5. MAPS and miscellaneous

other information

To visit the places shown in the short series and more, the fastest way is to fly from Beijing to Kashgar.

But for travelers with up to two weeks or a month time, it may be worth it to take the high speed train, express trains, regular trains and road transport to stop in places such as suggested on the map below, following the ancient overland Silk Road from Xī'ān to Kashgar :

this column reduced to allow reading on hand held devices....

But I will use the space for "hidden supplements" to get insights on various subjects :)

The map of China looks like a rooster ready to salute the rising sun !

• Xī'ān 西安 : capital of 13 dynasties among which the brilliant Táng with its city Cháng'ān 长安 attracting people from all over the ancient world, who brought Buddhism in the 7th century (see the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda) and Islam (*) that still thrives with the famous Muslim Quarter and ancient mosque. Old mausoleums to past emperors dot the countryside further afield, with the world famous Terracota army ofin the mausoleum o Qin Shi Huang

• Lánzhōu 兰州市 : air pollution is still heavy in the provincial capital of Gansu, but it has a rich museum and sits on the bank of the with a granite sculpture of the Yellow River goddess, and is the home to the famous Lánzhōu beef noodles (Lánzhōu niúròu miàn 兰州牛肉面 aka Lánzhōu pulled noodles (Lánzhōu Lāmiàn 兰州牛肉面)

• Zhāngyè 张掖 : it has an impressive Geopark, listed by UNESCO since 2019, with sights such as color-striped "Rainbow mountain" Línzé dānxiá 临泽 ; Sùnán dānxiá 肃南 ; and "Ice valley" Bīnggōu (冰沟) scenic areas

• Jiāyùguān 嘉峪关 : the western end of the Ming Great Wall

• Liǔyuán 柳園 aka Hóngliǔyuán 紅柳園 : a crossroads to Dūnhuáng 敦煌 with its famous dune and Crescent Moon Lake ( Yuèyá Quán 月牙泉) in the desert starting at the door of the city, and further up a river, the Mogao Caves (Mògāo kū 莫高窟) with their thousand Buddhist frescoes and sculptures). It is also a waystation on the Southern Xinjiang Railway to Turpan and to Ürumqi (or Kashgar /Kāshí 喀什 in opposite direction)

• Turpan /Tǔlǔfān 吐鲁 : an ancient oasis with karez underground water system and famous seedless grapes, also with a train station on the Southern Xinjiang Railwayy which takes travelers on a roughly 14-15 hours overnight journey to Kashgar

Xi'an Giant Wild Good Pagoda

Restaurant making the Lánzhōu Lāmiàn noodles (YouTube Video 1'53)

Beijing to Ürumqi in a soft sleepr cabin (29'16)

Alternately, it is possible to fly from Beijing to Dūnhuáng, visit the sights there and get to Liǔyuán for the train to Turpan. After sightseeing and appreciating the food there, it is possible to travel by road along the impressive black stone covered valley where red peppers are laid out to dry while huge wind turbines lazily revolve their wings to bring electricity to the neighboring cities.

An aside to"Heavenly Lake" Tiānchí 天池 (Uighur بوغدا كۆلى) up in the Tiānshān 天山 mountains may be scheduled, before reaching the regional capital Ürumqi (Wūlǔmùqí 乌鲁木齐) which has other transcription in Uighur, Kazakh, Mongol and Kirgiz script for the main ethnic groups in the region).

Ürumqi is less than 2 hrs drive away from the high mountain lake which sits in an alpine environment that is also favorable for growing vineyards for decent wines.

Once in Ürumqi it is possible to get to Kashgar either by train (using first the Ürumqi-Lánzhōu high speed track, next connecting with the Southern Xinjiang Railway if possible on the sleeper express) or directly by flight n 2 and a half

Travel agencies may suggest other options to. Traveling the Silk Road by motorbike, car or other "slow options" may take over a month to journey.

(*) The Muslim quarter of Xī'ān is one of the most famous in the country, where an estimated 25.9 million Muslims (2020 census) have taken root since the 7th century.

According to the latest 2020 census, these include the 11.8 million Uighurs who are predominantly Sunni (only 2% of them declare they belong to other or no faith) .

Kashgar Prefecture is home to about 4.65 million people, about 92% being Uyghur. Kashgar is also home to both the splendid Ibn Kah mosque and to the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum (阿帕克霍加麻扎 Ābā Héjiā mázhá ), family tomb of Afaq Khoja, a prominent Naqshbandi (a specific Sunni spiritual order with origins in Persia) Sufi master, which houses the graves of five generations of his descendants since 1740.

