In the 20th century, the town was also the site of a major Russian military base, built to help Russia protect its territories from China. Around 1000,000 troops were stationed there; they pulled out, with no warning, literally overnight in 1991. One kindergarten teacher reports arranging to go to a Russian friend's birthday party the following day; but when next morning she arrived at the house, it was deserted. The site where the barracks were is now a wasteland of rubble, with a very dilapitaded statue of Lenin gazing out over it all. If you rake around, you can find Russian army buttons, mugs, shoes .... However the site has been well and truly plundered for anything re-usable by local people. At the cemetery, the railings have gone, and the wooden grave markers have been taken for firewood, though the circles of stones marking the graves remain inviolate.