Tekes Bagua City

Tekes Bagua City

Tekes Bagua City is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

Tekes Bagua City is truly unique, home to the world’s only well-preserved ancient Bagua (Eight Trigrams) city, the largest and most intact cluster of ancient Wusun tombs, and the former summer capital of the Wusun Kingdom. It was here that Princess Jieyou of the Han Dynasty pioneered the construction of grand palatial architecture in the Wusun Kingdom. The area also features grassland stone figures, ancient Saka tombs, historic rock paintings, wind-eroded rock caves, and distinctive vertical climate zones and landscapes — "four seasons on one mountain, different skies within ten miles." The grand canyon combines majesty, danger, wonder, and serenity, as praised in poetry: "If you ask where paradise lies, the shepherd boy points to Bagua City."

Upon entering the county town, you’ll see a sculpture called the City Symbol, inlaid with two black-and-white orbs representing the yin and yang eyes of the Taiji symbol. It is surrounded by granite engraved with eight different trigrams. The outer perimeter of the symbol consists of 64 iron pillars, symbolizing the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching. At the heart of the city stands the over 50-meter-high Bagua Sightseeing Tower. According to accounts, the tower was originally built in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution. At that time, its four sides were inscribed with quotes from Chairman Mao and it was known as the Quotations Tower. However, it was only 22.5 meters tall then, with a three-story, eight-sided brick-and-concrete structure. After seismic reinforcement and renovation in 1993, it was renamed the Sightseeing Tower. Since then, it has become the best spot to view the panoramic scenery of Bagua City.

The Bagua City centers around the main Bagua Cultural Square as the Taiji’s “yin and yang” poles, with eight main streets radiating outward at equal distances and angles according to the Bagua directions. Each main street is 1,200 meters long, and every approximately 360 meters, a ring road connects the eight main streets. There are four ring roads in total, extending outward from the center. The first ring road encircles the central Bagua Cultural Square, with shops and public service facilities lining its outer edge, their buildings connected end to end. The second ring road is mainly lined with party and government offices, enterprises, and institutions, featuring lower building density with small structures shaded by greenery. Between the third and fourth ring roads and the surrounding areas are urban residential communities, mostly consisting of single-family courtyards, with large areas of orchards preserved among them. Specifically, the first ring has eight streets, the second has sixteen, the third has thirty-two, and the fourth has sixty-four. These streets form sixty-four hexagrams according to the Bagua directions, fully reflecting the numerological principles of the 64 hexagrams and 386 lines of the I Ching. To help people avoid getting lost, each street has direction signs. The entire county town is laid out in a radial circular pattern, with streets and roads interconnected like a magical maze. The whole city is a uniquely shaped circular layout where all roads and streets connect seamlessly. It is the world’s only well-preserved, fully structured, and largest-scale Bagua city to date.

Tekes County in Xinjiang is famous for its Bagua layout. In 1996, the local authorities removed traffic lights from the roads, making Bagua City a city without any traffic signals. Legend has it that the earliest layout of Tekes Bagua City was designed by Qiu Chuji, one of the Seven True Taoists of the Southern Song Dynasty. When the Taoist master Qiu Chuji was invited by Genghis Khan to travel to the Western Regions, he was so impressed by the landscape of the Tekes River Valley that he designed this Bagua city. The city is laid out in a radial circular pattern, with streets arranged like a magical maze, where all roads and streets connect seamlessly. Meanwhile, Bagua City boasts rich folk customs, profound historical culture, and beautiful natural scenery. Some of the highlights of Tekes include: the world’s largest and most complete Bagua city; the world’s only place where Wusun culture and I Ching (Yi Culture) intertwine; China’s westernmost Bagua city and location of Yi Culture; the westernmost point of Taoist culture dissemination in China; the site of the ancient Wusun Kingdom, the largest nomadic kingdom in China’s Western Regions; the place with the largest number of existing Wusun tombs in China; the place recorded in ancient Chinese history with the most princesses married off to foreign lands; the place recorded as the first instance of a Chinese princess being married off in ancient history; the site of China’s largest ancient horse racing ground — “Han Grassland”; the place with the highest number of ancient nomadic “yurt headquarters” (command posts) in Chinese history; the place where the Han Dynasty had the longest-lasting and closest diplomatic ties through royal marriages with ancient nomadic kingdoms of the Western Regions; and the location of China’s only mountain named after the Wusun — Mount Wusun…

Perhaps no description of Tekes County Town can fully convince you, because the mystery of Tekes lies in its profound heritage of I Ching culture and Wusun culture.