AND AWAY
& SPELLING
RELEVANT TO HOTAN
Uyghur: خوتەن |
A large earthquake struck deep in the Kunlun Mountains southeast of Hotan on 20-March-2008. Although there was damage in small villages in the hills, there was no damage in Hotan, 225 km away from the epicenter, nor in Keriya / Yutian, north of the quake, and there was no impact on transport or tourism on the main roads. |
In one place, this page has central and area maps, lodging and dining recommendations, sightseeing information, and transportation details. There is so much to see and do in Hotan!
Enjoy the vast array of delights in this largest city on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert, in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Observe the ancient handicrafts practiced here for two millennia. See silk made by hand in the ancient tradition from cocoon to the colorful King of Silk. On the other side of town, see the entire process in a 1950s-era mechanized factory. Watch carpets tied by hand in age-old patterns. Observe precious jade being carved into fantastic shapes, and paper made by hand from mulberry bark and desert plants.
Visit the excellent museum in its newer, larger facility that brings together the region's 5,000 years of human history on the crossroads of Indian, Central Asian, Chinese, Russian, Middle Eastern and even Greek cultures, a corridor for and center of shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism and Islam. Plus the museum offers an entire floor of more recent cultural treasures of jade, carpets, silk, ethnic attire, jewelry, musical instruments and Uyghur traditional medicine.
Visit a Sunday bazaar that rivals any in Central Asia for size and variety, then stop by Hotan's nearby main mosque. Or head out on Thursday nearby to a weekly tiny bazaar and festivalin the desert an ancient sacred site of pilgrimage at the edge of the desert, with its ancient shrine, tomb and mosque.
Beat the heat along more than 1,500 kilometers of shady grapevine-covered corridors in the county, or in one just outside your hotel door.Wander around neighborhoods with traditional Uyghur architecture. Watch nightly authentic Uyghur traditional music and dancing. Eat rice-based polo or noodle-based 
langmen from bottomless cauldrons in busy Uyghur restaurants and nibble your way along the stalls of an ancient night market, with sizzling lamb kebabs, mountains of fresh melons, stacks of nut bars and an endless variety of other treats.
But the old and new exist side-by-side in ancient Hotan. Marvel at the dramatic modern architecture in the center around the enormous Unity Square. Dance the night away at a score of flashy night clubs, grab a burger or fried chicken at a Chinese chain, wander the endless aisles of three enormous supermarkets, pick your live seafood for dinner from two walls of tanks in a new restaurant more than 2,500 kilometers from any ocean, or watch the world pass by as you linger at a number of modern coffee bars or internet cafes.
Spend Y20 to Y2,000 per night on a range of accommodations. Visit different nearby ancient ruins from this fabled Silk Road kingdom, by taxi, by 4WD, or by an overnight camel caravan. Wander along the bed of the Yorungkash River, whose jade has been traded from here to central China for more than three thousand years, washed down from the fabled Kunlun mountains of immortality, home of the Great Mother Goddess of the West.
You can reach Hotan easily with daily inexpensive flights from Urumqi. Or travel on quality new sealed asphalt highways on many daily air-conditioned buses from Kashgar (500 km), Aksu (500 km), Korla (1000 km), or Urumqi (1500 km), choosing to watch the desert and oasis scenery from a seat bus or go overnight on a sleeper bus.
For the more adventurous, Hotan can be your gateway to two lesser-known routes into Tibet. The first is through remote western Tibet from nearby Karghilik / Yecheng, where you can reach the Tsaparang, the ancient hilltop capital of the Guge Kingdom, and the holy Mount Kailash. The other route is via a series of legs across southern Xinjiang and through Qinghai Province to Golmud, where you can catch the train to Lhasa. Through this latter route -- shunned by ancient China but well-known to and used by the locals, Tibetans, and Mongolians for their Silk Road trade and made famous by Ella Maillart's 'Forbidden Journey'-- you can also reach Dunhuang, Xining or Lanzhou.
This page has details on lodging, eating, transportation and sightseeing. See the Table of Contents.
POPULATION
City of Hotan: 114,000 (2006), predominantly Uyghur
TELEPHONE AREA CODE: 0903
Large versions, up to 600 pixels high or wide, of the author's photographs at this site can be seen by clicking on the thumbnails here. Even larger versions of the author's photographs, up to 2000 pixels high or wide, can be found at the author's Flickr site, as well as a hundred additional photos of Hotan.
