[2] Chengguan has a 600-year[citation needed] history as a frontier trading post between the Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan cultural spheres.

It was walled and became an important border town and trading post on the route between China proper and Tibet.

[12] Caravans from Lhasa brought Buddhist books, woolen cloth of various colors and qualities, incense sticks, disks of chank-shells and amber for ornaments, furs, the best quality saffron ("K'a ch'é shakama") from Kashmir, cowries, dried dates, and brown sugar from India, and a few other items.

The exports contain goods of much higher value, including mules and horses, satin, silks and gold brocades, and chinaware.

[14] At the time, the other Chinese and Tibetans in the town numbered less than 10,000 themselves and were protected by only a nominal force of 200 men under a "colonel".