Reviving the glory of millennia-old posthouse ruins in Dunhuang

A view of the Site of Xuanquanzhi in Dunhuang city, Northwest China’s Gansu province, on July 30, 2023 On an overcast, windy morning in late July, standing in the arid Gobi Desert of Dunhuang city, Northwest China’s Gansu province, was a test in its own right; the air was dry and hot. “The cost and details of this reception were all recorded on jiandu, bamboo or wooden slips used for writing documents before paper was widely available, which were unearthed from the Site of Xuanquanzhi,” Rong Hongmei, public education director at the Dunhuang Museum, told the China Daily website. The jiandu unearthed from the Xuanquanzhi Ruins “Another high-profile itemized bill on jiandu unearthed from the site was about the post house receiving veteran diplomat Chang Hui in 65 BC when he was sent to visit Wusun Kingdom in what is now Xinjiang’s Yili Valley,” Rong added. A beautiful knot on Silk Road Between 121 BC and 111 BC, Emperor Wu set up four counties to the west of the Yellow River, Jiuquan, Wuwei, Zhangye and Dunhuang, in today’s Gansu province, to expand the influence of the Han central government and develop ties with countries in xiyu, which were west of the Yumen Pass in today’s Central Asia. “The Xuanquanzhi Ruins are so far China’s largest, best-preserved posthouse with the most unearthed cultural relics in the Han and Jin Dynasties,” said Zhang Defang, founding director of the Gansu Jiandu Museum, which houses more than 40,000 slips unearthed in the northwestern province.