The Chinese Emperor Wu Of Han 's imperial envoy Zhang Qian passed through the kingdom circa 130 BC, bringing the first reliable news of Central Asia to the Chinese court. In 77 BC the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi stabbed Loulan's King Chang Gui to death. In 77 BC the kingdom became a Chinese puppet state, and the Chinese moved the capital south-west and away from Loulan.
The Chinese pilgrim monk, Faxian , stayed about a month in Shanshan after a 17 day journey from Dunhuang in 399 AD . He described the country as "rugged and hilly, with a thin and barren soil. The clothes of the common people are coarse, and like those worn in our land of Han , some wearing felt and others coarse serge or hair.... The king professed (our) Law, and there might be in the country more than four thousand monks, who were all students of the Hinayāna .... (The monks)...were all students of Indian books and the Indian language ( Sanskrit )."
The capital was near modern Charklik , between Dunhuang and Khotan , on the " Southern Route " of the Han histories. The town of Loulan , at the northwestern corner of the salt lake known as Lop Nor , and became an important staging point for Caravan s travelling from Dunhuang to Kucha on the "Central Route".
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