Exploring the LOST ANCIENT CITY of Far Western China

In this episode, we head to far western China to explore an ancient city on the Silk Road. Sitting between the wild desert and snow-capped mountains, this ancient site used to be a long forgotten place, now just some buried history. Because for a long time, locals only called this the Broken City. I set out to search for the stories behind these ruins and I want to see those treasures that have been left there over thousands of years. Hey guys, welcome back. This is our first trip in 2025. Today we're in Jimusar. It's a city from far west of China. What I'm on right now is called Beitingduhufu. About 1,000 years ago, this place was the largest city around the whole north and west of Tianshan Mountains. Now the new city, the modern city of Jimusar, has moved about 10 kilometers south of this place. As a crucial stop along the northern road of the Silk Road, Beiting was once a military and an administrative center. Stretching from Suiyecheng in Kyrgyzstan all the way to northeastern edge of the Tianshan Mountains. Starting from Han Dynasty, this area had been a key battleground between the central plains and nomadic tribes. By 702, Tang Dynasty set up the Beitingduhufu as the ruins that we see here today. From the south gate to the east gate here, which took us about 30 minutes. And as you can see, the east gate only remains a rammed earth mount behind me. And there would have been some wooden structures on top serving as a watchtower before. Right below the watchtower was the barracks. Deeper inside lay the inner part of the Beiting city. It was the office and living quarters of the generals. Well, I thought I saw the hole on one side of the mount the tour guide just mentioned to us the local farmers here, they dug it to store their supplies or their livestock in it because the rammed earth wall was pretty thick and sturdy and no one really knows what this mount was originally used for. For thousands of years, Beiting was always the first and most crucial outpost get to the rich oasis cities from the north. That's also the most reasonable explanation why they hold this spot, set up troops here and started farming to support life and production in this area. The city they built thrived for nearly a century, but it faded with the decline of the Tang dynasty. Over time, it changed hands, got new names and eventually turns out to be this broken city. For decades, archaeologists have been uncovering its past. In 2016, some coins and patterned floor tiles were found out among the ruins. The story about Beiting slowly back to light. The heart of Beiting city spans 1.5 square kilometers. The outer city stretches 1.5 kilometers north to south and one kilometer east to west. It's divided into inner and outer sections. They are both equipped with moats and defensive towers. There is a map of this city and we just came from the south gate of this city and all the way to the east watchtower is the gate. Now we're heading to the north gate of the inner city. Beiting city wasn't built all at once. It expanded outwards over time. The inner city housed the government offices while the outer city had residential and commercial areas followed by the layout of Chang'an. Same goes for the city gate. I'm standing between those two moats and this is the area for the gate and we can get pretty close to the wall. Look at the texture. It was built layer by layer like stack one above one by using those rammed earth and on that wall there is a wall of this kind of vertical grooves. They are used to place the wooden pillars to support the whole wooden structure of this gate. There are a row of grooves for seven large pillars on the north gate much like the Danfeng gate in the town capital. The more pillars the grander and more prestigious the gate. Since one side is sheltered from the wind the grooves remain visible. Archaeologists have also found some Tang dynasty lotus pattern tiles here which were commonly used by the royal family and high-ranking officials as symbols of status. For a hundred years soldiers were routed every four years from across the empire then recruited locally to guard this remote western frontier only for it to end as a lost city. After the fall of Beiting the Huihu tribes established their capital in Gaochang an ancient area in today's Turpan making Beiting their alternate capital. This is what remains of a Huihu Buddhist temple built by Gaochang royalty. By the 14th century religious conflicts brought the destruction of those statues. After that it had been buried in sand for hundreds of years. And this is not the end of the story. There is saying that a pathway hidden in the mountain was once filled with gold. I need to know how to get there and whether it could be the reason why these ancient cities were spotted here. So we're looking for something older to be closer to the answer. Yeah we just drove up to here it's like a kind of a hill a relatively higher spot look at this view on this side there is a river valley down below the water is going to flow down from the Tianshan mountains just right in front of us so based on this the ruins that we're looking for should be really close ahead of us. In the Tang dynasty the area where Beiting city located was called Jinman county but over 600 years earlier in the Han dynasty a military garrison was already stationed here known as Jinpu which was recorded as Jinman due to pronunciation changes by the Tang era meaning the city of gold. Both cities were built along the same river and I think climate changes over two millennia like shifting water levels made people move and settle in different locations. I just arrived at the south part of the ruins with the ground covered in snow there wasn't too much to see on the surface but some bricks and pottery shards from Han dynasty have been unearthed here. So we just drove around to another side of this ruin and feels like if without those kind of monuments marking the location here or this wire fence surrounding it I just wouldn't be able to tell it right away because all you can see here is farmland and covered by snow and actually there are some pretty interesting research on where the city name the current city name Jimusar comes from. Long story short it was likely inspired by this ruin which was once called Jinpu city over 2,000 years ago. If we say Jinman quickly it sounds like Jimu Sar stand for a city and over the centuries as pronunciation changes and different ethnic groups mixed here the name eventually became Jimusar. So just now I turned off onto a dirt track it lead us down to be in this river valley there's no water now but as it gets warmer the water the snow will melt and flow down in this way and if we keep going upstream we'll get into the entrance of the Tianshan mountain over that mountain there is another famous city Turpan and you will probably have no snow on that side but it's a super hot city in summer it can reach up to 50 degrees celsius in summer From north to south along the river valley there is Beiting city from the Tang dynasty Jinman city from the Han dynasty and nomadic tribes in the mountains all the way through the ancient Tianshan path to Turpan they were all centers of power the snow mountains melt water made life possible here but setting up cities also meant controlling a key route and the gold hidden in the mountains Hello, big sister Is the entrance to the ancient road from here? Do you want to ride in? Can I ride in now? It's been snowing a lot in the last two days Do you know how long it takes to get from here to there? To get there From here to Turpan Two and a half days On foot Riding a motorcycle or riding a horse for a day Early in the morning Oh Early in the morning I heard there's gold in there, did you know? Three bridges There's a place in our wild wolf valley You come in and sit It's so cold Where did you go? I just rode my bike to play This equipment I know It fell over there I'm just looking at your clothes Oh, it's so hot Then your bike fell, are you okay? It's okay, it's okay, this is protection You must have worn too little A little I didn't expect it to be so cold The owner invited me inside and offered me some hot water She told me her family has been rescuing wolves for over 20 years starting with her parents Today, more than 200 wolves live in this valley This ancient trail through the Tianshan Mountains has now become a popular trekking route On horseback, it takes just one day to reach Turpan Along the way, there are ancient rock carvings old relay station ruins and places where travelers like traders, herders, and messengers once stopped to rest and eat They also found stolen tools here probably used to crush gold ore After separating in nearby streams the gold was sent north and stored in the Jinman city