HISTORY
Kashgar is a important hub on the Old Silk Road,a
vibrant Islamic centre within Chinese territory. It is the largest oasis
city in Chinese Central Asia and 90 per cent of its population of over
3,000,,000 are Uygur.Only in The city is populating 300,000. Kashgar's
importance derives from its stratehic position at the foot of the Pamir
Mountains, commanding access to the high glacial passes of the Silk
Road routes into Central Asia, India and Persia. The weary trade caravans
plodding west on the northern and southern routes met up at Kashgar,
the desert hazards and demons finally behind them. Merchants bound for
China thawed out after descending to Kashgar from the peaks of the Pamirs
or the Karakorams, and exchanged their stolid yaks and exhaused packhorses
for camles to convey their merchandese into Inner province of China.
Kashgar Has a history of more than 2'000 years. the
earlist reference appeared in Persian documents referring to an alliance
of Tushlan tribes, who founded their capital here. Kashgar was posibly
the first of the Buddhist kingdoms of the Tarim basin. In the second
century AD, Hinayana Buddhism flourished here and continued to do so
until the ninth or tenth century. During this period Indian and Persian
cultural influences were strong. Xuan Zang noted that the Kashgaris
had green eyes-perhaps a reference to Aryan origins-and that for their
writing they take their model from India....The disposition of the men
is fierce and impetuous, and they are mostly false adn deceitful. They
make light of decorum and politeness, and esteem learning but little.
In the first century AD, during the Han Dynasty,
China lost its power over the Tarim Basin. The great General Ban Chao
was dispatched to subdue the wild kingdoms of Silk Road that had aligned
themselves with the Xiongnu against the Chinese. He took the kingdoms
of Kashgar, Hetian and Loulan either by brute force or cunning strategy,
installed pro-Chinese rulers and reopened the southern Silk Road to
trade. Ban Chao remained in Chinese Central Asia for 31 years, crushing
rebellions and establishing diplomatic relations with more than 50 states
in the Western Regions. Accompanied by horsemen arrayed in bright red
leather,he himself went as far west as Merv and made contacts with Parthia,Babylonia
and Syria.
In the early seventh century,Kashgar recognized the
suzerainty of Tang China, which garrisoned the city. However, the Chinese
were soon forced to withdraw between 670and 694, when Tibet expanded
its territories throughout the southern oases of Tarim Basin.Between
the tenth and 12th centuries the Kharakhanid Khanate, a loose mondic
alliance of the Qarluq Turkic tribes, controlled the area between Bokhara
and Hetian from its capital in Kashgar. The Sunni Muslim, Satuq Bughra
Khan, was the first king of the Kharakhanid of Kashgar; he and his successors
carried on bloody jihads against the still-Buddhist kingdoms of yarkant
and Hotan. These battles, along with fierce Kharakhanid internecine
struggles, disrupted the caravan trade, and East-West trade was increasingly
forced to relay on the sea routes.
Following the death of Chaghatai, who inherited
the region from his father, Ghengis Khan,there followed numerous succession
wars. Only briefly during the mid-14th century, when Telug Timur had
his capital in Kashgar, was a degree of calm and stability restored,But
Tamerlane's armies were soon to lay waste to the Kingdom of Kashgaria.
In the 16th century,Kashgar came under the
ruler of a religious leader, or khoja, whose colleagues formed a powerful
clique in Bokhara and Samarkand. A theological split saw the formation
of two opposing sects, the Black and White Mountaineers,which began
a bloody see-sawing of power between Kashgar and Yarkant that ended
`only with Qing intervention two centuries later. The Khojas attempted
to return to power in Kashgar no fewer than six times,frequently backed
by the Khokand Khanate and aided by Kirgiz nomadic horsemen,bringing
fearful reprisals on the citizens. An unfortunate observer of the khojas'
last atempt in 1857 was a German,Adolbhus Schlagintweit, whose throat
was cut because of his arrogant comment that the three-month siege of
Kashgar would have taken his countrymen a mere three days.
Kashar was substantially fortified during the
short but violent reign of Yakup Beg, who ruled Kashgaria from 1866
to 1877. This infamous soldier from Khokand ruled most of Xinjing, from
Kashgar to Urumqi,Turpan and Hami,concluded treaties with Britain and
Russia, and had the support of the Ottoman Empire. In 1869, Robert Shew,
a British trader and unoffical dilomat, became the first Englishman
to visit Kashgar and Kashgar, and was able to command two audiences
with Yakub Beg,even though he was under virtual house arrest for the
duration of his stay in the city.He wrote of Kashgar:'Intering the gateway,
we passed throgh several large quadrangles whose sides were lined with
rank of brilliantly attired guards, all sitting in solem silence so
that they seemed to form part of the architecture of the building....Entire
rows of these men (were)clad in silken robes and many seemed to be of
high rank judging from the richness of their equipment.' After a leisurely
three-year advance on Xinjiang, the 60,000 strong Chinese army of Zuo
Zongtang suppressed the Muslim rebellions in Gansu and then moved southwest
through the oasis towns, eventually ending Yakub Beg's rule in 1877.