Several of the images and all the quoted text on this page are the copyright of people other than the author. To the extent that copyright, ownership or source is known to the author, it has been noted. If not owned by the author of this page, but ownership is not known, "Source: Unknown" is listed. All other material is copyright © centralasiatraveler.com. The copyright, noted at the end of this page, applies to the author's photographs and text but does not extend to these images and text belonging to others.
ORIENTATIONHotan is on the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert and just north of the Kunlun Mountains, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Coordinates: 37°06'11"N 79°55'44"E.
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Hotan Oasis, 1900 |
The city is in a major oasis between two rivers, the Yorungkash / White Jade River to the east and the Karakash / Black Jade River to the west. Although a small city by Chinese standards, with about 114,000 inhabitants, it is by far the largest city and in the largest oasis along the southern rim of the Tarim Basin.
At 1,410 m above sea level, Hotan is the highest of the oases in the Tarim Basin. (In contrast, the lowest point in Xinjiang is the Turpan Depression (Tulufan Pendi), along the western edge of the Gobi Desert in eastern Xinjiang, which is the lowest point in all of Asia, at 154 metres below sea level, and the second lowest non-oceanic point on the earth's surface after the Dead Sea.)
The city’s name is often also spelled Khotan, especially in recent older sources. The Pinyin transliteration of the Chinese name is Hetian. See A Note about Names and Spelling for some of Khotan's other names throughout history, and a long list of Chinese and English names related to Hotan.
DistancesHotan is located along Highway 315, which runs from Kashgar, 519 km to the west, to Xining in Qinghai Province. Niya / Minfeng is 394 km east and Cherchen / Qiemo is 605 km to the east.
Korla is 1,045 km to the northeast across the Taklamakan Desert on the Tarim Highway, and Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, is 463 km further north. For more distances along the southeastern rim, see the distances chart on the Niya / Minfeng page at this site.
New Cross Desert Highway from HotanA new highway, opened in October 2007, was built from Hotan in the south 430 km to Alar, at the confluence of the Hotan River and the Tarim River, where the highway joins up with the existing road 30 kilometers north to Aksu. At Aksu, it joins Highway 314, which runs along the north side of the Taklamakan Desert. This new highway generally follows the route of the Hotan River, which was also a significant ancient ancient trading route.
This is the Taklamakan's second cross-desert highway, joining the Tarim Highway, which runs from Niya / Minfeng to Bügür / Luntai. The author has only seen this called the Hotan-Alar Highway so far. This new highway shortens the distance from Hotan to Aksu and to northern Xinjiang by some 300 km. But the total distance to Korla and Urumqi using the new highway is only about 30 km shorter than the Tarim Highway.
Hotan City, County and PrefectureOn this page, unless otherwise specified, Hotan refers to the city. Hotan is also the name of Hotan County, 和田县 Hetian Xian, which is one of seven counties in Hotan Prefecture, 和田地区 Hetian Diqu, shown in the map to the left.
Politically, Hotan City - 和田市 Hetian Shi - is a county-level city. It is shown in the map to the right, in Chinese with some English place names. (This map was originally found at VB Good Maps.) Hotan City is administratively distinct from Hotan County and is nestled between Hotan, Karakash / Moyu and Lop / Luopu Counties.
Hotan County covers the area south to the borders of Tibet and India. See a map of Hotan County below under Maps.
Inthe entire Hotan Prefecture, 96 percent of the population of about two million is Uyghur. This is a higher Uyghur population ratio than Kashgar Prefecture (89 percent) or in any other prefecture in Xinjiang. The Han Chinese population is higher the closer one gets to the center of Hotan city, though they are still a clear minority.
About 20 percent of Uyghurs here speak Chinese. In employment, 70 percent of Uyghurs are employed in agriculture, 20 percent in government, 8 percent in wholesale or other trades, and 2 percent in private retail such as hotels, shops, and restaurants.
For some additional background on Hotan, check out the Hotan page at Wikipedia.
MAPS
You can buy a printed map of Hotan, in Chinese only, at most good hotels for about Y5. But this street map, to the left, developed by the author from a Chinese map, should suffice for most needs.
To the right is a satellite image of central Hotan, which approximately matches the street map to the left.
