Tongwancheng ( zh, t=統萬城, w=Tʻung-wan-chʻêng, p=Tǒngwànchéng) was the capital of the Xiongnu-led Hu Xia dynasty in northern China during the

Sixteen Kingdoms The Sixteen Kingdoms (), less commonly the Sixteen States, was a chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when northern China fragmented into a series of short-lived dynastic states. The majority of these states were founded by ...

period in the early 5th century. The city is at the southern edge of the Maowusu Sands of the

Ordos Desert The Ordos Desert () is a desert/steppe region in Northwest China, administrated under the prefecture of Ordos City in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (centered ca. ). It extends over an area of approximately , and comprises two sub-de ...

, on what was formerly a strategic site in the center of the Ordos Plateau. Tongwancheng, which means the "city ruling ten thousand", is the largest urban center of the

Southern Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomads, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, ...

that has ever been found. The city's ruins are well preserved and located in

Jingbian County Jingbian County () is a county under the administration of Yulin City, in the northwest of Shaanxi Province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the north and northwest and flanked in the north by the Mu Us Desert. It has a land area of , and ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ning ...

Province, near the border with

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for ...

. The city has been surveyed and has had some elements restored, but not yet fully excavated. The city was built by around 100,000 Xiongnu of the Hu Xia dynasty under the command of

Helian Bobo Helian Bobo (; Middle Chinese Guangyun: ; 381–425), né Liu Bobo (劉勃勃), courtesy name Qujie (屈孑), formally Emperor Wulie of Xia (夏武烈帝), was the founding emperor of the Xiongnu-led Hu Xia dynasty of China. He is generally co ...

(Emperor Wulie) in 419. Helian Bobo, also known by his

sinified Sinicization, sinofication, sinification, or sinonization (from the prefix , 'Chinese, relating to China') is the process by which non-Chinese societies come under the influence of Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, cu ...

surname as Liu Bobo, was a descendant of the Xiongnu ''

chanyu Chanyu () or Shanyu (), short for Chengli Gutu Chanyu (), was the title used by the supreme rulers of Inner Asian nomads for eight centuries until superseded by the title "''Khagan''" in 402 CE. The title was most famously used by the ruling ...

'' who founded their

steppe empire Nomadic empires, sometimes also called steppe empires, Central or Inner Asian empires, were the empires erected by the bow-wielding, horse-riding, nomadic people in the Eurasian Steppe, from classical antiquity (Scythia) to the early modern era ...

in the 3rd century BC. Helian Bobo died in 425 AD, and his son

Helian Chang Helian Chang (; died 434), courtesy name Huanguo (還國), nickname Zhe (折), was an emperor of the Hu Xia dynasty of China. He was the successor and a son of the founding emperor Helian Bobo (Emperor Wulie). After his father's death in 425, he ...

succeeded him as emperor of the city. Helian Bobo had intended that the city be absolutely impenetrable, so he commissioned his cruel general Chigan Ali (叱干阿利) as the architect and set extremely strict rules for construction. Chigan ordered that the soil used in constructing the wall be steamed, so that it would be hardened and difficult to attack, and he often tested the walls during its construction; if an iron wedge were able to insert even one inch deep into the wall, the workmen who were in charge of that section of wall would be executed. The

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...

was built to contain the Xiongnu threat, and Tongwancheng was the main Xiongnu capital that stood on other side of that wall. The city was largely of wood construction and had very thick outer walls which were colored white with white clay earth and powdered rice. From a distance the white city was said to have had the appearance of a giant ship. At its center the city had a lake. The ''

Book of Jin The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang X ...

'' gives us a contemporary eyewitness description of the city: :"The hill is beautiful, in front of it the plain is wide, and around this there is a lake of pure water. I have wandered in many places, but I have not seen a land whose beauty can compare with that of this place". Central Asians from T'ung-wan City

At its height the population was around 10,000, likely to have been greatly supplemented by an encircling encampment of nomadic kin groups at certain times of the year. White cities were generally ceremonial and status centers built following conquest, rather than outright military positions, white being a holy color for the Xiongnu. Yet the thickness of the walls was certainly required since the city was originally built at a time of perpetual warfare. Both internal and external threats existed - for instance, Helian Bobo was attacked with an army by his deputy Helian Gui in 424 following a dynastic dispute. In 426, the

Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei ((北)魏太武帝, 408 – 11 March 452), personal name Tuoba Tao (拓拔燾), Xianbei name Büri(佛貍),佛貍 should actually be pronounced Büri, and meant "wolf" in the Xianbei language, 罗新：《北魏太武 ...

made a surprise attack on Tongwancheng. Although a brief incursion into the city succeeded only in burning the main temple, the surrounding hinterland was devastated. The city's site was on the fertile upper reaches of the

Wuding River The Wuding River (Chinese: 无定河) begins in the Ordos Desert in Shaanxi Province, Inner Mongolia and flows south into loess canyons and farmland. After around 100 miles it flows into the great Yellow River. The Wuding has its own tributarie ...

, but the river and lake died up, possibly due to deforestation that might be traced back to Taiwu's devastation. The city was then gradually buried by the sands of the desert. This 'wandering' (Wuding) gave the river its current name. The Xiongnu continued to live in the region until the 7th or 8th century. In 786 the city was besieged by

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

an forces, and it was invaded by Jurchen soldiers in 1206. There is no record of the site in Chinese records after the early 15th century. The city was only properly surveyed by the Chinese in the 2000s. The city's Yong'an Platform, a military forces inspection platform for dignitaries, has been restored. The city is also referred to in the literature variously as Tong Wan Cheng, Tongwan-cheng, Tongwan, Xia Zhou, Baichengzi (), or Bai Cheng ().

Further reading