Ürumqi International Airport,

Kashi International airport T1

Train from ürumqi to Kashgar (up to 22 hours journey)

New link with Southern Xinjiang Railroad completes the lopop around the Taklamakan desert, July 2022 video news 3'31)

Afaq Khoja Mausoleum , about 5 km north east of Kashgar, it is the holiest Muslim site in Xinjiang

Kashgar’s main cemetery on the east side of the Old town, is filled with mud-brick tombs, wooden markers, and small domed mausoleums.

Folk song and Uighur Dance - Xuyly Churaylik Chokanlar (with English subritles and using many famous Kashgar sights). Lyrics in Uighur in video description May 2021 - Music: Esqer Muxtar ; Artists : Tursungul Qadir, Tursunay Ibrahimjan YouTube video 3'4

Note : The series did not show the mosque and mausoleums, avoiding much about the Kashgar people's religion, although all the protagonists were Uighur, except for Xia Zi and newcomer Zhou who were Han, and the Tajik they visited in the mountains.

Religion has become a touchy subject because of the concern about extremists who might use it to support separatism for part or whole of the autonomous region (following foreign led destabilization efforts) and terror. Some Uighur were identified among ISIS fighters abroad and there were several attacks in Xinjiang and in China in the 2000s-2010s that caused the Chinese government to react with stricter control on religious teaching and preaching in the region. Thus, the Chinese government has systematically eradicated illegal religious schools and madrasas, enforcing strict regulations that prohibit minors to be enrolled in religious classes.

Islamic texts in Uyghur, Kazakh, and other minority languages are available for purchase. The Xinjiang government commissions and publishes religious classics, including the Quran and hadith collections, which are distributed to mosques and available in state-run bookstores. These publications are often provided free of charge to religious staff, and ancient religious manuscripts are preserved in state libraries.

The Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of religious belief only for "normal religious activities," i.e. activities that do not disrupt public order, interfere with education, or involve foreign domination. Thus, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism, must be represented and register with one of five official "patriotic associations" supervised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Administration for Religious Affairs. The practice of Islam, as of other religions, is allowed as long as it remains private, or within the authorized places for worship, and respects national principles that prohibit proselytism and uncontrolled sects. Muslims in China usually do not clash with national laws so their faith and customs are widely accepted : Hui, one of the most numerous and widespread "ethnic group" is even defined by its belonging to Islam!, The Muslims can go ontthe annual Hajj pilgrimaget to Mecca (big groups do so, every year), and are welcome to their dietary restrictions : halal food is to be found everywhere in China and enjoyed by everybody, even non Muslims. The Muslims can work in any institutions or trade, teach in any school, and dress as they please except for flaunting religion. Veils are not at all customary for women in public (and were uncommon in the region in past centuries) Religious dress is prohibited in schools. The use of "Muslim bonnets" mostly for men (white in Hui areas, embroidered velvet in Uighur parts) is either for the very religious or for folklore and traded as souvenirs. The representatives who go to Beijing for the National Congress may show up in ethnic costume which are admired then as a sign of accepted diversity., and the teaching and showing of folkloric ethnic dances in ethnic costumes is also totally acceptable as it is not viewed as flaunting "religious dress". Bur, that also means Islamic beards are frowned upon for me : close shaven is the modern look encouraged....

Beards are not anymore valued in the modern Uighur look.

Mamat Juma, the Kashgar Id Kah mosque's imam (prayer leader)., comes to the mosque at at 6:20 a.m. every day to offer Fajr prayer, which takes place before dawn. (YouTube news report, 3'14)

Muslim Life in Xi’an During Ramadan, March 2026

LANGUAGE : Likewise, although the series allowed to listen to some ethnic group language (Uighur, Tajik...) dialogues were mainly in putonghua (standardized vehicular Chinese language, often called "Mandarin" abroad)and there was little information about the way the protagonists had used language in schools, primary or dance school. We only got to know that Xia Zi had been sent to Ürumqi and to Zhejiang (her parents native province) from high school up, and that Miniwaer had been jealous about this opportunity to see other horizons.

