Emperor Ming himself thought highly of him, and appointed him to be a clerk in the orchid terrace, but Ban Chao was too ambitious to be satisfied with a position like that, and was dismissed later.

He distinguished himself in command against a Xiongnu detachment, and was appointed by Dou Gu to accompany Officer Guo Xun on a preliminary embassy to the remote western regions.

Ban Chao, like his predecessors Huo Qubing and Wei Qing from the Former Han dynasty before him, was effective at expelling the Xiongnu from the Tarim Basin, and brought the various people of the Western Regions under Chinese rule during the second half of the 1st century CE, helping to open and secure the trade routes to the west.

"[2] Ban Chao was recalled to Luoyang, but then sent again to the Western Region area four years later, during the reign of the new emperor Han Zhang Di.

He obtained the military help of the Kushan Empire in 84 in repelling the Kangju who were trying to support the rebellion of the king of Kashgar, and the next year in his attack on Turpan, in the eastern Tarim Basin.

[3] In 91 CE, Ban Chao finally succeeded in pacifying the Western Regions and was awarded the title of Protector General and stationed at Qiuci (Kucha).

[4] A Wuji Colonel was re-established and, commanding five hundred soldiers, stationed in the Kingdom of Nearer Jushi, within the walls of Gaochang, 29 kilometres southeast of Turfan.

[4] In 97 CE, Ban Chao sent an envoy, Gan Ying, who reached the Persian Gulf or the Black Sea and left the first recorded Chinese account of Europe.

[7] Following his death, the power of the Xiongnu in the Western Territories increased again, and subsequent Chinese emperors did not reach so far to the west again until the Tang dynasty.