#我来唠家常#
▲ In the pasture on the edge of Tashkurgan County, Tajik herdsmen are grazing, and Muztagh Peak is in the distance. Photography / Master Huang of Zigong
-The Legend of the Gentleman of Things-
If you don't go to Kashgar, you won't be in Xinjiang
Kashgar is one of the westernmost regions of China.
▲ Kashgar region, the west gate of China. Cartography / Paprika
Snow-capped mountains, plateaus, deserts, oases, you can imagine the magnificent scenery here, you can find here, the new city's personalized signs, the ancient city's colorful doors and windows, is a cyberpunk with a lot of time, colorful fusion of ethnic customs, the lively Grand Bazaar, Kashgar will be decorated into a never-ending carnival party.
▲ Kashgar Old Street's classic Uygur houses fancy doors and windows. Photo by He Xiaoqing
Kashgar, the secret land of the Western Regions, can always make everyone who has been here feel emotional, just like a line in the movie "The Kite Runner" filmed in Kashgar: "For you, thousands of times." ”
How extreme is the secret realm of the Western Regions?
When Beijing's "social animals" finished their 996 commute and were ready to wash away their fatigue and fall asleep, the Kashgar region of Xinjiang had just put on the afterglow of the setting sun.
Kashgar, located in the westernmost part of China, has a time difference of more than 3 hours from Beijing. In the Uyghur language, the full name of Kashgar is Kashgar, which means the place where jade is concentrated. The Creator has a special preference for this land, and all the scenery is like jade, clean as a fairyland on earth.
▲ Topographic map of Kashgar. Cartography / Paprika
The first impression of Xinjiang's geography is that it is "three mountains and two basins" in textbooks, and Kashgar Prefecture is located on the west side of the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang. The Karakoram Mountains, the second highest mountain range in the world, and the Tianshan Mountains, one of the seven major mountain systems in the world, wrap the north and south of the Kashgar region, and the Pamir Plateau, the world's mountain knot, stands at the western end of the Kashgar region, overlooking the Taklamakan Desert located in the east of Kashgar.
▲ Taklamakan desert poplar. Photo by Zhang Yongfeng
Plateaus and snow-capped mountains are the labels of Kashgar. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the Indian Ocean plate and the Eurasian plate met and collided, uplifting the Pamir Plateau in the heart of Eurasia. Five world-class mountain ranges – Tien Shan, Kunlun, Karakoram, Himalayas and Hindu Kush – are intertwined here and then stretch outward.
As the main peak of the Karakoram Mountains, Qiaogeli Peak is located in Yecheng County, Kashgar Prefecture, with an altitude of 8,611 meters, which is the second highest peak on the earth after Mount Everest. Although far less famous than the former, the ravine-crisscrossed Chogori Peak is a haven of courage for climbers.
▲ Qiaogori Peak, the second highest peak in China and the second highest peak in the world. Photography / Wolf Wet, Picture / Picture Worm Creative
Snow-capped mountains are the norm for Chogori Peak, and even at night, there is a brightness like day. However, under this purity, there are dangers. Recognized by the International Mountaineering Festival as one of the most difficult mountains to climb, this mountain is surrounded by ice cliffs, light and dark ice cracks, and if you are not careful, you will trigger the switch of ice avalanche and avalanche.
Glaciers and snow-capped mountains are not unique to Qiaogori Peak, and such secret places can be found everywhere in Kashgar. Therefore, in the Qing Palace film and television drama, when Concubine Xiang left Kashgar for the capital, the plot of her lover dying due to an avalanche on the way to follow is not an unfounded fiction.
▲ Snow Mountain Meadow in Taheman Township, Ta County, Kashgar City. Photo by Zhang Yongfeng
Glaciers and snow-capped mountains are not only landscapes, but also the source of life. After the ice and snow covering the mountain melt, it rushes out from the high mountains on the west side of Kashgar, cutting the mountains into valleys and forming many rivers such as the Yarkand River and the Kashgar River. Where the river flows, plants such as red willows and weeds grow, and in the desert of Kashgar, a piece of oasis is spread.
It is precisely because of these oases that Kashgar, the secret land of the Western Regions, has a connection with the world.
▲ Taklamakan Desert Oasis in the Tarim Basin. Photo by Chai Jianghui
What is the Western Regions like? Come to Kashgar to find out!
Toynbee, a British historian, said that if he could live all over again, he would like to live in the Western Regions of ancient China. The term Western Regions has a unique style, and there is always a kind of magic that people yearn for. Kashgar is one of the most western regions.
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▲ The old city of Kashgar. Photography / Gu Hongwei
The pre-Qin classic "The Biography of Mu Tianzi" once described the Kunlun Mountains, including the Kashgar area. However, this jade-like oasis is widely known during the Western Han Dynasty.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian, Marquis of Bowang, sent an envoy to the Western Regions, which opened the gap between the central government and the Western Regions. Kashgar, which was called Shule at that time, began in 60 BC, and this area was under the jurisdiction of the Western Regions Protectorate established by the Western Han Dynasty.
▲ The stone town in Tashkurgan County, the place where Xuanzang passed through. Photo by Fang Thomas
According to the record of "Hanshu Western Regions Biography", at that time, there were 36 ancient kingdoms in the Western Regions, such as Shule, Qiuzi, Yanqi and Loulan. However, due to natural reasons such as wars and annexations, or the cut off of water sources, these small countries in the Western Regions rose and fell, but the ancient kingdom of Shule, located in the Kashgar region, lasted for thousands of years and became one of the famous "Four Towns of Anxi" in the Tang Empire.
