Kashgar is located in the westernmost part of China and is surrounded by five or six neighboring countries in Central and South Asia, all of which are neatly named various ? Stan? The streets here are full of faces with high noses and long eyelashes. There are not many high-rise buildings here, the sun sets late, the moon is very close, the sky is especially blue, and the streets are bright and beautiful with the colorful sarongs and skirts of Uighur women.
Initially, I had no idea about ? Xinjiang? I didn't have a deep concept of the word "Xinjiang", I just knew it was big, and I didn't think that there would be any difference between Urumqi and Kashgar, but later I realized that the difference was huge. In Kashgar, Uyghur villagers home? I learned a lot about the Uyghur people in Kashgar from the days when I lived and ate there. In those days, I learned that many native Kashgar people have never left Xinjiang in their lives, and even a trip to Urumqi is their lifelong dream. Of course, this is an afterthought, let's start from the beginning.
Kashgar first impression
Arrived in Kashgar on the first day, I landed in the location just this border town? center? : the Etigarh Square. It is a hub and a? Reference? and whenever I met a Uyghur cab driver who didn't understand Mandarin, I let him drop me off here, from where I could quickly get to any part of the main city. The main city of Kashgar is not very big and has two main roads. One is called People's Road, which runs 3 kilometers from the Kashgar Regional Museum in the east to the Huanjiang New World Department Store in the west; the other is Jiefang Road, which runs 2.5 kilometers wide from Kunlun Mansion at the north end to Xinyuan Mansion at the south end.
The two roads are in a ? cross? shape, dividing this seven to eight square kilometers square of the main city of Kashgar into four parts, northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast, which represent different? For tourists, they represent different travel meanings. For tourists, they represent different travel meanings. Tourist function. Northeast: the old city, old houses, snacks and night markets, this is the most original, most concentrated and well-preserved Kashgar.
Southwest: shopping malls, movie theaters, fast-paced living areas, this is the most concentrated foreign population, the most? no Kashgar flavor? of Kashgar.
Southeast: two major parks (People's Park, East Lake Park), this is the Kashgar people's ? backyard?
Or it can be divided like this again:
A People's Road? a single character? type divides the main city of Kashgar into two areas, north and south, with the old city to the north and the new city to the south.
The most exciting area for tourists is in the north, while the most practical area for permanent residents is in the south.
The official map of this part of the old city, north of Kashgar, looks like a tortoise. Look at the map: on the right is the turtle's head, in the middle is the turtle's shell, and on the left is the turtle's butt and tail. It's alive and well, but quiet and calm.
This travelogue today focuses on this part of the northwest area that I hit on the first and second day of my trip to Kashgar, the ? Turtle's Ass? This piece. Kashgar's ? landmarks? Architecture
If I could find a landmark in Kashgar, it would be the Etigarh Mosque. Built during the Ming Dynasty, this nearly 600-year-old cultural relic is not only one of the largest in Xinjiang, but also one of the largest in the country. It is both a monastery and a school, and has trained many scholars dedicated to the study of history and religion, and is renowned both at home and abroad.
But from what I've observed, it seems as if people prefer to stop at the large square in front of the Etigarh Mosque. This square is like a small park, and its center faces the gate of the mosque, where a flock of pigeons is scattered all year round. The pigeons are not afraid of people; they pace easily while staring daintily at the small children who are playing and holding their delicacies in their hands. As soon as the little hands opened, the pigeons gathered around, and again a photographer recorded it all on camera. On the side of the square near the road, there is a Uyghur uncle posing for a group photo. A group photo? Life has its ups and downs, or to live a strong life, cried and laughed at least you still have me with the Xinjiang flavor of pop songs, sang a Xiao Shenyang's "my good brother.
This evening, I went along the ? stage? Next to the Ustang Boyi Road into this ancient neighborhood, the sun set a little instantly, the clouds piece by piece to hide behind the trees. Kashgar's dusk is like a picture, a flock of birds lowing over head, people's footsteps home in a hurry, Uyghur women's sarongs melted into the blue night curtain? The song fades away, like a cup of wine, like an old song. Like a glass of wine, like an old song
Ustang Boyi Road
This is a road that can be included in? Kashgar Travel Guide? s old street, which has been a bustling commercial street for thousands of years in the historical record of Kashgar as an important international commercial port on the ancient Silk Road. Like Beijing's Nanluoguxiang and Lhasa's Barkhor Street, Ustang Boyi Road has strong regional characteristics, and no matter how much things have changed, the cultural heritage and ethnic flavor of this place is the strongest and most demonstrative in the entire city of Kashgar.
