Horses had a very big role to play in ancient society as they were essential for transport, hunting and fighting wars, and their meat could also be food for humans, therefore, they were the second life to the ancient people in the Western Regions. On a rock at Kangjiashimenzi in Hutubi carved nine galloping horses, which testify to the profound affection of nomadic people towards horses.
There are an extraordinarily big number of cliff paintings with the sun and the moon as the subject in Xinjiang. Peoples in the Western Regions, from the Saks to the Huns, Usun, Cheshi, Rouran and Turks, all featured with solar worship in their primitive faiths. A prominent characteristic of the sun-and-moon cliff paintings in Xinjiang is the supreme status of the sun. For instance, the cliff paintings at Xingdi, Kuluke Mountains have a god of sun carved on the top, with its head covered by hair-like things, making this image both personified and god-like. It stands high above anything else, representing it is god of all.
There are hunting scenes in the cliff paintings, which suggest the mode of living and working of the ancient people in the Western Regions and provide us clues for ascertaining the times of the paintings. For example, the cliff paintings in Wensu County depicting hunting with stone balls as weapons tell us they are products of late Neolithic Age, those at Hongshiyue Township, Nilka County
with bows and arrows similar to modern ones as hunting tools should be of the Iron Age. From the cliff paintings we find that the ancient people in the Western Regions sometimes hunted separately, sometimes in duo or in collective chasing. The one on Chasing Wild Bulls in the Xingdi Gorges is among the best cliff paintings on primitive hunting scenes.
There are four pieces of cart paintings at Lanzhou-wanzi and one such painting at Lijia-wanzi in Barkol, Xinjiang. These carts have two wheels, four spokes guia hispana y viajes organizados china and ox in the front. According to experts, such vehicle was probably the Hun style, which suggests the presence of the Hun culture in the cliff paintings in Xinjiang. In another development, the vehicles depicted in the paintings in Yiwu and Yumin counties were possibly the “high-wheel vehicle” of the Dingling people. All of those point to the wide use of vehicles in the nomadic life of the ancient people in the Western Regions.
There are also paintings of warring scene over the control of grassland in Xinjiang. For example, on the rock at Zheyaogou in Qincheng District, northeast of Hami City carved a man on horseback stabbing with his spear a pedestrian archer, a scene of battling for grassland. It was amidst blood-shedding and battlefire that people in the Western Regions developed and prospered, conducted inter-group cultural exchanges and forged their militant and courageous national character.