Current Time in Kashgar, China

Kashgar, known in the local Uyghur language as Kashi, is an ancient oasis city located in the far western region of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, near the convergence of borders with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. With a population of approximately 700,000 people in the city proper, Kashgar is one of the most remote cities in China and historically one of the most important crossroads of the Silk Road trade routes. The city sits at an elevation of about 1,290 meters above sea level on an oasis fed by the Tuman and Kashgar rivers at the western edge of the Taklamakan Desert.

Few cities in the world can claim the historical significance of Kashgar as a meeting point of civilizations. For more than two thousand years, Kashgar was the crucial junction where the northern and southern branches of the Silk Road converged before continuing westward across the Pamir Mountains into Central Asia. Merchants, monks, pilgrims, diplomats, and conquerors from China, India, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the Arab world all passed through the city, making it a melting pot of religions, languages, and cultures. Kashgar was a center of Buddhism before the arrival of Islam in the tenth century, which then became the dominant religion of the region. The city was ruled by various Central Asian dynasties, Mongol khans, and Chinese emperors over the centuries, each leaving their mark on its culture and architecture.

The heart of old Kashgar is its bazaar district and the Id Kah Mosque, one of the largest mosques in China. The Friday bazaar, held outside the mosque on Sundays and drawing traders and buyers from across the region, is one of the most vivid and culturally authentic market experiences in Central Asia. Uyghur craftspeople sell handmade knives, carpets, musical instruments, silk fabrics, and copper goods in the narrow lanes of the old city, maintaining artisan traditions that have persisted for centuries. The old city has undergone significant transformation in recent years as older mud-brick structures were demolished and replaced with reconstructed versions in a government-led urban renewal program, a controversial process that has changed the physical character of the historic core.

Kashgar's culture is predominantly Uyghur, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people who have inhabited the Tarim Basin for over a thousand years. Uyghur food, music, dance, and social customs give the city a distinctive Central Asian flavor that feels quite different from the Chinese cultural mainstream. The local cuisine features lamb kebabs, nan bread, polo rice pilaf, lagman noodles, and various dairy products, reflecting the culinary traditions shared with neighboring Central Asian cultures. Traditional Uyghur music and the Meshrep, a traditional community gathering with music, dance, and poetry, are important parts of local cultural life.

The economy of Kashgar is based on agriculture, trade, and increasingly tourism. The oasis farmlands produce cotton, wheat, and stone fruits, and animal husbandry is important in the pastoral areas. The Kashgar Special Economic Zone, established to promote trade across China's western borders, has attracted investment in manufacturing and trade infrastructure. Road connections through the Karakoram Highway to Pakistan provide a dramatic overland route through some of the world's highest mountain passes.

Kashgar's extraordinary history as the great crossroads of the Silk Road, its living Uyghur culture, and its dramatic frontier location between China and Central Asia make it one of the most fascinating and exotic cities in Asia, drawing intrepid travelers from around the world.