Get to know Baicheng County
Photo adjustments
Full frame retained; EXIF orientation normalized, proportionally resized to at most 800 pixels and converted to WebP. No generated pixels or subject changes. Cards may crop the display.
- Administrative area
- County · 县
- Part of
- Aksu Prefecture
- Chinese name
- 拜城县
- Local areas
- County guide
Area & population
- Area in the source
- 15,916.81 km²
- Population · 2020
- 231,113
- Administrative seat
- Bai Town
Source: cited geographic source, as of the dates shown.
Painted chambers above the river
The cave complex lies southeast of Kizil Township (克孜尔乡). Excavation began around the third century and continued into the eighth or ninth century. Surviving remains include hundreds of caves, extensive wall paintings and traces of painted clay sculpture. The site was designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1961.
A dispersed artistic inheritance
Some murals were cut from their original walls and taken overseas, leaving visible removal marks in the caves. Scenes recorded from the paintings include Jataka stories (本生故事), a vajra guardian (金刚力士) and the Gandharva king (乾闼婆王) with attendants. The Xinjiang Kucha Research Institute (新疆龟兹研究院) has used photographs from overseas collections to study how these displaced paintings relate to their original cave settings.
Sources for this guide
“海外克孜尔石窟壁画及洞窟复原影像展”在北京开幕 · Ministry of Culture and Tourism, China National Arts Fund Management Center
Original English written from the listed sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer. Updated 2026-09-27.
Explore Baicheng County
Core places to explore, with English and Chinese names.
Places to explore around Baicheng County
Cliffside grottoes and walkways at the Kizil Caves, Baicheng County · 拜城县克孜尔千佛洞崖壁石窟与栈道 Source-recorded photograph date: 2006-10-01.Kizil Caves克孜尔千佛洞
Kizil’s cave shrines were cut into the Mingwudag cliffs above the river in Baicheng County. Their forms and painted scenes preserve an important part of ancient Kucha’s Buddhist culture. The surviving murals are fragmentary, and…
Read the place guide →
Kizil Ghost City · 克孜尔魔鬼城Kizil Ghost City克孜尔魔鬼城
The Kizil Red Stone Forest (克孜尔红石林), the place the catalogue lists as Kizil Ghost City (克孜尔魔鬼城), is a yardang landform area lying between Kizil township (克孜尔乡) and Heiyingshan township (黑英山乡) in Baicheng County (拜城县), Aksu Prefecture (阿克苏地区), Xinjiang.
Read the place guide →Plan your visit
Getting there
Baicheng County is about 145 km in a straight line from central Aksu Prefecture. Search for 拜城县 in a map app to find stations and your accommodation.
Where to stay →Build your route
Kizil Caves and Kizil Ghost City are both listed here. The linked place guides have entrance and visit details.
Continue with Aksu Prefecture →More in Aksu Prefecture
Sources & geographic information
Administrative names and parent areas: Official geographic directory · Reference date 2026-09-06.
Photo: Kizil Caves · Rolfmueller · CC BY-SA 3.0. Full frame retained; proportionally resized and converted to WebP. No retouching or changes to the photographed subject. Card displays may crop the view.
Photo: Kizil Ghost City · Source photographer · License not provided. EXIF orientation normalized; resized without changing aspect ratio; converted to WebP. No subject edits.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Pins mark approximate centres, not entrances or boundaries.