Current location:Culture Craft news portal > politics
'Drifters' Bring New Vitality to Ancient Xinjiang City
Culture Craft news portal2024-05-21 08:02:25【politics】3People have gathered around
IntroductionContact Us HomeNewsHighlightACWF NewsSocietyWom
- Home
- News
- People
- In-depth
- ACWF
'Drifters' Bring New Vitality to Ancient Xinjiang City
March 28, 2022Residents are seen in an alley in the ancient city of Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 6, 2021. [Xinhua/Hu Huhu] |
URUMQI, March 25 (Xinhua) — The ancient city of Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang, is home to one of the largest surviving group of earthen buildings in the world. Over the past decade, a group of young newcomers have settled down and injected vitality into the 400-year-old city.
Guoguo, a former soft furnishing designer in Shanghai, is one of these "drifters." After visiting Kashgar on a sketching expedition in 2018, he fell in love with the ancient city and decided to stay.
Now he and his wife run a store selling self-designed cultural products using traditional art skills and patterns.
For Guoguo, the historic city that stands on the ancient Silk Road is a living museum integrating both Eastern and Western civilizations. His understanding of the ancient city is embedded in his own artworks: Uygur patterns printed on the canvas, drawings of traditional dwellings on the paper made of morus bark, postcards with images of local musicians playing the rawap and the tambourine, as well as clay figurines of middle-aged Uygur men.
In 2019, he and many painting enthusiasts founded the "Urban Sketchers of Kashgar," a non-governmental organization aiming to portray the changing appearance of the ancient city. Now nearly 300 participants are involved in the organization, of which more than 100 are based in Kashgar.
To Guoguo and his peers, the former look of the ancient city was beyond belief. In an area of about 8 square km, there used to be over 200,000 people crammed into the primitive dwellings, which were vulnerable to natural disasters.
Kashgar's facelift began in 2010, when local authorities invested over 7 billion yuan (about 1.1 billion U.S. dollars) to refurbish the ancient city.
Within five years, 49,000 dilapidated houses were renovated under the premise of best preserving their original aesthetic. Today, the city not only provides local residents a more cozy, safer life, but also helps boost the local tourism industry, attracting new dwellers like Guoguo.
Li Jianhui, from Beijing, opened a 10-room hostel in the ancient city of Kashgar last year. "It's rare to have such a well-preserved ancient city that embodies the cultural elements of ethnic minority groups in China," said Li.
Yu Xiao and Wang Yunwang, from the central provinces of Hubei and Hunan respectively, are a couple. Yu provides photography services for tourists while Wang is a designer making traditional gold and silver jewelry. "We see great potential for the tourism industry in the ancient city," said Yu.
In the first 11 months of 2021, the ancient city of Kashgar received nearly 2.3 million tourists, up 183 percent year on year, with tourism revenue soaring by a whopping 486 percent. Many local residents have converted their houses into B&Bs, restaurants or handicraft shops to ride the wave of the burgeoning tourism industry, and see their life getting better and better.
(Source: Xinhua)
32.3KPlease understand that womenofchina.cn,a non-profit, information-communication website, cannot reach every writer before using articles and images. For copyright issues, please contact us by emailing: [email protected]. The articles published and opinions expressed on this website represent the opinions of writers and are not necessarily shared by womenofchina.cn.
Comments
Magazines
Projects
- 2023 Women Science and Technology Innovation Pioneer...
Photos
- People Enjoy Blooming Tulips in Jinan, East...
- Flowers Bloom Across China in Spring
Special Coverage
Address of this article:http://serbiaandmontenegro.popular-vines.com/news-30c799927.html
Very good!(88767)
Related articles
- Minnesota Uber and Lyft driver pay package beats deadline to win approval in Legislature
- Blinken assures US support of Black Sea allies as Ukraine urges military aid during conference
- Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises to 33,175: ministry
- Pic story of cultural relics guardian at Faxing Temple in N China
- Everybody may love Raymond, but Ray Romano loves Peter Boyle
- 3 Shanghai players score 20+points in win vs. Xinjiang
- Nyingchi greets peach blossoms
- Kipyegon and Duplantis set to star in Xiamen
- Children are evacuated from school 'during an exam' after threat made via email
- Composer's memories help shape the future
Popular articles
Recommended
Biden says Brown v. Board of Education ruling was about more than education
SW China's Guizhou awash in fragrant spring blossoms
What does science say about the ingredients in functional beverages?
2nd Airbus A320 assembly line project under construction in Tianjin
Analysis: Larson enters conversation with Verstappen as best drivers in the world
LeBron James becomes first player to score 40000 points
Alicia Keys is on fire in a stunning gold dress alongside husband Swizz Beatz as they joins A
161 ancient tombs unearthed in east China
Links
- OJ Simpson's alma mater, USC, stays conspicuously silent on his death despite honoring the ex
- What the long
- The Week in Politics: Coalition negotiations could be near the endgame
- NZ brothers remain behind bars after appearing in Phuket court
- Daylight saving: When it ends, why we observe it and how to change the time on your phone
- Dozens of jobs set to be axed at Commerce Commission
- Labour leader Chris Hipkins calls for a ceasefire in Israel Gaza conflict
- West Coast meat processor admits water quality failure
- Canada's Trudeau says he often mulls quitting his 'crazy job' but will stay on
- The tall man in a van taking the plunge around Aotearoa