In the new edition (2007) of 'Lonely Planet - China,' the editors finally decided Hotan was getting enough travelers to rate a center street map. Unfortunately, a few things are not quite right. (This is a tiny drop of error in that excelent volume containing oceans of extremely useful, detailed information for the visitor to China.) There is still a PSB station in Hotan where marked, but the Aliens Entry and Exit Administration office, which can process visa extensions, has recently moved to the PSB office near the Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang) across Beijing Street and a few buildings east at 92 Beijing Xi Lu. Also, on the Lonely Planet map, the Hotan Yingbinguan is shown a block north of its actual location.
The 'Lonely Planet - China' map of Hotan, like the printed map you can buy mentioned above, places the name Dixia Jie on a portion of Beijing Xi Lu near the traffic circle. Dixia (地下 dì xià) means underground / subterranean and Jie (街 jiē) is street, and there is an underground shopping mall in that area. But the street name above is still Beijing.
Hotan's most significant suburb for travelers is Jiya Township, shown in the satellite image to the right, northeast of central Hotan. Located in Jiya Township are the Gillam Karakhana carpet workshop, the Atlas silk workshop, the Imam Asim complex with its shrine, mosque and Thursday market, and the Rawak Stupa. The author does not have the exact locations of the carpet workshop or the Atlas silk workshop, so if a reader visits there with a GPS receiver, getting the coordinates would be appreciated. The carpet workshop is said to be just 5 km from the city center, while the Atlas silk workhop is 30 km from the center.
A larger area map is shown to the left. This is a satellite image of the northeast area of the Hotan oasis. On this map are the Yorungkash River, central Hotan in the lower left and the Rawak Stupa in the upper right. Also shown are the Imam Asim shrine,
Street Names
To get around in Hotan, it's a great help for the visitor to learn six words and characters in Chinese: west, east, north, south and two words for street. Almost all the central streets include these words.
| 路 lu (lǔ) (street) | 西 xi (west) | 南 nan (south) |
| 街 jie (jiē) (street) | 东 dong (east) | 北 bei (north) |
The city is centered a few blocks east of the new Unity Square. For directional naming, the east-west axis division is at Beijing. The north-south axis division is called Wenhua north of Beijing and Ying Bin south of Beijing. Thus, the main east-west street, Beijing, is called Beijing Xi Lu (Beijing West Street) and Beijing Dong Lu (Beijing East Street) to either side of Wenhua / Ying Bin.
Highway 315, the main east-west highway along the southern rim of the Taklamakan, bypasses the center along the north and east side of the central district. The main northwest-southeast street is Taibei, called Taibei Xi Lu and Taibei Dong Lu.
Yorungkash and Karakash
The closest river to the center is the Yorungkash Darya or White Jade River is a few kilometers east of the center. The other, to the west, is the Black Jade River or Karakash Darya. (Actually, in Uyghur, kash means river banks, but the translation from the Chinese name, with jade, has stuck in English.) North of Hotan, the two rivers merge and become the Hotan River. The Hotan River used to cross the Taklamakan and merge with the Tarim River, but now stops short and disappears into the sands. You can see both rivers in the map of the Hotan oasis above under Orientation.
Hotan County
To the left is a map of Hotan County, in Chinese with some English place names. The map also include parts of Karakash / Moyu County, Goma / Pishan County, Lop / Luopu County, and Chira / Cele County. A higher-resolution version of this map is available at the author's Flickr site. This map was originally found at VB Good Maps
To the right is a detail section of the central portion of this Hotan County map, along Highway 315, which may be more convenient for printing and has higher resolution (for those who may not have access to Flickr).
Aksai Chin
A large portion of southern Hotan County is a plain called the Aksai Chin, also called the Ling-Zi Thang Plain in Tibetan. This area is marked on the Hotan County map to the left and is shown in the regional map to the right. The Aksai Chin was ceded by treaty by Tibet to British India in the early 1900s, but since China does not recognize Tibet's independence from China at that time, it does not recognize the treaty. China took control of the Aksai Chin in a border war with India in 1962, but India still claims the territory as part of the state of Kashmir, the whole of which it disputes with Pakistan. This and other land disputes, including a large section to the east of Bhutan, controlled by India but claimed by China, keep relations between India and China a bit frosty. There are no openland border crossings between India and China, and there are few direct flights between the two countries. The two countries do have diplomatic relations and embassies, however, and their citizens and goods are allowed to travel between the countries, just not directly.