To prevent isolation, poverty, and extremism, the Chinese government promotes more secular education, including more emphasis on putonghua usage in schools aside from classes in local language which are now restricted to the study of Uyghur literature rather than serving as the language for teaching other subjects like mathematics or science. The goal of teaching putonghua since primary schools everywhere in the country, is to allow a standardized teaching, so students everywhere in China, including from other language ethnic group from all provinces and regions (such as Uighurs, Kazakh, Tajiks, Mongols etc) , can win access to higher education in universities that use putonghua throughout China. "Mandarin" is the primary language of instruction for most degrees. Besides, blanket bonus points for other ethnic group language candidates to university admissions (gaokao), have been done away with or significantly reduced in the 2020s, as policies have been significantly tightened or canceled in many provinces to promote exam equality. When previously, Uyghurs in bilingual education tracks received up to 50 bonus points, this significant advantage that was removed in recent years to shift focus toward socio-economic need rather than ethnicity alone. The total end of the transition period allowing some bonus points for students in remote areas was scheduled for 2026.

The use of putonghua also aims at allowing all the ethnic groups of the Xinjiang access to trade and work outside the autonomous ethnic group regions, provinces or localities in the country, and not be restricted to the western region.

But Uighur as a lingua franca in the Xinjiang autonomous region and Kashgar prefecture is still widely utilized in social and official spheres, including print, television, and radio, such as Xinjiang Television, broadcast programs in Uyghur (approximately half of local TV and radio content is produced in the language). The Uighur language is still prevalent both in daily speech and writing though in the Xinjiang, and road and shop, bank, airport, trains stations or official signs menus in restaurants. Publications, news in the language, show that it is continuing as an active language. As for linguistic studies in Uighur, there are learned programs available at the Kashgar and Ürumqi universities : "Xinjiang University offers specific academic programs in Altaic Study and Central Asian Culture, which include the study of Uyghur language and literature, and it maintains a Minorities Folklore Research Center dedicated to preserving and studying these cultural elements."

The Uyghur language belongs to the Turkic language family.
The Uyghur Alphabet consists of 32 Arabic letters and some of them come from Persian, so there are lots of words and sounds that are similar to Turkish, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Farsi, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, and so on. The following video shows a primary school book used to teach Uighur alphabet to children :

Noteworthy is that Uighur is used on Chinese "renlminbi" banknotes since the introduction of the second series of banknotes, which were issued on March 1, 1955 (dated 1953). This series featured Mongolian, Uyghur, and Tibetan scripts on the reverse side. The Zhuang script was added later in the third series, introduced on April 20, 1962:

Uighur is the script on lower left of the lines pointed out on this photograph of the 100 Rmb banknote.

THE SILK ROAD MEMORIES

Kashgar and the Uighur in the 8th and 9th centuries

(map from Yan's video about her travels on YouTube)

The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes (by land and by sea)) active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 km (4,000 mi) on land, it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds. Its importance still shapes geopolitics today, with the promotion of the "Belt and Road" initiatives to link China with Europe and more countries both by land and sea routes.

"The Uyghur Khaganate was a powerful Turkic empire that dominated the Mongolian Plateau and Central Asia from 744 to 840 CE. They frequently allied with the Tang Dynasty, notably aiding in the suppression of the An Lushan Rebellion (755–763 CE). In exchange, they received significant economic privileges, including the lucrative silk-horse trade. It collapsed in 840 CE following a devastating invasion by the Yenisei Kyrgyz, which was facilitated by internal factionalism and fiscal strains. This defeat ended Turkic hegemony on the eastern steppes and triggered a mass migration of Uyghurs to the Tarim Basin and other regions."

Kashgar was a Tang Chinese frontier city and a Buddhist cultural hub during the Uyghur Khaganate era, not a Uyghur political center. and it was then a Buddhist center with many monasteries, as recorded by the Chinese traveler Xuan Zang in the 7th century. The Uyghur Khaganate itself practiced Manichaeism and Tengrism, not Islam.

The Karakhanid Khanate (starting around 840 CE) which adopted Islam is credited with Kashgar’s "golden era" of beauty and political power in the 10th and 11th centuries, (Kashgar includes Yarkant on the below map from Wikipedia) :

This video is rather long but is told with gusto and has a very interesting historical point of view. (YouTube 35'15)

Historical video illustrated in old comics book style, YouTube 8'37)

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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI or B&R), also known as the One Belt One Road (Yīdài Yīlù 一带一路) and sometimes called the New Silk Road, is a global infrastructure and economic development strategy of the Chinese governmen..

Starting 2013, it grew through bilateral h agreements and building of new road and railroad linksd.

As of 2025, participating countries account for nearly 75% of the world's population and over half of global GDP.

Kashgar is positioned to become a Chinese hi-tech asset on the BRI - YouTube video October 2025, 5'43