About 200 km through the gorge of the Bejang lies Turfan, the old regional capital. Seen by Xuanzang (or Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese monk who came to India in the court of Harshavardhana) only on his way back from India, it didn't exist 15 years earlier on his way out to India. The capital had moved out of Gaochang, a mud city fortress built by an invading Han army to recuperate from some long-forgotten epidemic.
