The Huns waged war and migrated continuously across Northeast and Northwest China from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. Their activities came to seriously threaten not only the traffic along the Silk Road but even the very security of the feudal dynasties with their power bases located deep within the Central Plains.

After unifying the country, Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, deployed imperial troops in pursuit of the Huns and finally built the formidable protective screen of the Great Wall. The years that followed were to bring increasing exchanges with dynasties in the Central Plains and some Huns began to assimilate among the Han people. Others migrated to Central Asia and on to Europe. By the 6th century the Huns had gradually disappeared as a separate people as they merged with other peoples.

Although the Huns may have disappeared as a people, Tongwan City, which the Huns built in 6 years, was seen as an important political, economic, and military center in the next five centuries. At present its sites still standing in the desert showing Hun people's proud history.

Historical documents show the city was established at a place where there was adequate freshwater at the edge of a desert. The rise and fall of Tongwan City, lying where agriculture and animal husbandry overlapped, vividly record how human activities adversely affected the fragile ecological environment.

Author:Ivana

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