Atlas of China
Tacheng 塔城Tǎchéng
A frontier trading town, spring flowers and the birthplace of big plate chicken
About Tacheng
Tacheng, known under the Qing as Tarbagatai, is a farming and herding prefecture on the Kazakhstan border, and its capital grew on trade with Russia: the iron-red trading house of 1914 known as the Red Building and two Uzbek-built minarets still stand in the centre. In spring, wild flowers cover the Barluk Mountains near Yumin, while the forested valleys of Lujiaowan and Foshan rise in the Tian Shan south of Shawan and Wusu. Shawan is where big plate chicken was first made.
What to eat in Tacheng
- Shawan big plate chicken (沙湾大盘鸡)
Listed sites in Tacheng
7 sites in Tacheng are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Emin Wild Fruit Forest 野果林 4A scenic area · on the map
A mountain scenic area in the Wuerkaxiaer Mountains about 30 km south-east of Emin, where rock outcrops, woodland and waterfalls fill the valleys and the slopes flower in spring and summer. - Lujiaowan (Antler Bay) 鹿角湾 4A scenic area · on the map
A mountain scenic area of more than 19,000 ha on the north slope of the Tianshan south-west of Shawan, made up of Big and Little Lujiaowan between the Bayingou River on the west and the Danangou valley on the east. - Songhai Bay 松海湾 4A scenic area · on the map
A forested valley on the south slope of the Saier Mountains, also called the Haergatu White Pine Forest Park and known locally as Songshugou ('pine valley'), through which highway G219 climbs at around 1,800 m. - Wusu Foshan National Forest Park 佛山国家森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A national forest park of 39,000 ha in the Tianshan south of Wusu, made up of the Daifuseng, Bayingou and Wulansadeke areas of mountain forest, grassy slopes and river valleys. - Dorben Oirat Ancient City Ruins 道尔本厄鲁特森木古城遗址 National heritage site · on the map
The earthen ruins of a walled town built in the 1640s by the Dzungar Oirats, whose Mongolian name means 'temple of the Four Oirats', and which served for a time as a political, economic and religious centre of the Dzungars. - Hanaka and Seyitqamal Mosque Minarets 哈纳喀及赛提喀玛勒清真寺宣礼塔 National heritage site · on the map
Two red-brick minarets in Shuangta (Twin Towers) Park in central Tacheng, the surviving parts of the Seyitqamal mosque, founded in 1885 by the Uzbek mullah Seyitqamal, and the Hanaka mosque, built from 1910 by Uzbek Muslims, whose minaret was begun in 1928. - Tacheng Red Building 塔城红楼 National heritage site · on the map
A Russian-style brick trading house in central Tacheng, built from 1910 and completed in 1914 as the business centre of the Jixiangyong firm of a Tatar merchant from Russia, and named for the iron-red paint of its street walls.
On the map
Open Tacheng on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Tacheng on the map