Huiyuan Ancient City 惠远古城

About Huiyuan Ancient City

The prefecture page records that after the Qing unified Xinjiang it ran a military-government system and in 1762 established at Ili the "President Ili and Other Places General", or Ili General — the highest military and political officer it posted to Xinjiang, commanding the garrisons north and south of the Tianshan and also handling the Kazakh and Burut groups that had submitted to the Qing, together with civil affairs. Because the General's office was built in Huiyuan, the page records, Huiyuan was for a long period the political, military, economic and cultural centre of Xinjiang. In 1763 the first Ili General, Mingrui, laid out a city on the north bank of the Ili river, and the Qianlong emperor gave it the name Huiyuan, meaning that the Great Qing emperor's grace reached distant places. The page gives the old wall as 1 zhang 4 chi high with a circumference of 9 li 3 fen, and records that a further expansion in 1793 brought the circumference to 10 li 6 fen 3 li and the area to about 3.5 square kilometres, which it says made it the largest city in Xinjiang at the time. Four straight streets led to four gates — Jingren in the east, Shuize in the west, Xuankai in the south and Lai'an in the north — with a tall Bell and Drum Tower at the centre of the city.

The prefecture page records that Russian troops entered Ili on 30 June 1871 and by early July held all nine Ili cities, that they took the timber from Huiyuan's houses to Ningyuan city to build dwellings, and that the wall was afterwards eroded year by year by the Ili river until nothing of the buildings inside remained. What survives today, the page records, is part of the north and east walls and the earthen pier of the old east gate. After the Qing recovered Ili in 1882, it records, Ili General Jinshun obtained approval to build Huiyuan New City 15 li north of the old city on its model, and the work ran until 1893. The new city measured 1,194 m north to south and 1,298 m east to west, with a perimeter of 4,984 m and a wall 5 m high and 6 m thick, covering about 1.55 square kilometres — 1.95 square kilometres less than the old city. It had four gates that kept the old names, and an 8 m wide, 8 m deep moat ran round the outside of the wall, so that the city could be entered only through the gates.

The county register records the same two cities more briefly — an old city begun in 1763 and a new city built between 1882 and 1893 — and adds that until 1884 Huiyuan was the political and military centre of Xinjiang and the first of the nine Ili cities, that it is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction, a national historical and cultural town and a patriotic education base, and that the Ili General's Office and the Huiyuan Ancient City exhibition hall are among the sights inside it, in a list ending 等. The prefecture page describes the office as standing in Huiyuan town east of the Bell and Drum Tower, about 7.5 km south of the Ili river, surrounded by the township government seat and occupying about a quarter of the old city's area. Its main buildings, the page records, are courtyard-style timber-and-earth houses with upturned eaves and 人-shaped beams, floored with 25×25 cm tiles over wall bases of 21×12.5×5 cm brick with adobe behind, with wooden ceilings, a cloister in the courtyard and a two-storey timber-and-earth gate tower on the west side. Citing historical sources, the page records that the office had six departments besides the General's hall: the seal office for confidential documents, the register office for books, the grain and pay office, the camp affairs office, the camel and horse office, and the merits and demerits office. It lists the sights now inside Huiyuan as the Bell and Drum Tower, the Confucian temple, the yamen, the Ili General's Office, the General's Garden, the east gate and Lin Zexu's former residence, in a list ending 等.

What to look for

• What survives of the old city: the prefecture page records that part of the north and east walls and the earthen pier of the old east gate are what remains of it.
• The Ili General's Office (伊犁将军府), which the prefecture page records as a courtyard-style timber-and-earth complex east of the Bell and Drum Tower, occupying about a quarter of the old city's area.
• The office's six departments, which the prefecture page names: the seal office, the register office, the grain and pay office, the camp affairs office, the camel and horse office, and the merits and demerits office.
• The Bell and Drum Tower at the centre of the city, with four streets running straight to the gates.
• The four gate names, which the prefecture page records the new city kept from the old: Jingren in the east, Shuize in the west, Xuankai in the south and Lai'an in the north.
• The sights the prefecture page lists inside Huiyuan today: the Bell and Drum Tower, the Confucian temple, the yamen, the Ili General's Office, the General's Garden, the east gate and Lin Zexu's former residence, in a list ending 等.
• Yangbulak, which the county register records in the same entry as a first-batch "China rural tourism model village", with courtyards offering accommodation, food, cockfighting and song-and-dance performances, in a list ending 等.

Location & getting there

Getting to Huiyuan Ancient City

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

• Search for 惠远古城 with 伊犁哈萨克自治州 and 霍城县.