Huiyuan, Xinjiang

Once part of the Dzungar Khanate, this area was annexed by the Manchus in the 1750s. The Old Huiyuan fort was built in 1764 during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor after the Revolt of the Altishahr Khojas. It acted as the center of Manchu military power and civilian administration in Xinjiang. The main fortress of the "Nine Forts" of Ili (see Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture#Qing dynasty for the history of the region), Huiyuan was the seat of the Governor-general of the region, the General of Ili[1] The fort was located less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north the Ili river in the modern Laocheng Village (老城村) in the south of the modern Huiyuan.

Huiyuan suffered severe damage during the Muslim Rebellion of the 1860s. Besieged in his palace, the then General of Ili, Mingsioi, blew himself up rather than surrender to the rebels. The fort was completely destroyed during the Russian occupation that followed in 1871-81.

The Russians left pursuant to the 1881 Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881), and in 1882 the military-administrative center moved to Suiding (now known as Shuiding), some 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of the river, while a new Huiyuan fortress and the adjunct military-administrative town were rebuilt near the center of modern Huiyuan about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of the river. The headquarter of the General of Ili moved back to the new Huiyuan fort in 1894 after the construction completed.

While the city of Yining (originally known as Níngyuǎn Chéng, 宁远城) has remained the commercial center of the region, the 19th century Huiyuan, like its successor Suiding, was mostly a fortress and an administrative town. Huiyuan was known to the Russians and Westerners as the New Kuldja, Chinese Kuldja, Manchu Kuldja, or Ili, to distinguish it from Yining (the Old Kuldja or the Taranchi Kuldja).