The Ancient City of Huiyuan
Lying thirty kilometers west of the city of Vining, the city of Huiyuan was the seat of the IIi General's Office-the highest military and political organ set up by the central government of the Qing Dynasty in Xinjiang. After suppressing the Junggar rebellion and recovering the terri-tory of Xinjiang, the Qinq government established an IIi General's Office in 1762 to protect the frontiers and take charge of the military and political affairs of the entire Xinjiang area east and south of Lake Balkash. It ordered the city of Huiyuan to be built the following year as the seat of the administration, and from that time on Huiyuan became the political and military center of Xinjiang until a hundred years later in 1884 when the province of Xinjiang was founded with its capital at Dihua (present-day Urumqi). Standing on the north bank of the IIi River, the strategi-cally-placed city of Huiyuan was encircled by a wall 4.7 meters high and 5,580 meters long. Being an area where the climate is temper-ate and rainfall plentiful, the local people enjoyed good harvests and a happy life, and as the city became a political and military center, it grew into a prosperous town. Ancient literature describes Huiyuan

as a place "full of shops displaying a hundred kinds of goods." The IIi General's Office was a tranquil mansion equaling the fine gardens in southern China. Today, the relics of stone lions, pavilions and terraces call to mind its once-magnificent splendor. Besides the city of Huiyuan, the Qing government built eight satellite towns on both banks of the IIi River. Together with Huiyuan, they were known as the "nine cities of IIi" in the Qing Dynasty. In 1871 Tsarist Russia sent a strong army to invade iii , and these frontier towns were ravaged by Russian troops who destroyed the city of Huiyuan. Later the Qing government built a new city north of the ruins of the old city, constructing it according to the layout and scale of the former city. At the center of new Huiyuan stands a magnificent bell-arid-drum tower, a three-story building built in traditional Chinese style with curving eaves, a pavilion-like roof, painted pillars and carved beams. Recently repaired by the local Cultural Relics Management Department, the tower is a symbol of national heroism against foreign invasion. From the top , the visitor gets a bird's-eye view of the natural beauty of the iii River valley below.