This dipute has been economically extremely difficult for Hotan and the surrounding area, as well as for Ladakh, because traders have travelled between the Ladakh region of today's India and southern Xinjiang for more than 2,500 years. The 1873 map to the left shows the passes across the mountains that these travelers had used.
A healthy trade, however, has been bustling between Pakistan and Xinjiang, especially since the completion of the Karakoram Highway. Pakistan, which claims Kashmir as its territory, has signed a treaty accepting China's claim to the Aksai Chin, and has also ceded additional territory, which India also still claims, in part in exchange for China's constructing the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan.
The area of today's southeastern Xinjiang has long had ties with today's Pakistan going back thousands of years. One of the major cultural influence on southern Xinjiang, from even before the founding of the ancient Kingdom of Khotan in the mid-third century BCE, was from the Gandhara area of today's northern Pakistan as well as the Bactrian area of today's western Afghanistan, which can be see in the map to the right..
China's main road from Xinjiang thorough western Tibet, Highway 219, goes through the Aksai Chin region, between the Kunlun Mountains and the Karakoram Mountains. The highway begins in Karghilik / Yecheng, 328 km west of Hotan. It's 1,187 km from Karghilik / Yecheng to Ali / Shiquanhe, the first town of any size in western Tibet. Then it's 250 km from Ali to Darchen, where one can begin the kora around the sacred Mount Kailash. A further 440 km takes one to Saga, and another 450 km to Shigatse, Tibet's second largest city and home to the Tashilhunpo monastery. Lhasa lies a further 266 km beyond Shigatse, for a total of about 2,600 km from Karghilik / Yecheng to Lhasa. Except in winter, one can take a bus three days a week for a 39 hour trip, over three passes near or exceeding 5,000 meters, from Karghilik / Yecheng to Ali / Shiquanhe in Tibet.
To the left is a map of Xinjiang, a road map with distances shown in kilometers, mainly in Chinese with some place names in English.
To the right is a more detailed map of Xinjiang, also a road map with distances in kilometers, also in Chinese, with some place names in English added by the author. (Both of these maps were found at Vbgood Maps.)
The second one has more place names listed, but this makes it also more difficult to read. Both of these are older maps, so they may not show newer roads, such as the new cross-desert 
highway between Hotan and Aksu (which opened in October 2007 and roughly follows the Hotan River), or the extension of the railway to Kashgar, which was completed in 1999. The author has added to these maps the spur road from Tazhong to Highway 315 near Cherchen / Qiemo.
The links from the images give medium-resolution versions of these maps at this site.Higher resulution versions of these Xinjiang maps are available at the author's Flickr site: left Xinjiang map (1535 x 1273) and right Xinjiang map (2078 x 1370).
A large format (2196 x 1547) map of Xinjiang in English is available at Xinjiang Map at Maps of China. The author offers the reader three caveats about that English map. First, to download the map, which is actually in six file segments, one must right-click on each of the segments and then use a graphics program to paste them together. Second, this map erroneously shows the Tarim Highway reaching Highway 315 at Andirlingar, rather than near Niya / Minfeng, an error of 110 km to the east. Third, this map does not show distances.
BankThe main Bank of China branch in Hotan is at the corner of Aqial Xi Lu and Urumqi Nan Lu. It has an ATM that accepts foreign cards. Inside, the bank gives cash advances on credit or debit cards. The bank window has icons for Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, and JBC. The bank will exchange US dollars, Euros, Hong Kong dollars and British pounds, Japanese Yen, among other currencies.
There is also a more central Bank of China branch at 28 Beijing Xi Lu, near Wenhua (near Unity Square - Tuanjie Guangchang), which also has an ATM that accepts foreign cards. The author does not know if this staff in this branch can give credit card advances or exchange foreign currency. If you find out, please let us know.
The main PSB office is at 92 Beijing Xi Lu, almost a block east of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang), on the north side of the street. This location has an Aliens Entry and Exit Administration office, which will process 30-day visa extensions in one day, but only if you have a week or less remaining on your current visa. (This is a newer location for the PSB with the AEEA office than the one given in older guides.)