Yakub Beg fled to Kashgar where he died-rumoured to have either had
a stroke or poisoned himself.In 1884,Qing government establish Xinjiang
as province first.
As anti-Chinese Muslim rebellions broke out throughout Xinjiang in the
1930s, a pan-Turkic Islamic movement based in Kashgar declared an Independent
Muslim Republic of Eastern Turkestan.In 1949,the three arear-revalutionary
army accept the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,xinjiang entered
a new construction.
The Kashgar prefecture administers 11 counties,one city with a population
of over 3 million. It is one of the main agricultural areas of Xinjing,producing
cotton,rice,wheat,corn,beans and fruit.
LOCATION AND AREA
Kashgar is 141,600 square kiolmeters in total area
and between latitude 35 20 to 40 18 north and longitude 73 20 to 79
57 east in the sourthen part of Xinjiang, is contiguous with the Taklimakan
Desert on its east and borders Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan
and India to its west and southwest respectively. The city of Kashgar,
a place of strategic importance in south Xinjiang, has an area of fifteen
square kilometers with an average elevation of 1289.5 meters. The city
is located between latitude 39 25 to 39 35 north and longitude 75 56
to 76 04 east and lies 1,473 kilometers from Urumchi,capital city of
of Xinjianng Uihgur Autonomous Region.
POPULATION AND NATIONALITIES
Kashi Prefecture has a population of 3.3 million,
of which the Uygur nationality comprises 92.92 percent, the Han, 5.6
percent and the Tajik, 1.03 percent, with the other 0.45 percent made
up of Hui, Kirgiz, Ozbek, Kazak, Manchu, Xibe, Mongol, Tatar and Daur
nationalities.
The city of Kashar has a population of 200,000, 74.62 percent of which
is Uyghur and 24.32 percent of which is Han Chinese and other minorities.
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS
Kashar Prefecture has one city (Kashag) and eleven
counties: Tokkuzak(Shufu in Chinese), Yengishar (Shule), Yengisar, Yopurga,
Payzawatt, Yarkant(Shache), Poskam(Zepu), Kahilik(Yecheng), Markit,
Maralbashi (Bachu) and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County,under its
jurisdiction. There are twenty-six towns and subdistrict offices, 134
townships, 2,310 villagers' committees and ninety-six neighborhood committees
in Kashgar.
CLIMATE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Kashgar is located in the temparate zone of a continental
climate. The climate in this area varies greatly because of the varied
topograghy. Specifically, the Kashgar can be divid-ed into zones plain
climate, desert climate, mountain climate, the Pamir Plateau climate
and the Kunlun Mountains climate. Located in the plain climate zone
with the clear four seasons, Kashgar has a long summer and a short winter.
The annual mean temperature is 11.7 C, with the lowest temperature of
-24.4¡ã C in January and the hottest 40.1¡ãC in July. The frost-free period
averages 215 days. The annual mean precipitation is 27 millimeters.
The two river system of the Yarkant River and the Kashgar River in this
area have five big rivers with a total annual runoff of 10.9 to 11.9
billion cubic meters. The volume of underground water in this area is
about one billion cubic meters. The per capita water volume of the whole
prefecture is about 5,000 cubic meters, twice the national figure. The
hydropower reserves of the prefecture are about 7.6 million kilowatt,
1,2 million of which can be easily exploited. Mineral resoures in the
prefecture include coal, mica, asbestos,g-ypsum, limestone, natural
sulphur, vanadium, titaniun, iron copper, zinc, nickel, phosphorus,
beryllium, white marble and so on. Oil deposits, in particular, are
considerably large and several of oil wells have been drilled in Kasgar.
Flora resources in the prefecture include mountain vegetation, plain
vegetation, oasis vegetation, desert vegetation and marshland vegetation.
