A new society for the study of Loulan, the city known as "China's Pompeii in the desert," has been formed in Korla of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Pompeii is the Italian town that was buried under volcanic ash nearly 2,000 years ago. Loulan, with a history of about 2,000 years, is the site of the ruins of the ancient Kingdom of Kroraina. It was discovered by a Swedish archeologist in 1900.

Situated on the eastern tip of the Taklamakan Desert in southern Xinjiang, Loulan was a booming city at the juncture of the southern and northern routes of the ancient Silk Road some 2,000 years ago.

Studies of Loulan have grown in popularity because it holds an important position in the cultural exchange between the East and the West and for the vast number of cultural relics found there, said Mu Shuying, a research fellow with the Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute of Xinjiang.
The new society, unveiled on July 8, is modeled on a similar research association based in Bazhou, also in Xinjiang.

He Dexiu, secretary-general with the newly established Xinjiang Loulan Research Society, said the new society would specialize in studies of some 20 aspects of Xinjiang's Lop Nur Lake area, ranging from politics, economics, military affairs and language to agriculture, transportation and ecology.

(People's Daily July 21, 2003)