China is often described as the "last frontier." But tourists coming here may find its cities like Beijing and Shanghai could possibly be as prosperous as New York and Tokyo. To find China’s own frontier, you need to go far to the west of the country, at the tri-border area with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. There is a city called Kashgar, or Kashi, where the minority of Uigur live, and some of them still reside in their ancestral houses, built 600 years ago.
Kashgar is a city mixed with new fashions and the age-old traditions. A Ferris wheel stands at lakefront and the high platform behind it provides an excellent illustration for this. The Ferris wheel is part of a new neighborhood, while the platform, or a natural slope of yellow soil, earthy and huddled with old houses, was spared in reservation of part of the former Kashgar town, on site of which built the whole new city.
The reserved platform saved Uigur’s residential area. It was at least 600 years ago when Uigurs first set home there, and as historical record tells, their ancestors established a regime and built a palace at the same place in the 9th century AD. The palace was on a high cliff overlooking the entire region. Centuries ago, a flood from Pamirs cut the cliff off, and its southern part became what we call the “residential area on the high platform” today.
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