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 Qitai was established as a 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 perimeter 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 numbers well over a thousand households—it is indeed a major town.” In the 23rd year of the Daoguang reign, Lin Zexu, exiled to Ili, passed through Old Qitai and noted in his "Journal of the March with a Halberd": “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, staying outside the South Gate. Trade was quite bustling, and fields stretched as far as the eye could see.” Another exiled scholar, Yang Bingkun, described Jingning City when he passed by: “From afar, the city walls rise and fall, pavilions and towers stand tall, green fields spread like clouds, and fertile plains stretch wide—truly a land of abundance.”

　　It is recorded that during the Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng reigns, the population of Qitai County grew to over 7,000 households. At that time, Qitai County could be considered a major urban center in northern Xinjiang. Back then, the entire area of Old Qitai was described as “villages in sight of one another, households worthy of recognition, crisscrossing fields, surplus grain stored in the fields, truly one of the wealthiest regions.”

　　However, the flourishing period of Jingning City lasted less than 100 years. The turmoil of the Taiping Rebellion reached Old Qitai. The wounds inflicted on Jingning City, repeatedly struck by war, 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 important 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 to Jingning City, then 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 stationed a patrol inspector in Jingning City, and by then the town still had “a post station, a post office, forty merchant households, and ten Hui Muslim families.” From then on, Jingning City gradually declined into a small market town. Today, over 200 years later, only broken walls remain of Jingning City. This historical site has become a dreamlike memory of the past for the people of Old Qitai. What it leaves for us today is a sense of reverence and reflection.