The grassland capital

Ongoing excavation in the southwest of the Shangjing site may unveil more clues to show such cultural links. As historical documentation indicates that Yelyu Abaoji once ordered the building of Taoist and Confucius temples in this area, archaeologists expect to find more physical evidence showing how the Khitan ruler introduced the culture of the Central China Plains in his governing system.

Wang Ying, an archaeologist who has followed Dong to work on Shangjing in the past decade, says some architectural foundations from the Jin Dynasty have been unearthed in the region since June.

More significant Liao-era relics may lie beneath, but Wang prefers to work scrupulously on current findings, rather than hastily dig deeper. "The work has to be cautious," she says. "We expect to solve as many puzzles as we can within relatively small excavated areas."

The communication network of Liao went far beyond Northern Song, archaeologists believe. "The Shangjing city was a key node on the ancient Silk Road across the grassland. The network reached West and Central Asia, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Khitan people made great contributions to the cultural communication between China and the rest of the world," Dong says.

That explains why "Khitan" is still used in some Slavic languages, including Russian, to refer to China even today.