Archaeology reveals a city of many faiths

More than 1,000 years ago, Tang Dynasty (618-907) Buddhist monk Xuanzang traveled through what is now the Chu River Basin in Central Asia. In The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, he described a land where merchants from many countries gathered, grapes grew, trees were sparse, and the climate was cold and windy. He noted that local people dressed in felt and coarse linen.

Today, archaeology is shedding new light on this historic region. Since 2018, the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology has worked with the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic to investigate the Krasnaya Rechka site in Kyrgyzstan.

Located in the Chuy Valley in the eastern part of the Chu River Basin, the site lies along a key corridor of the ancient Silk Road that linked China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with West Asia. Scholars widely identify it as Navekat, an ancient city mentioned in Sogdian and Muslim literature and referred to in Tang Dynasty records as Xincheng, meaning "New City". Founded by Sogdian people in the 6th century, the city was abandoned in the early 13th century.

In 2014, the site was included in the UNESCO World Heritage property Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor.

Shao Jing, deputy director of the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology, says the Chuy Valley was historically significant. Suyab, the ancient city where Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai may have been born, and Xincheng both feature prominently in historical Chinese records. They are associated with the valley and its surrounding region. This historical importance helped make Krasnaya Rechka a focus of archaeological research.