和田国际旅行社Chinese pinyin: he tian gou ji lui xing she
Uyghur transliteration: hoten helik ara sayahetchilik coprativy
Tel: 0903 251 6090, Fax: 0903 251 2845, Mobile: 13 999 653 711, Address: Tunken Lu 23, Hotan, Xinjiang, China 878000
Manager: Gigi Kwok
The Hotan International Travel Service isthe local branch of the government's official China International Travel Service (CITS). Its full name is the China Xinjiang Hotan International Travel Service.
It is located on Tunken Lu. Tunken Lu (formerly called Tambagh) turns southeast where Urumqi Nan Lu ends, two very long blocks south of Beijing Xi Lu. The CITS is just a few doors down from where the road bends, on the west side of the street. The agency is on the bottom floor of a three-story concrete building. The entry gate has large red granite pillars flanking it.
The folks at the CITS are quite friendly and helpful, especially Gigi Kwok, noted above, who speaks Mandarin and English, and Kurban, who speaks Uyghur, Mandarin, and English. They are well informed about their area.
They can arrange tours for individuals or groups, for a day or many days, to one or many of the sights in the area. For custom tours, in May-October, CITS charges Y150 per day for a guide; in winter, the fee is Y100 per day. CITS can also help arrange for permits and camel caravans to the ancient cities in the desert, from an overnight to Rawak to a week or longer to Karadong or Niya.
There are many Internet cafes in central Hotan. Ask at your hotel for the closest place. Crazy Boy Internet Cafe is next door to Lokman Restaurant.
The main China Post office is on Beijing Xi Lu, just a few doors east from the Hotan Museum on the corner of Beijing Xi Lu and Xi Huai Lu. This office can accept international parcels; don't seal the box until it is inspected at the post office.
The main bus station is on Tai Bei Xi Lu just northwest of Hong Xing Jie. Tel: 0903 203 2700.
The east bus station (dong che zhan) - for Niya / Minfeng and Cherchen / Qiemo and points along the way - is at _______________, near the corner of _________. Tel: 0903 ___ ____. To reach the east bus station, catch bus #10 at the main bus station and take it to the end of the line. Use the east bus station for buses to Keriya / Yutian, Niya / Minfeng, Cherchen / Qiemo, and all points in between. (The author is seeking the address and telephone number of the east bus station. If you visit, please note this info to share and also take a photo.)
See bus schedules below under Getting There and Away.
The Hotan Airport (IATA: HTN, ICAO: ZWTN) is just southwest of town. 0903 251 2178
Three daily flights to/from Urumqi. See information on flights below under Getting There and Away.
和田迎宾馆 Uyghur name: Marhaba
Tel: 0903 202 2824, Fax: 0903 202 7000, 42 Tanaiyi Bei Lu
The Hotan Yingbinguan is an old standby with a large new building, on Tanaiyi near the corner of Navakh / Nawage. Listed prices for the main building in 11/2006: Deluxe Suite Y1880, Suite Y880, Triple Y288, Standard Y268, Single Y268, Common Y180. Much less expensive rooms -- Standard with bath negotiable to Y120 or less -- are in the older building to the northwest of the new main building. There are also three-bed dormitory rooms in the older building, sharing a bathroom and showers in the hall for Y20 per bed. Room rates include breakfast served in the small dining room just north of and adjacent to the new main building, or ask them to knock an additional Y20 off the room rate if you'll not be indulging. The dining room also serves lunch and dinner with a limited menu, in Chinese only; ask for its hours of operation.
和田宾馆 (he tian bin guan). Restaurant on premises.
Tel: 0903 251 3563 or 251 3564, Fax: 0903 251 3570
On the west side of Urumqi Nan Lu, a long half-block south of Beijing Xi Lu.
With three stars, the Hotan Hotel is one of the high-end traditional hotels in Hotan, and was formerly the main foreigner hotel. It is more pleasant, overall, than the Hotan Yingbinguan. Posted rates in 11/2006: Deluxe suite 880, Suite 680, Single 320, Standard Room 380, Triple Room 280.
The Hotan Hotel seems to have been recently renovated. The Hotan Hotel has a pleasant advantage, especially in the summer - acres of walkways covered in grapevine trellises along mini-orchards and vegetable gardens behind the hotel. Perhaps non-guests can slip in and enjoy this attractive oasis in the big city. Very nice rooms have bottled hot and cold water dispensers and air conditioning. The hotel has a good restaurant just to the right of the lobby, with Chinese and Uyghur dishes, average Y10-25, extensive menu in Uyghur and Chinese only.
