Suyab was a Silk Road city, and it lies in a field. About nine kilometres from the town of Tokmok, in the wide Chu Valley of northern Kyrgyzstan, the low mounds of Ak-Beshim mark the remains of a Sogdian trading town that was later a capital of the Western Turkic Khaganate and a Tang-dynasty frontier outpost. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang passed through in 629 and described a bustling place with merchants from many lands, and a local tradition even holds that the poet Li Bai was born here, though historians argue about it.
The site is quiet now. You can see the outline of walls, the foundations of a Buddhist temple and a Nestorian Christian church, which tells you how mixed the town's population was, and archaeologists have found Chinese coins, Sogdian inscriptions and Buddhist statues. It belongs to the UNESCO listing of the Silk Roads' Chang'an to Tianshan corridor, together with the nearby Burana Tower, the remains of a tall eleventh-century minaret from the city of Balasagun, which you can climb for a view over the valley.
The ride from Bishkek is easy by Kyrgyz standards. The main road east along the Chu Valley is paved and often busy, running along a plain of farmland, with the high Kyrgyz Ala-Too range standing white along the southern horizon. Trucks, minibuses and the occasional horse cart share the road, and the road surface is variable, with patches of damage. The approach to the sites is by smaller roads through villages and fields, where dogs and livestock are the main hazards.
Tokmok has about sixty-three thousand people and is the sensible place to buy fuel, water and snacks, since there is nothing at the ruins themselves. Summer is hot and dusty, spring and autumn are milder, and winter brings cold winds. The wind on the open plain can be strong, so a light jacket is useful. Allow time to walk across the mounds, imagine the camel caravans, and take a few photographs of the mountains behind.