Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China

Economy | Sights | Air | Rail | Road

🇨🇳 Kashgar (قەشقەر,) or Kashi (喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. With a population of over 500,000, Kashgar has served as a trading post and strategically important city on the Silk Road between China, the Middle East and Europe for over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World.

At the convergence point of widely varying cultures and empires, Kashgar has been under the rule of the Chinese, Turkic, Mongol and Tibetan empires. The city has also been the site of a number of battles between various groups of people on the steppes.

Now administered as a county-level unit, Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture. The city was made into a Special Economic Zone in 2010, the only city in western China with this distinction. Kashgar also forms a terminus of the Karakoram Highway, whose reconstruction is considered a major part of the multibillion-dollar China–Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Economy The city has a very important Sunday market. Thousands of farmers from the surrounding fertile lands come into the city to sell a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. Kashgar's livestock market is also very lively. Silk and carpets made in Hotan are sold at bazaars, as well as local crafts, such as copper teapots and wooden jewellery boxes.

In order to boost the economy in Kashgar region, the government classified the area as the sixth Special Economic Zone of China in 2010.

The movie The Kite Runner was filmed in Kashgar. Kashgar and the surrounding countryside stood in for Kabul and Afghanistan, since filming in Afghanistan was not possible due to safety and security reasons.

Sights Before its demolition, Kashgar's Old City had been called "the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in Central Asia". It was estimated to attract more than one million tourists annually. • Id Kah Mosque, the largest mosque in China, is located in the heart of the city. • People's Park, the main public park in central Kashgar. • An 18 m (59 ft) high statue of Mao Zedong in Kashgar is one of the few large-scale statues of Mao remaining in China. • The tomb of Afaq Khoja in Kashgar is considered the holiest Muslim site in Xinjiang. Built in the 17th century, the tiled mausoleum 5 km (3.1 mi) north-east of the city centre also contains the tombs of five generations of his family. Abakh was a powerful ruler, controlling Khotan, Yarkand, Korla, Kucha and Aksu as well as Kashgar. Among some Uyghur Muslims, he was considered a great saint (Aulia). • Sunday Market in Kashgar is renowned as the biggest market in central Asia; a pivotal trading point along the Silk Road where goods have been traded for more than 2,000 years. The market is open every day but Sunday is the largest.

Air Kashgar Airport serves mainly domestic flights, the majority of them from Urumqi.

Rail Kashgar has the westernmost railway station in China. It is connected to the rest of China's rail network via the Southern Xinjiang Railway, which was built in December 1999. Kashgar–Hotan Railway opened for passenger traffic in June 2011, and connected Kashgar with cities in the southern Tarim Basin including Shache (Yarkand), Yecheng (Kargilik) and Hotan. Travel time to Urumqi from Kashgar is approximately 25 hours, while travel time to Hotan is approximately ten hours. The investigation work of a further extension of the railway line to Pakistan has begun. In November 2009, Pakistan and China agreed to set up a joint venture to do a feasibility study of the proposed rail link via the Khunjerab Pass. Proposals for a rail connection to Osh in Kyrgyzstan have also been discussed at various levels since at least 1996. In 2012, a standard gauge railway from Kashgar via Tajikistan and Afghanistan to Iran and beyond has been proposed.

Road The Karakorum highway (KKH) links Islamabad, Pakistan with Kashgar over the Khunjerab Pass. The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor is a multibillion-dollar project that will upgrade transport links between China and Pakistan, including the upgrades to the Karakorum highway. Bus routes exist for passenger travel south into Pakistan. Kyrgyzstan is also accessible from Kashgar, via the Torugart Pass or the Irkeshtam Pass; as of summer 2007, daily bus service connects Kashgar with Bishkek's Western Bus Terminal. Kashgar is also located on China National Highways G314 (which runs to Khunjerab Pass on the Sino−Pakistani border, and, in the opposite direction, towards Ürümqi), and G315, which runs to Xining, Qinghai from Kashgar.

Urumqi Time 
Urumqi Time
Image: Y Chen

Kashgar has a population of over 711,300 people. Kashgar also forms the centre of the wider Kashgar Prefecture which has a population of over 4,496,400 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for Kashgar see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Kashgar has links with:

🇵🇰 Abbottabad, Pakistan 🇵🇰 Gilgit, Pakistan 🇲🇾 Malacca City, Malaysia
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Kashgar is: -104.006,-39.468

Locations Near: Kashgar 75.9938,39.4681

🇰🇬 Özgön 73.3,40.767 d: 270.8  

🇰🇬 Osh 72.8,40.53 d: 296.5  

🇹🇯 Gorno-Badakhshan 72.868,38.098 d: 310.8  

🇰🇬 Aravan 72.483,40.5 d: 320.3  

🇰🇬 Bishkek 74.599,42.872 d: 396.1  

🇰🇬 Karakol 78.393,42.491 d: 391.8  

🇰🇿 Almaty 76.932,43.229 d: 425.5  

🇵🇰 Gilgit 74.3,35.917 d: 422.1  

🇵🇰 Skardu 75.633,35.283 d: 466.4  

🇺🇿 Fergana 71.783,40.383 d: 373.1  

Antipodal to: Kashgar -104.006,-39.468

🇨🇱 Valdivia -73.233,-39.8 d: 17392.7  

🇨🇱 San Pedro de la Paz -73.1,-36.833 d: 17310.1  

🇨🇱 Concepción -73.05,-36.817 d: 17305.3  

🇨🇱 Chiguayante -73.017,-36.917 d: 17305.4  

🇨🇱 Port Montt -72.933,-41.467 d: 17391.3  

🇨🇱 Puerto Montt -72.933,-41.467 d: 17391.3  

🇨🇱 Temuco -72.667,-38.733 d: 17323.2  

🇨🇱 Angol -72.25,-38.25 d: 17276.3  

🇨🇱 Cauquenes -72.35,-35.967 d: 17218.1  

🇨🇱 San Carlos -71.95,-36.417 d: 17198.6  

Bing Map

Option 1