The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A silver coin with Khitan inscriptions found at the Shangjing site of the Liao Dynasty in Chifeng, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Archaeological excavations unearth the political, cultural and economic nerve center of the Liao Dynasty, offering an unprecedented insight into the lives of the nomadic Khitan people, Wang Kaihao reports in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Shangjing city of the Liao Dynasty sprawled for five square kilometers in Baarin Left Banner, a county-level administrative division of Chifeng in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, about 600 kilometers northeast of Beijing. "The city was not just the political, cultural and economic center of the Liao Dynasty, but also the first-ever capital built by nomads on the grassland of North China," Dong tells China Daily.

Inner Mongolia Khitan Chifeng  capital  dynasty  liao  inner  cultural  city  chifeng  china  khitan  grassland

History of this topic

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A silver coin with Khitan inscriptions found at the Shangjing site of the Liao Dynasty in Chifeng, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Archaeological excavations unearth the political, cultural and economic nerve center of the Liao Dynasty, offering an unprecedented insight into the lives of the nomadic Khitan people, Wang Kaihao reports in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Shangjing city of the Liao …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A silver coin with Khitan inscriptions found at the Shangjing site of the Liao Dynasty in Chifeng, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Archaeological excavations unearth the political, cultural and economic nerve center of the Liao Dynasty, offering an unprecedented insight into the lives of the nomadic Khitan people, Wang Kaihao reports in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Shangjing city of the Liao …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A decorative dragon head found at the site. In the years that followed, he covered every hill and knoll in the region, went to Yelyu Abaoji's mausoleum and where the Khitan leader's ancestors rested, and studied in detail the early history of the Liao Dynasty. Dong's persistence helped his team piece together the scattered and deeply buried puzzles, particularly after …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A silver coin with Khitan inscriptions found at the Shangjing site of the Liao Dynasty in Chifeng, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Archaeological excavations unearth the political, cultural and economic nerve center of the Liao Dynasty, offering an unprecedented insight into the lives of the nomadic Khitan people, Wang Kaihao reports in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Shangjing city of the Liao …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

An aerial view of the site. It has been the best-preserved Liao-Jin temple ruins unearthed in archaeological researches so far," Dong says. According to the expert, Buddhism developed fast under the Liao rule owing to upper class patronage, and the dynasty then became a key contributor to spreading the religion in East Asia. In recent years, approaches of natural sciences …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A group of hexagonal pagoda bases unearthed. "On the one hand, the Liao Dynasty emperors followed the principle to govern different people based on their customs," Dong says. In old narratives, the Liao Dynasty was often portrayed as having tense relations with the Northern Song Dynasty, which ruled most parts of present-day Central, East and South China, but discoveries in …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A Liao pagoda near the Shangjing site. As historical documentation indicates that Yelyu Abaoji once ordered the building of Taoist and Confucius temples in this area, archaeologists expect to find more physical evidence showing how the Khitan ruler introduced the culture of the Central China Plains in his governing system. Wang Ying, an archaeologist who has followed Dong to work …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A silver coin with Khitan inscriptions found at the Shangjing site of the Liao Dynasty in Chifeng, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Archaeological excavations unearth the political, cultural and economic nerve center of the Liao Dynasty, offering an unprecedented insight into the lives of the nomadic Khitan people, Wang Kaihao reports in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Shangjing city of the Liao …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A stone relief depicting a flying Apsara from a pagoda near the site. In 2021, the Shangjing site was included in the list of the Top 100 Archaeological Findings in the Last 100 Years, which was revealed by the National Cultural Heritage Administration to honor the centennial of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology. An emperor's legacy Shortly after founding …

The grassland capital
2 years, 4 months ago

The grassland capital

China Daily  

A silver coin with Khitan inscriptions found at the Shangjing site of the Liao Dynasty in Chifeng, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Archaeological excavations unearth the political, cultural and economic nerve center of the Liao Dynasty, offering an unprecedented insight into the lives of the nomadic Khitan people, Wang Kaihao reports in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Shangjing city of the Liao …

Discover Related