Charchan

Hsüan-tsang, following the same route more than a century later, mentions in a position exactly corresponding to Charchan “the old kingdom of Chê-mo-tʻo-na which is the territory of Chü-mo.” He saw there the walls of an old town still standing, but there were no longer any inhabitants. Yet when Chinese rule had been re-established soon after his passage, Charchan or Chü-mo figures once more in the Tʻang dynasty’s Annals as a place duly garrisoned. In Marco Polo’s description of the ‘Province of Charchan,’ fully verified on other points, we read of “numerous towns and villages, and the chief city of the Kingdom bears its name, Charchan.”

1912, Aurel Stein, Ruins of Desert Cathay Personal Narrative of Exploration in Central Asia and Westernmost China, page 323

These buses stop at the oasis towns of Keriya (Yutian; 177km/110 miles; 3 hr.; ¥25), Niya (Minfeng; 294km/182 miles; 5 hr.; ¥55), and Charchan (Qiemo; 603km/374 miles; 8-10 hr.; ¥105-¥147).

2012, Frommer's China (Frommer's), 5th edition, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., page 329