Current location:Global Glance news portal > sport
'Drifters' Bring New Vitality to Ancient Xinjiang City
Global Glance news portal2024-05-17 17:38:40【sport】2People 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://turkmenistan.nashville-west.com/article-52a099883.html
Very good!(67726)
Related articles
- Nashville SC fires coach Gary Smith after 3
- Paris Hilton, 43, shows off her toned figure in a leopard
- Tara VanDerveer's longtime assistant Kate Paye takes over as new Stanford coach
- Mental health review to follow Sydney stabbing attack: Australian PM
- Indiana judge opens door for new eatery, finding `tacos and burritos are Mexican
- People are calling $700 AI gadget the worst piece of tech they've ever used
- NPR suspends whistleblower who exposed taxpayer
- Experts reveal the most stressful time of day... and how YOU can ease the pressure
- How Jeremy Clarkson, 64, won the title of the UK and Ireland's sexiest man
- Another record for New Jersey internet gambling revenue as in
Popular articles
- UNC interim chancellor backs AD Bubba Cunningham after trustee criticism, audit push
- Fritz Peterson, Yankees pitcher who traded wives with teammate, dies at 81
- Kourtney Kardashian breaks silence on her 'Auntie Karen' Houghton nearly a month after her death
- Trump goes from court to campaign at a NYC bodega
Recommended
Pink Princess and wannabe fashion designer Maria Chiara rocks DIY dress in Cannes
Mets rally in 7th and score the go
Barry Keoghan sports a Burberry bandana on his face as he playfully poses with Stormzy at Coachella
UnitedHealth Group, Morgan Stanley rise; PNC Financial, Live Nation fall, Tuesday, 4/16/2024
House votes to require delivery of bombs to Israel, rebuking Biden
Another record for New Jersey internet gambling revenue as in
Cops charge 'ringleader' of brutal illegal dog
Travel boom sees 740 mln trips made in 3
Links
- China to Continue Working with G20 Members on Global Digital Economic Paradigm: Xi
- Xi Calls for Solidarity to Build Asia
- China's anti
- China rolls out tasks to foster improved online environment
- Xi Orders All
- China Focus: CPC Continues Self
- China reaps fruits far beyond ice
- Vice Premier Stresses Gathering Positive Momentum in Fighting COVID
- Inner Mongolia advances Three
- Chinese People See off Comrade Jiang Zemin in Beijing