Autumn Tour in Xinjiang (Seventy-three) 'Sugong Pagoda'

'Sugong Pagoda'—located in Munar Village, Grape Township, on the eastern outskirts of Turpan City, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, right across from the 'Turpan Prefectural Prince's Residence', was built in the 43rd year of the Qianlong era (which is 1778), and has a history of over 240 years. It was constructed by the famous Qing Dynasty general Emin Khoja in his later years to express his loyalty to the Qing Dynasty, to gratefully report the grace bestowed by the Qing Dynasty, and to ensure that his lifelong achievements in maintaining the unity of the motherland would be remembered for eternity, with 7,000 taels of silver raised by himself, Sugong Pagoda is made entirely of grey bricks, with the surface of the tower body stacked with over a dozen different shapes of geometric patterns, which are cyclically repetitive and endlessly variable, and the interior of the main hall is spacious and grand... Sugong Pagoda is the most representative building of Turpan, the largest ancient pagoda existing in Xinjiang, the tallest and most magnificent pagoda in national Islamic mosques, and a national key cultural relics protection unit...