浙江 Zhè Jiāng 大酒店 Da Jiǔ Diàn Fancy Hotel and Ri Yue Xin Guang Night Club
9 Beijing Xi Lu
Zhejiang is a new fancy four-star hotel on Beijing Xi Lu, probably the fanciest place in town. It's just east of the northeast corner of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang). Posted prices in 11/2006: Common Room 418, Standard Room 458, Single Room 468, Suite 788, Deluxe Suite 988. Sleek, modern lobby and sleek, modern rooms with a sleek, modern night club on the third floor, and the Hai Jing Xuan Muslim restaurant on the second floor.
伊奇 Yi Qi
Tel: 204-0299. Corner of Ying Bin Lu and Aqial Xi Lu
The Ilqi Hotel just opened in fall 2006, and seems a very pleasant midrange hotel. Posted prices in 11/2006: Deluxe suite Y888, Suite Y666, Single Room Y148, Standard Room Y180, O'Clock Room (hourly rental) Y60. The plus, for this author, is the restaurant. (See below under Eating and Entertainment.) The hotel is named after a former name of Hotan. In relatively recent times, the old city was called Ilchi. Ilchi is also the name of the pass across the Kunlun Mountains just south of Hotan.
Across the street from the Ilqi Hotel on Ying Bin Lu is the popular Hao Lai Wu disco and night club. (See below under Eating and Entertainment.)
Jiao Tong Traffic Hotel交通 (jiāo tōng)
Tel 0903-2032700 or 2022622. This is the usual "traffic hotel" of any Chinese town, just next door to the bus station. The stairways rise around a pleasant small courtyard. Posted prices in 11/2006: Ordinary four-bed dorm room Y15/bed, ordinary three-bed room Y20/bed, ordinary two-bed room Y30/bed. There is a small restaurant behind the lobby, facing the bus yard, with space for hot-pots in each table. The restaurant has several private dining rooms and a small bar.
Hotan is the best city for Uyghur food. There are many Uyghur restaurants clustered near the main bus station, which are especially lively in the evening. There's also a large night market south of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang).
If you're looking for take-away in the morning, pick up a tasty goshkurdah - a large fried pastry stuffed with lamb, potatoes and onions. It is the staple lunch of Hotan farmers, much larger than a samsa -- and a bit juicy, so lean over before you bite in.
Lokman Restaurant
tel: 202 9744, on Zhong Nan Hai Lu (on or near Navakh / Navage, just west of Ta Nai).
The author didn't get the exact address, though it is very central and should be easy to findi.
老科曼餐厅 Lao Ke Man Can Ting
Open every day (local time, 2 hours later than Beijing time) at either 08:00 (if they are serving breakfast) or 10:00 (if not a breakfast day) until 23:00.
The best place in town for Uyghur food is the Lokman Restaurant. This place is always packed with Uyghur and some Han Chinese folks eating good food in large quantity. The chef has always has six iron pots of polo (traditional Uyghur rice and lamb) and other Uyghur staples cooking on a rotating gas grill. The Laghman is also excellent -- hand-pulled noodles with vegetables and lamb. Try the Tiger Salad if you like it spicy. The extensive menu, in Uyghur, Chinese and English, has the best selection in Xinjiang. For getting a little something to eat later, Lokman also has a tasty bakery counter and you can buy bottles of pomegranate juice.
Uyghur name: hutan wilayetlik tihnik ixchilar mektipi milli axpez terbiyelex merkizi resturani
Chinese: 和田地区技工学校民族烹饪培训中心餐厅 He Tian Di Qu Ji Gong Xue Xiao Min
English sign says "Restaurant of Hotan Technian School Cooking Training Centel"
Zhu Peng Ren Pei Xun Zhong Xi Can Ting
Tel: 256 2777. 222 Urumqi Bei Lu, at the corner of Tai Bei Xi Lu
Don't let the name fool you, though it is also a training center. This is a very large restaurant with elegant wooden decor. It has an extensive Uyghur menu, written in Uyghur and Chinese only, for a mostly Uyghur clientele. The first menu has 18 pages, with prices from Y5 to 65, mostly in the Y15-25 range. The second is a banquet menu, with dishes for 8-12 people ranging from Y250 to 800 each.
