Feature: In China's far west, a Silk Road trade hub awakens to tunes of times

Attendees of the 6th World Media Summit select souvenirs in the ancient city of Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Oct. 16, 2024. (Xinhua/Wang Yijie)

by Xinhua writers Ren Yaoti, Xu Lingui

KASHGAR, Xinjiang, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- It was 11 p.m. in Kashgar, a remote desert oasis city in northwest China, but there were few signs of the nightlife winding down.

In the city's old town, shops, food stands and art studios were still bustling with activity. Electric mini-buses carried tourists through a maze of crisscrossing alleys, lined with traditional mud-brick houses.

Deep in a back alley, traditional Uygur dance music blared out. A group of foreigners got off their mini-bus and joined the crowd in an open-air pub.

Omani media executive Fadi Kattar took to the dance floor, where three young Uygur children wowed the audience with their spontaneous dance moves. There was cheering, clapping and laughter.

"It was wonderful," said Kattar, who is with Muscat Media Group, adding that he liked the nightlife in Kashgar, where traditional music resembled that back home in the Middle East.

With Kattar were over two dozen journalists and media leaders from countries as diverse as France, Qatar, Indonesia, Mongolia, El Salvador and Equatorial Guinea. As participants in the 6th World Media Summit, held in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region this week, they were invited to travel to places around the vast region.

Kattar and his group were particularly enticed by the rich culture of the 2,000-year-old Kashgar, once a trading hub on the ancient Silk Road.

The old town, home to 40,000 people and a top tourist spot since 2015, is a must-see for its traditional Uygur architecture and culture. The government spent several years and a combined sum of 7 billion yuan (about 1 billion U.S. dollars) reinforcing the houses and giving the whole area a facelift.

Wensel Mavara, chairperson of the board of the Namibia Daily News, highlighted the preservation of local culture, which "gives this place a uniqueness that attracts tourists."

More importantly, the project has provided residents with tap water, heating systems, and commercial spaces, while also reinforcing the buildings to withstand strong earthquakes, he added.

Drawing on his experience in Nepal, Kishor Shrestha, chief editor of Jana Aastha National Weekly, emphasized that renovation of this sort is vital for people living in earthquake-prone areas.

"The renovation helped preserve our culture, and enabled locals like me to venture into new business," said Salamatgul Kari, a 34-year-old Uygur woman who was the first in the old town to turn her family houses into a hostel and a parlor providing dance performances for tourists.

Kashgar has experienced a tourism boom in recent years, with more Chinese and international visitors venturing into this part of the country to explore its diverse geography and rich cultural heritage.

According to government statistics, in the first eight months of this year, about 88,800 foreigners visited the city and nearby counties that constitute the prefecture of Kashgar.

REVIVE ANCIENT TRADING HUB

Taking the overseas media group around shops selling silk, pottery, spices, fur and carpets, tour guide Nurnigar Dolkun said these goods constituted the bulk of the caravan trade along the ancient Silk Road.

As the ancient Silk Road declined after the 15th century, following the Age of Discovery, the old trading hubs were left for centuries to wither in the dust of history.

In 2013, China put forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Part of its goal was to revive the ancient Silk Road. This has given Kashgar a chance to thrive once more, bearing in mind its proximity to Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The same year, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was launched as a flagship project of the BRI, connecting Kashgar with Pakistan's Gwadar Port on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

An attendee of the 6th World Media Summit makes purchase at the cross-border e-commerce import and export commodities exhibition and trading center in Kashgar Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Oct. 15, 2024. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)

In terms of trade, Kashgar is part of the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, giving it preferential policies on par with two dozen free-trade zones that represent China's top trading regions, including Shanghai, Fujian, and Guangdong.

Kashgar's free-trade zone was the very first stop for the overseas media group on its visit to the city on Tuesday. There, they learned about the planning and industrial layouts of the zone.

Waref Kumayha, president of the Silk Road Institute for Studies and Research in Lebanon, was keen to learn about issues like tax reductions for foreign investments and investment criteria for foreign businesses.

He nodded in delight after hearing that income tax for companies in the zone would be exempted or halved and there is no minimum investment requirement for foreign businesses. "Government policy support is crucial for a place's economic development," he said.

"We welcome friends from all over the world to invest in Kashgar," said Liu Guo, a local official in charge of investment promotion.

This year, a Kyrgyz logistics company began to operate in the zone. Officials said efforts are being made to further accelerate the logistics of China-Kyrgysztan cross-border trade.

According to Liu, Kashgar is trying to build a commodity processing and distribution hub linking China to the markets in Central Asia and South Asia.

Calling the free-trade zone in Kashgar a major and significant project, Salah Eddin Elzein, advisor to the director general of Al Jazeera Media Network, said that it not only enhances economic development in the region, but also benefits the entire country of China and the neighboring nations linked through various ports.

The rapid development of Kashgar relies not only on favorable free-trade policies, but also on substantial infrastructure development, the media leaders observed.

Kashgar is re-positioning itself as a transportation hub in China's far west, they were told. Flights from Pakistan can bring frozen seafood from the Indian Ocean directly to the tables of people in Xinjiang. Chinese electric vehicles are being exported to BRI partner countries through Kashgar.

Kashgar was designated as the starting point of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway. Construction is expected to finish in a couple of years' time.

"A more open and vibrant economy of Kashgar not only promotes China's development but also offers broader cooperation opportunities for foreign enterprises," said Khaled Moussa, managing editor of the Muscat Media Group.

The essence of China's BRI, Moussa said, is that "it benefits all."