Ulan Us

Ulan Us lies west of the Manas River, along the northern foothills of the Tian Shan. Streams from the mountains cross the dry plain here, and the surrounding country became part of the Qing frontier after the conquest of Dzungaria. Qing records place gold workings at Ulan Usu and describe green jade in the mountains nearby. Soldiers and settlers also opened fields along the Manas River as irrigation expanded in the eighteenth century.