[2025 Kuqa Attraction] Travel Guide for Qiuci Ancient City (Updated Feb)

The Qiuci Kingdom is one of the ancient Western countries. The residents are good at music, and the Qiuci music and dance originated here. The ancient city is located in Pilang Village, about two kilometers west of Kuqa County. During the Han and Tang Dynasties of my country, the central government took Qiuci as the political center and established political institutions to manage the Western Regions. In the third year of the Eastern Han Dynasty and Emperor Yongyuan's reign (AD 91), Ban Chao served as the Protector of the Western Regions and moved the Protectorate of the Western Regions to Qiuci. The perimeter of the ancient city is nearly 8,000 meters, the north wall is 2,000 meters, the south wall is 1,806 meters, the east wall is 1,646 meters, and the west wall is about 2,200 meters. Except that the east, south and north walls are still recognizable, the west wall has disappeared. The whole city is an irregular square, and the city wall is about 2-7 meters high. It is built of rammed earth, and there are battlements every 40 meters. In 1985, Mr. Huang Wenbi, a famous Chinese archaeologist, conducted excavation work in this city. The unearthed cultural relics include stone tools, bone tools, painted pottery pieces, bronze pieces, Han Wuzhu coins, Qiuci coins, Kaiyuan Tongbao and so on. The ancient country of Qiuci was a big country in the ancient Western Regions. It was located at the traffic hub between China and the West on the Silk Road. As early as the third century AD, Buddhism was spread to Qiuci via the Silk Road, and it was widely spread in the Qiuci area. Monks and laymen built temples, Activities such as opening caves, statues, paintings, and offerings to Buddha have become very frequent. When Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty traveled westward to India to seek prayers and passed by Qiuci, Qiuci Buddhism was already "more than 100 Jialan schools, with more than 5,000 monks, and there are all branches of Theravada." Kumarajiva, the famous translator of scriptures in history, is from Qiuci. The ancient Qiuci State was once known as the "Buddha Capital of the Western Regions" and the "Music Capital of the Western Regions". The art of the Qiuci Grottoes and the music and dance of Qiuci have widely influenced the Central Plains, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. Among them, the Qiuci Grottoes are known as the It is one of the "Four Buddhist Grottoes in China".