The proportion of forested-land is 1.7 percent with 94,667 hectares
of primitive forests. In Kashgar grows variety of trees,sush as poplar,
willow, mulberry, narrow-leaved oleaster, Chinese scholartree, Chinese
parasol, pine, China fir, cypress, divesiform-leaved poplar and red
willow.
|
Average Temperature per month |
| ¡¡ |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Maximum |
0 |
4 |
14 |
22 |
26 |
30 |
32 |
31 |
26 |
20 |
10 |
1 |
| Minimum |
-11 |
-6 |
2 |
9 |
13 |
16 |
19 |
18 |
12 |
5 |
-2 |
-8 |
ECONOMY
The industry of
Kashgar was developed very slowly. Nowdays variors industrial
sys-tems have been completed, including coal, electric power, cement,
building materials, chemistry, farming machinery,textile, leather
products, ceramics, paper-making and food processing industries. Cotton
printing and dyeing,cement producing, and hydropower are the key
industrial enterprises of Kashgar. The highway network, Taking Kashgari as
a hub,
Are:
Tibet-Xinjiang Highway
crossing the Kunlun Mountains with a total length of 1,184
kilometers.
Xinjiang-Qinhai Highway (go
along the southern Silk Road)
Famous
Karakoram highway(KKH)
Highway to
Kyrgyzstan via Torugart Pass and Erkashtam
Pass
Kashgar-Urunqi
Highway
Kashgar Prefecture has 415,620 hectares
of cultivated land, 1.33 million hectares of reclaimable l-and and 2.26
million hectares of pastureland, of which 239,467 hectares is first rate.
The content of organic substances of the soil generally ranges from 0.5 to
10 percent. Wheat, maize and cotton are the main crops.In Kashgar also
grows rice, barley, highland barley, rape, sesame, peanuts and
flax.
SCIENCE,
EDUCATION, CULTURE AND COMUNICATION
Kashar has two institutions fro advanced learning, one is branch of the
Central Television Universiy,Kasshgar teacher's college, seven specialized
secondary schools, 172 ordinary secondary schools and 1,098 elementary
schools.There are fourteen professional organizations fro litireture, art,
photograph, dance. Kashgar Daily is published here in Uyghur and Chinese.
Kasgar has fine television broadcasting system and tlecom
system.International call and internet is available everywhere.Most of the
part can receive CCTVprogram in different chanels. l.
ATTRACTIONSTS
Id Kah Mosque
The Id Kah Mosque,in uyghur means Square of festival,Typical Uyghur
structure,regarded biggest in China,located in the center of Kashar, has a
history of more than five hundred years.100,000 worshippers attend
religios service at the same time.
Shakesimirza, the ruler of
Kashgar at that time, had the mosque built here first in 1442, in the aim
to where he would say prayers to the souls of his deceased relatives.
Extended and renovated time several times but keep the style,
size,painting, it has finally reached its present size. The Mosque, 140
meters long from south to north and 120 meters from east to west, covers
an area of 16,800 sq,uare meters and consists of the Hall of Prayer,the
Doctrine-Teaching Hall, the gate tower, a pond and some other auxiliary
structures. The gate of the mosque, built of yellow bricks with the joints
of the brick work pointed with gysum, has distinct lines. On both side of
the gate are eighteen-meter high round brick columns half embedded in the
wall. On the top of the columns stands a tower where the imam would call
out loudly at dawn every day to wake up the Muslims and summon them to
attend service in the mosque.It is the rare sound in China. In the
tree-graced courtyard,there is a pond, and on its bank many pottery pots
are place(Now it is seldom seen,because water tap is fixed in the
Mosque)to wash their hands ,faces,feet,and others before attending the
service.. The hall's ceiling, with fine wooden carvings and colorful
flower-and-plant painting patterns,is suppourted by one hundred carved
wooden columns. In the middle part of the wall in the main hall, there is
a deep shrime in which a stepp-ed throne is placed. During service, the
First Maola stands in the shrine to lead the prayer. And on Fridays or
Corban, the First Maola conducts "Wa'z," standing on the steps of the
throneAfter entering the main hall, the followers would seat themselves
facing to Mecca inside and out, in proper lines.
On
Lesser Bairam and Corban, the biggest Islam festivals, the Uygur people
gather on the square in front of the mosque to celebrate their festivals
with jubilation.On those days Uyghur people dressed in their holiday best,
dance"Sama," overflowing with enthusiasm, to the cheerful drum beats and
music.It contrasts with Cornival in Western.
The
following worning should keep in your mind!
1. Do not break a wind in the
Mosque.
2. Do not speak
loudly.
3. It is not a proper time visiting
the Mosque when they are at service.
