Ruins of Jingning City

Ruins of Jingning City

The ruins of Jingning City are a cultural tourism attraction.

Ruins of Jingning City

In the 41st year of the Qianlong reign (1776), the Qing government changed Qitai Fort into the county seat of Qitai County and replaced the grain administration official with a county magistrate. After the establishment of Qitai County, over ten thousand people were mobilized to begin constructing Jingning City. Jingning City was an expansion built upon the foundation of Qitai Fort. The *Brief Records of Three Prefectures* states: “Jingning City was an extension of the old fort, with a circumference of two li and seven fen, a height of fifteen chi, and four city gates.”

From the establishment of the county until the 50th year of the Qianlong reign (1786), the population inside and outside the county town continued to grow. Zhao Juntong, an exiled scholar of the Qing Dynasty, recorded in his *Diary of the Western Journey*: “The population inside and outside the city amounts to more than a thousand households—it is truly a major town.” In the 23rd year of the Daoguang reign, Lin Zexu, exiled to Ili, passed through Old Qitai and wrote in *Records of My Journey with a Weapon*: “On the sixth day of the tenth month in the year of Renyin, at mid-morning, we traveled another forty li to reach Qitai County Town and stayed outside the South Gate. There was considerable trade, and the fields stretched as far as the eye could see.” Another exiled scholar, Yang Bingkun, described Jingning City as he passed by: “From afar, the city walls rose unevenly, pavilions and terraces stood tall, the green fields billowed like clouds, and the fertile plains stretched far and wide—truly a land of abundance.”

It is recorded that during the Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng reigns, the population of Qitai County increased to over 7,000 households. At that time, Qitai County could be considered a major city in northern Xinjiang. In those days, the entire land of Old Qitai was described as “hamlets visible in every direction, households worthy of enfeoffment, fields crisscrossed with paths, surplus grain stored in the fields—truly one of the most prosperous regions.”

However, the flourishing period of Jingning City lasted less than 100 years. The turmoil of the Taiping Rebellion spread to Old Qitai. The wounds inflicted upon Jingning City from repeated conflicts can well be imagined. In the third year of the Tongzhi reign, over a thousand official residences and civilian houses inside and outside the city were burned down. Jingning City became a desolate ruin, and this key stronghold in northern Xinjiang gradually declined from then on.

In the fifth year of the Guangxu reign (1879), Magistrate Liu Jiade organized the local people to carry out minor repairs on Jingning City, after which he took office in the yamen. In the 15th year of the Guangxu reign (1889), the county seat of Qitai County was moved from Jingning City to Old Qitai. The Qing government appointed a patrol inspector to govern Jingning City, where only “a post station, a post office, forty merchant households, and ten Hui Muslim households” remained. From then on, Jingning City gradually declined into a small market town. Today, over 200 years later, only broken walls and ruins remain of Jingning City. This historical site has become a dreamlike memory of the past for the people of Old Qitai. What it leaves behind for people today is a sense of reverence and reflection.