At the end of 19th century, the news that there were ancient manuscripts and treasures buried in the desert of Tarim Basin was spread to the British India across the Pamirs. And the news stimulated A. Stein who was a junior clerk there.And it was the time when Sven Hedin's great work "Through Asia" had been just published, which helped Stein to make up his mind that he should follow what Hedin did to go to Xinjiang and he should do better than the former. And the book also offered him a guiding map for him to go into Taklamakhan Desert.

In the year of 1900, A. Stein was permitted a year's leave and he granted himself to start with his first Central Asia exploration. After necessary preparations,he went into the desert almost copying Hedin's footprints. But he was lucky that he did not encounter what caused great difficulties, he reached the first place Dandan-Ulik. Before him Heding came here but did not do much excavation.So Stein was the first foreign explorer who did a good excavation in the rains.He unearthed many manuscripts, ancient coins and pottery wares. And in a ruin of a temple dathing back to the time of Tang Dynasty, he unearthed some valuable wooden tablet paintings, with stories of "the King of Mouse", "the Princess Introducing Sericulture Technology","Dragon Daughter Marrying". And what surprised people is that the contents of the paintings were what Xuan Zang's book recorded. The discovery from Dandan-Ulik paved the way for Stein to rediscover the ancient Buddhist Kingdom of Yutian and made him famous.