Lukchun

Lukchun is an old oasis settlement in the eastern Turpan Basin, watered by streams descending from the Tian Shan. It occupies the country once known as Liuzhong under the Tang and Liucheng in later Chinese records. Its fields and gardens lie amid the arid basin, on a route between Turpan and Hami.

In the early eighteenth century the Muslim leader Emin Khoja held Lukchun amid the struggle between the Qing and the Dzungars. He defended the town against Dzungar attack before leading his followers east under Qing protection. In 1756 he returned to Lukchun, where his family held hereditary authority under the Qing. The town thus became a seat of local rule as the empire established its power across the region.