In the Western Regions, deep inland, water is the eternal theme and the secret of Kashgar's thousand-year-old history. In the hearts of people who have traveled through thousands of miles of yellow sand and come from afar, Kashgar, with its oasis, is paradise. Therefore, Kashgar, located in the heart of Europe and Asia, has naturally become the most brilliant pearl on the ancient Silk Road.
▲ Kashgar City, where tradition and emerging meet. Photo/Visual China
For thousands of years, people of different colors have come and gone in the streets of Kashgar, and rare goods from the East and the West have been transferred in and out of Kashgar. Merchants, monks, and explorers came from different places, rested and recuperated in Kashgar, and set off again in good spirits. In these bustling crowds, there is the figure of Xuanzang, a high-ranking monk of the Tang Dynasty.
With the coming and going of people, the culture of the Central Plains of China, as well as the ancient Persian culture, ancient Indian culture, ancient Roman culture, as well as the Uygur, Tajik, Hui and many other ethnic minority cultures in the Western Regions of China, have been intertwined and integrated in Kashgar, weaving a prosperous life for thousands of years. To this day, Kashgar remains one of the important hubs of China's "Belt and Road" initiative and the first special economic zone in Chinese mainland.
As for the ancient city of Kashgar today, you can still get a glimpse of the lively scene of the past. The buildings with mud walls, colored gates, and horseshoe-shaped carved windows give people the illusion of time and space folding. Even, the movie "The Kite Runner", which tells the story of the redemption of the Afghan young master Amir, uses the ancient city of Kashgar as an important location for location.
▲ Overlooking the old city of Kashgar. Photo by Fang Thomas
In addition, on the streets of the ancient city of Kashgar, the Dongbula and Matouqin sounded from time to time, as well as the front yard of the hut full of melons and fruits, are full of the bustle and prosperity of the Western Regions. It is no exaggeration to say that all your imagination of the Western Regions can find satisfactory answers in Kashgar. It is no wonder that some people always sigh: if you don't go to Kashgar, you don't go to Xinjiang.
What is the taste of Kashgar?
Most of the time, taste is the most direct way for people to get to know a city. And the taste of Kashgar has to be found in the bazaar, tasted in the night market, and digested in the food.
The bazaar, that is, the bazaar, has the real appearance of Kashgar that has been washed away. In Kashgar, the bazaar is divided into specializations, and different goods have different bazaars, such as livestock bazaar, cloth bazaar, dried fruit bazaar, etc.
▲ Kashgar's cattle and sheep bazaar. Photo by Shen Tao
The colors of high saturation and the dazzling array of goods are like the old local saying: "You can see everything in the bazaar except your parents." "In particular, the East Gate Grand Bazaar, with 5,000 stalls and nearly 10,000 kinds of commodities, is the largest international trade market in the northwest of the mainland.
Kashgar in the bazar is rich and colorful, while Kashgar in the night market is boiling and lively. Mutton is the protagonist of food in Kashgar and even the entire northwest region.
▲ Above: dried fruits in Kashgar Bazar, below: yogurt gnocchi. Photography / Come on Wei Ontheway, Picture / Picture Worm Creative
"Come on, come on, the mutton is very fragrant, and the meat of the unmarried lamb baby is very tender!" Walking on the street, the enthusiastic boss often greets the guests like this.
▲ The mutton skewers in the Kashgar night market drooled when I saw it. Photo by Fang Thomas
In the Kashgar Night Market, the cauldron of tumbling haggis can be seen everywhere, and the boiling white foam rotates and chases around the pot, bringing a heat wave of mutton smell. On the board next to it, there are piles of sheep's heads, sheep's hooves, or rolls of sheep's intestines, and when they are lifted, they will make trembling waves. Slice the lamb intestines, scoop a spoonful of the lamb broth, and sprinkle some pepper at will, which is enough to attract customers to "smell".
▲ Kashgar gourmet haggis pot. Photo by Liu Yunze
In addition to haggis, Hu spicy sheep's trotters are also the light of Kashgar's night market. Different from the fat of the pig's trotters, the sheep's trotters require a lot of firewood, and the tight sheepskin tightly wraps the sheep's trotters, which is very chewy, and the fat under the sheepskin has a natural creamy sweetness, which is mixed with pepper and pepper to produce a rich fragrance. In one bite, you can't even bite the bone, and it's full of soft and waxy collagen.
▲ Kashgar sheep's trotters. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
On the side of the mutton stall, there is often a stove for roasting naan. Naan cakes with various patterns are arranged on the board, releasing bursts of wheat fragrance that people can't ignore.
▲ Naan production in the old city of Kashgar. Photo by Kang Hui
Naan wrapped meat is the night market memory of many Xinjiang friends. The lamb with bones is chopped into small pieces, stewed and then added with potatoes and carrots, and simmered into a very layered umami soup. Before serving, the whole naan is cut into small pieces, spread on the bottom of the plate, and the stew, radish, and potatoes are topped on top. The remaining soup is the essence of the whole dish, and after being drizzled, it is absorbed by the naan cubes laid out at the bottom of the plate. Compared to mutton, naan tastes better.
In addition, in addition to the seductive aroma of protein and carbs, the taste of Kashgar also has the mellow yogurt and the fragrance of melons and fruits.
The smell of various foods, complex and direct, blends into the unique taste of Kashgar. And this may be the charm code of the Western Regions.