4. Women
should cover their arms and head with scarf.
| Apak
Hoja Tomb |
 |
| Apak Hoja Tomb , five kilometers northeast
of |
| Kashgar an important cultural unit protected
by |
| the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.As a tomb
|
| of the descendants of an Islamic missionary,
|
| it was built around 1640 .The legend has it
|
| that seventy-two persons in all of five
generations |
| of the same family were buried in the
tomb. |
| The first generation buried here was Yusuf
Hoja, |
| a
celebrated Islam missionary. After he died, |
his eldest son Apak Hoja carried
on the missionary work and became the leader of the famous Islamic sect of
white mountaineer during the seventeenth century which seized the power of
the Yarkant for a time.Apak Hoja died in 1693 and was buried in the tomb.
His reputation was greater than his father's, so the tomb was renamed "The
Apak Hoja Tomb."
The tomb is a group of beautiful and magnificent
buildings including the Tomb's Hall, the Doctrine Teaching Hall, the Grand
mosque,smaal Mosque beside the gate,the gate tower, a pond and archard.
The Tomb's Hall, with a domeshaped top of seventeen meters in diameter and
covered with green glazed tiles outside, is twenty-six meters high and
thirty-nine meters long at the base. The hall is high, spacious and
columnless. Inside the hall, there is a high terrace on which the tombs
are arranged. All the tombs are built of glazed bricks with very beautiful
patterns of elegant.Grand mosque is in the west part of the
tomb,Ayitijiayi by name, is the place where the Muslim believers conduct
service on big days. The Lesser Hall of Prayer and the gate tower are
outmost buildings decorated with colorful paintings and elegant brick
carvings.
Outside the tomb there is a crystal-clear
pond lined by tall trees making the place pleasantly q-uie and
beautiful.
The legend goes that among the Hoja descendans buried here,
there was a lady, Yiparhan by name, who was one of the concubines of the
Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong. She was called Xiangfei in Chinese(
fragrant Imperial Concubine) because of the rich delicate fragrance of
flower sent forth by her body. After she died, her remains was escorted
back to Kashgar by her sister -in-law Sudexiang and was buried in the Apak
Hoja Tomb. So, some people call the tomb"the Tomb Xiangfei" But according
to textual research, Xiangfei was none other than Rongfei, a concubine of
Emperor Qian-long, and she was actually buried in the East Tombs of the
Qing Dynasty in Zunhua County,Hubei Province after she
died.
| Yusuf
Has Hajip Tomb |
 |
| Yusuf Has Hajip Tomb is
located on Sports Road |
| opposite to Kashgar
Mountaineering Association. |
| Yusuf Has Hajip, a
Uygur poet,scholar and thinker, |
| was born in Balashagun)in
Karakhanid Dynasty, |
and later immigrated to Kashar. He
wrote the long narrative phillosophic poem Kut-adku Bilik(The Knowledge of
Happiness). After he died, he was buried in Badige, outside the city of
Kashgar. His tomb was moved to its present site when it was threatened by
the flooding of the Toman River.
| Mahmud Kashgari Tomb |
 |
| The Mahmud Kashari
Tomb, located in the |
| Wupar Village, Shufu
County, is set off with |
| trees and bushes. Mahmud
Kashgari was born |
| into an aristocratic
family of the Karakhanid |
| Dynasty in the eleventh
century. An outstanding |
| Uygur scholar and
linguist, Mahmud compiled |
The Complete Turkish Dictionary.
His tomb is highly respected by the Uygur people and many Islamic scholars
have contributed their favorite books to the tombs; it has thus slowly
become a kind of library, and people repectfully call it Haiziliti
Maolamu, meaning the tomb of honorable scholars.His Turkish Dictionary has
translated to 26 languages.
| Ancient Hanoi City and the Mor Buddhist
pagoda |
 |
| Thirty kilometers northeast of Kashgar stands
the |
| ruined adobe-walled city of Hanoi, which lies in
|
| an area three kilometers long and one
kilometer |
| wide. According to textual research, the
city has |
| a
hiatory of more than 1500 years.A few kilometers of
the |
north ancient city is the site of the Mor
buddhist Pagoda. The pagoda has three square layers, each a little smaller
than the one below it. The bottom layer has circumfe-rence of more than
forty-eight meters, the second layer forty meters and the third layer
thirty-two meters, while the pagoda stands more than twelve meters
high.
The platform beside the pagoda was one
of the central temple structures, and in its side walls were carved niches
housing Buddha figurines. But now there are mo figurines left, and even
the niches themselves are barely invisable.
| Sunday
Market |
 |
| Sunday Bazaar, in Uygur means "farm
trade market." |
| The bazaar in Kashgar is the biggest in central
Asia. |
| As early as two thousand years ago,it was the
colle- |
| cting and distributing center of goods.
