Āndìng

Anding lay south of Shazhou in the wide country beyond Jiayuguan, where people lived in felt tents and moved with their herds rather than within walled towns. In 1375 the Ming established Anding Garrison among the groups known as the Sali Uyghurs, recognising their leader as Prince of Anding. Its people and leaders maintained relations with the court while contending with neighbouring powers. Attacks and the dispersal of its population eventually weakened the garrison, whose surviving people moved eastward in the early sixteenth century.