Aksay Old County Town Ruins 阿克塞老县城

About Aksay Old County Town Ruins

The old town stands at about 2,800 m in the Boluo Zhuanjing gully (博罗转井沟), on the alluvial fan of the Altun Mountains; the Lanzhou Morning Post feature calls it the most remote county seat in western Gansu. Boluo Zhuanjing town was built in the early 1950s and its name is a Mongolian-language transliteration. The county moved wholesale to its present seat at Hongliuwan, about 28 km away, and the old town was abandoned. The two reports cited here differ on the year of the move: the Lanzhou Morning Post feature gives 1995 and the Jiuquan media centre report gives 1998.

The Lanzhou Morning Post feature gives the town's high elevation, together with mineral and radioactive content in the Altun range, as reasons why daily life there — drinking water in particular — was considered unsafe, and it lists drinking water and climate among the reasons for the move. What remains is a townscape of empty buildings: the feature names an abandoned theatre, school, hospital and government offices among the structures still standing, along with buses planted nose-down in the ground and unoccupied houses, and describes the overall look as post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Filming gave the ruins a second life. The town became known in 2015 as a location for Lu Chuan's film 九层妖塔, and the Lanzhou Morning Post feature lists 西风烈, 特战荣耀, 铁血蛟龙 and 打怪 among other film and television productions shot there, and 很高兴遇见你 and 登场了！敦煌 among reality programmes. The county has since built the site up as a film base; the same feature records more than 60 million yuan invested in works including an old-town food street, a car park, public toilets, a sign system, roads, a smart-scenic-area system, a sightseeing train and a visitor reception centre. The two reports also differ on the site's graded designation: the Lanzhou Morning Post feature describes a national AAA-grade tourist attraction and the Jiuquan media centre report a national AAAA-grade one.

What to look for

• The abandoned theatre, school, hospital and government offices that the Lanzhou Morning Post feature lists among the surviving structures
• Buses set nose-down into the ground, one of the details the same feature singles out
• The empty townscape the feature describes as post-apocalyptic wasteland in style
• The old-town food street (旧城食坊), listed among the facilities built in the film-base upgrade
• The sightseeing train and horse-drawn carriages that the Jiuquan report says visitors ride among the ruined walls and rubble

Location & getting there

Getting to Aksay Old County Town Ruins

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

• Search for 阿克塞老县城 with 酒泉市 and 阿克塞哈萨克族自治县.