Nowadays, |
| it has become even more busy. On bazzar day |
| every Sunday,the traffic gets heavy on every road |
| with crowds upon crowsds of market-goers |
| coming in from all directions . There is on the
|
| bazaar just about everything you'd expect
to find, |
such as various special localo products,
handicrafts, articles of daily use , fruits and vegetables as well as
means of production and all kinds of demestic animales. Riding donkeys or
driving carts, farmers from the suburbs get downtown by early morning. It
is really a scene of prosperrity with cheerful laughters and brisk buying
and selling everywhere.
The fascinating parst is animal
section.Here you will see test-driven of hores,bargaining,and more.After
that you will get a feeling that Nothing changes over the
centures.
Best time for visiting:8:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m.Kashgar Time two hours ahead od Beijing time.
Bashkeram Orchard
Kashgar has always enjoyed the reputation of being a "Land of Fruits and
Melons," with Bashkeram ranking first in the area. Among the great variety
of fruits in Bashkeram , apricot alone has more than twenty strains, and
grape, apple and pear have nearly twenty strains each.Also there are many
strains of cherry, plum, peach, quince, date and so on. Each of the fruits
has early middle and late ripening varieties. In May, the white, sweet and
tasty mulberry ripens and , from then on, apricot, cherry, fig,
sweet-kernel peach, jasper peach, flat peach , pear, apple,grape,
pomegranate and pistachio and badam, the high-valued dry nut fruits in
China,ripen one after another. The fruit harvest does not end until the
beginning of November.You will find it easily by the help of local guide
or taxi driver
Chini
Bagh
In Uyghur,Beautiful
garden,was the home of for 28 years of the most famous of British India's
representatives in Kashgar,Sir George Macartney and his wife.The gardes
are destroyed to make room for large tourist hotel,Chini Bagh Hotel,and
behind it id the house where the Macartneys lived.Now reserved for
official visitors.
Russion
Consulate
The once luxurios
Russion Consulate (now Seman Hotel) was the home of the powerful Nikolai
Petrovsky,Macartney's chief adversary in the Great game.Now it is made
room for tourists.If any one want to check in,have to make reservation
through any organization in Kashgar
Three
Immortal Budda Caves
It is
10km. Away from Kashgar on the road to Torugart Pass.From opposite side of
Qakmak river,it is visible but it is impossible to see inside without
taking special way.It is 30m above of river at the cliff.Dating from the
second and third century,they are the earliest Buddist caves extant in
China.However,if you are intentupon seeing them,arrangements must be made
by KMA.
| Karakul Lake |
 |
| It si 190km from Kashgar
om the Kara Koram |
| Highway with the elevation
of 3600m aboe sea |
| level..It is on the lap of
tw giants,Muztagh Ata |
| regardec "the father of
ice mountains",Kongur |
| reputated with more
avalanche.It is rare highland |
| lake in the world.by the
lake,there are yurst and |
| restaurant available for
tourists to stop and over |
| night.In a fine day,You
get a good view of Muz- |
| tagh Ata and Kongur and
snow-cappad peaks , |
| flocks of
animals,grassland are all invertedly |
| reflected in the
water,wich looks magistic. |
Transportation
There are three flights from Kashgar to Urumqi.There
is also regular train to Urumqi.Buses to Pakistan is available at
Tuman Hotel beside the Tuman river north,not at China Bagh Hotel.There
are several buses to Urumchi at cheaper offering.They depart from
Tuman river.City transport is taxi,buses,bicycle instead of donkey
cart.
Post and communication
The post office is on Renmin Xilu.across the road is
telecom office.Next to it,is a big e-mail bar.It opens daily from
8:00a.m. to 6:00 p.m..It is not difficult to find an e-mail bar almost
every street.
Bank of China
Bank of China on Renmin Xilu has already moved to the
east of the people's square opposite
to Mao's Statue.
Kashgar Minority Garden
There is a nice place worth spending some time at Kashgar Minority
Garden if you are children-lover and nterested in Uyghur folk show.It
is next to the wright-hand of Idkah Mosque and 80m deep in the cule
de sack.
Place to eat
There are many modern restaurants and fast
foots in Kashgar.Tea house on Renmin Xilu,Orda Kent in seman Hotel,One
Thouthand nights opposit to Seman Hotel,Pamier,in those restaurants serve
Uygur dishes.If you happen to visit Kashgar during
July,August,September,there is some orchard with restaurants.It is quite
and cool with local food.Best ones is located near to People,s
Hospital.Night marked is also available for shish Kebab and beer.Click
here to see Uyghur food gallery. |