia, such as Hongqila Dapan, Mingtie Gaidaban, and Wahkiridaban, were also accessible through natural valley roads. The city is a strategically important castle on the ancient Silk Road and has been designated as a key cultural relic protection unit of the autonomous region. Although only ruins remain in Stone City, it is surrounded by snow capped peaks, grassy beaches, and rivers, and has a strong Tajik ethnic flavor, exuding a rugged and unrestrained beauty