From as early as 103 BC up until the 8th century, the Balkhash polity surrounding the lake, whose Chinese name was 夷播海, was known to the Chinese as 布谷/布庫/布蘇 Pu-K'u. From the 8th century on, the land to the south of the lake, between it and the Tian Shan mountains, was known in Turkic as Jetisu Seven Rivers (Semirechye in Russian). It was a land where the nomadic Turks and Mongols of the steppe mingled cultures with the settled peoples of Central Asia.