Oasis

I’ve finally made it to Kashgar, the oasis city at the far western end of the Silk Road near the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.  Over the crossroad city’s two thousand year history, it has been variously under the rule of the Chinese, Turkic, Mongol, and Tibetan empires.  Its strategic location also made it important in the Russian and British empires’ so-called Great Game.

Of Kashgar’s 500,000 population, 80% are Uyghurs.