On the second day of my trip to Kashgar, I spent the whole day strolling down this street. First, I found a small restaurant to eat a bowl of ? Dumpling Soup? , sour and salty, very homemade, typical northwest flavor. I picked a small piece of deep-fried noodle cake and soaked it in the sour soup of the dumpling, which was crispy and fragrant, but it was too big to be taken away, so I thought I would bring one to the Uyghur villagers when I went back to their homes for a home visit.
While eating, I watched the policeman on duty on the side of the road teasing the children. Kashgar strict law and order, and later heard that many families will be involved in the duty, the children go to their dads when their dads are at work, and the dads can only play with the children like this for a while during the lunch break. The police uncle for the children of Kashgar, is an incredibly noble and extremely majestic occupation.
There are many paths intertwined around Ustang Boyi Road, connecting every inch of this ancient neighborhood. Walking along these paths feels a step away from the real ? Kashgar life? I feel a little closer to the real life of Kashgar. The Uyghur houses on this street are chic in form and beautifully decorated. Influenced by the special climatic conditions of dryness and heat, little water and wind and sand, the people here have a very different spirit of layout and space from that of the mainland architectural forms. Along the street on both sides of the houses with flat roofs, raw earth-colored walls open a lot of windows, windows of different shapes, some double closed, some openwork carved flowers, bright green plants climbing to every gap that can be stretched, winding up the carved wooden rails around the porch.
In Xinjiang, such buildings are collectively known as Aiyiwang-style dwellings, which have a history of more than 2,000 years and are born of folklore, exquisite and practical art of living.
Later, looking at photos, I realized that the Old Town Youth Hostel I stayed at was a typical AIWAN-style courtyard. The courtyard is decorated with bisquare continuous paintings in the shape of strips along the veranda and arched carved window flutes in the center of the veranda columns. The corridor is very deep and is built up in rows. Tukang (earthen beds) are built in the corridor. It is a place where you can chat, sleep, and spread out in a bed. The kangs can be used for chatting, sleeping, and spreading out. The backpackers and the stray cats adopted by the guest house nestled in the piles of red and green to laze around. This small three-story building has a semi-enclosed ?U?-shaped layout that allows every room upstairs to have good lighting. The entire yard is functional and beautiful, a modified version of ? modernized? New-style Uyghur? large family home. s residence.
That afternoon, I found another classic old building on the road to Ustangboyi:
The Hundred-Year-Old Teahouse
3:00 p.m. Beijing time is considered midday in Kashgar, and the hot sun shines down on the pavement of Ustangboyi, reflecting a glaring white light, as I wandered aimlessly past this small building, looking up and being attracted to it. The second floor corridor stood a girl dressed in red, was towering to the front of the corridor of the large trees covered half of the cheek, the shade of the trees, dappled spread on the roadside, from time to time there are pedestrians through this piece of light and dark shadows, reflecting the large red and aqua-green color of the teahouse facade. I walked in and realized that it is the only remaining century-old teahouse in Kashgar.
Staying in Kashgar for a long time, you will find that drinking tea is the daily life of Kashgar people, probably because of the diet of greasy, salty and heavy, every household here is always prepared with a kind of greasy Por Brick Tea, a pot of rice when you eat hand-held to eat a pot, eat pulling a pot of rice, and eat naan when you will also come to a pot of tea. For the old Kashgar people who grew up on Ustang Boyi Road, drinking tea is a way of life. Almost every day, they would come to the old teahouse, bring a naan bread they had prepared, and gather in twos and threes, chatting while casually breaking off a small piece of naan, dipping it in the tea, and eating it in their stomachs. For them, naan bread didn't seem to be a staple food, but a small dessert for afternoon tea. Later I followed their example and often brought a naan bread to the teahouse and dipped it into my tea while I was staring at the tea. It just so happened that there was a naan stall downstairs in the teahouse that had been open for many years, selling the only naan in Kashgar with rose and walnut fillings, which was quite tasty.
The atmosphere of this teahouse is very relaxed, guests can not only bring their own naan bread, but also a variety of fruits and snacks, the store is very nice to talk to, as long as you remember to take away their own garbage is good. It is said that the owner has also been a seventy-year-old man, currently by their own children and grandchildren to manage the teahouse, business is good, tea is not expensive, ordinary pot of tea 10 dollars. With this pot of tea, you can sit here for an afternoon, until the tea is stored no flavor until. On holidays and late afternoons when there are many tourists, there will be hot wap performances here, and this kind of zither is Kashi? A specialty of Kashgar.
When the mood strikes, everyone dances to the music. The Uyghurs are a versatile, singing and dancing people, and in Kashgar, everyone dances, men and women, young and old. Often the more enthusiastic everyone dances, the musicians play the more energetic, a song played, not yet finished, many of the downstairs visitors will be looking for the sound of crowded into the teahouse.