Jiaohe Ancient Ruins is located 13 kilometers west of Turpan in the Yalnaz Valley, local people call it "Yalhetu", we can reach there from the city center by car 15 minutes.
The earliest origin of the word Jiaohe is seen in Ban Gu's "Hanshu. Biography of the Western Regions" : the former state of Che Shi, the king of Jiaohe, a river stretch out from the extreme north of the city and then divided into two branches and flows down along the city side ,then the two rivers join together at the south of the city hence its name “jiaohe” Jiaohe City appearance of the earth cliff because of the river cut willow leaf shape, the terrain is high in the northwest, low in the southeast, the longest north and south 1650 meters central street divided the city into basically three parts, the widest east and west is 300 meters, because of the surrounding river valley, people feel that it is more like a stranded historical ship.
The total area of Jiaohe Ruins is about 430,000 square meters. It is the only building dug out of the earth in China, with a history of 1,500 years from the establishment of the Gushi kingdom to the destruction of the 13th century
