Loulan or Kroran, known to Russian archaeologists as Krorayina, is a kingdom along the Silk Road based around an important oasis city already known in the 2nd century BCE on the north-eastern edge of the Lop Desert.

In 108 BCE, the Han Dynasty forces defeats the armies of the Loulan kingdom and makes it into a puppet/allied state.

In 77 BCE, according to the History of the Former Han Dynasty, the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi assassinates Loulan's king, Chang Gui.

The kingdom then comes under the control of the Han empire and is given the Chinese name of Shanshan, though the town at the northwestern corner of the brackish desert lake Lop Nur retains the name of Loulan.

The ruins of the town of Loulan are on what were the western banks of Lop Nur, now desiccated, in the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang.

The site is now completely surrounded by desert