This establishment offers nightly authentic Uyghur music and dancing, unless it's closed for a Uyghur wedding or other celebration. Music starts about 21:00 Xinjiang time and goes for four hours.
Hotan Hotel Restaurant 和田宾馆 (he tian bin guan)
Cuisine: Chinese and Uyghur
Average prices: Y10-25
The Hotan Hotel has a nice restaurant, with a twelve-page menu of Chinese and Uyghur dishes, in Chinese and Uyghur only. If you left your phrasebook behind, likely someone on the hotel staff, just through the door, speaks some English. The restaurant opens at 10:00. The twenty tables are all large, round, and family style with a rotating tray.
伊奇 (yi qi)
Tel: 204 0299. Corner of Ying Bin Lu and Aqial Xi Lu
Cuisine: Seafood.
Average prices: Y10-25
This hotel's restaurant is primarily for seafood, which is obvious as the diner walks along the twenty or so tanks, with waterfalls, and selects one's very fresh meal. A seafood restaurant seems surprising in this most landlocked corner of China on the rim of a desert.
The extensive menu is posted on the wall, in the same room as the tanks, with more than 100 dishes shown in photos with the Chinese names and prices. Ilqi was an name for the old city of Hotan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is still a name of a pass throuth the Kunlun Mountains.
Uyghur: Tash Yurti Tiz Tamakhanisi
Cuisine or main dish types: Uyghur
Price range: 3-7
This Uyghur fast food place is on the east side of Ta Nai Bei Lu, just a few doors south of the Hotan Ying Binguan and north of Beijing Xi Lu. The menu is posted outside, in Uyghur and Chinese, with quite reasonable prices.
维利麦汉堡 (wéi lì mài hàn bǎo)
Cuisine: Burgers, french fries, chicken, sundaes
Price range: burgers Y6-10, fried chicken Y7/piece
This burger joint is across the street east of the northeast corner of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang). A counter menu with photos and prices makes ordering easy. No McDonalds or KFC in town (yet), per CITS staff.
汯瑞 (hóng ruì) 夜店 (yè diàn - night club) ruì - lucky / auspicious / propitious
Located on the east side of Urumqi Bei Lu, north of Navakh (na wa ge).
好莱坞 (hǎo lái wù - Hollywood) 夜店 (yè diàn - night club)
This popular night spot is on the west side of Ying Bin Lu just north of Aqial Lu, across the street from the new Ilqi Hotel.
Ri Yue Xing Guang Night Club 日月星光 (rì yuè xīng guāng) (Sun Moon Starlight) 夜店 (yè diàn - night club)
This night club is on the third floor of the Zhejiang Hotel.
A fancy coffee place on the northeast corner of Tanaiyi Lu and Navakh (na wa ge), just north of the Hotan Yingbinguan.
Your Heart Feels Peaceful Coffee / Tea House静心然休闲吧 (jing xin ran xiu xian ba)
A fancy, small coffee / tea house on the west side of Urumqi Nan Lu, south of the Bank of China.
Wang Ke Long Supermarket王客隆超市 (wang ke long chao shi - King of Popularity)
This large supermarket is upstairs in the covered shopping mall at about 100 Beijing Xi Lu. The mall is almost directly north of the northeast corner of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang). Very large store with almost no Western foods.
Hao Di Fang Supermarket 好地方 (Nice Place)
This large supermarket is up the escalator in the large glass and steel building east of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang), a few doors down from Beijing Xi Lu. Large store with almost no Western foods.
There is also a supermarket in the main bazaar. Just after passing through the main archway into the bazaar, the supermarket is in the basement of the building to the right.
Closer to the center than the main bazaar, an indoor fruit and vegetable market is found on Hong Xing Jie, between Navakh / Nawage and Tai Bei Xi Lu.
Night MarketGreat Uyghur food is to be had every night in the stalls at the night market on Tanaiyi Nan Lu, a block south of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang).
There are also many Uyghur restaurants clustered in the area of the bus station. These are also more active at night.
From the Hotan CITS, you can get a 40-page color brochure about sights in Hotan, published by the Foreign Affairs and Tour Administrative Office of Hotan District. You can read the text of this document here. The brochure is undated though it seems several years old.
If you only have one day to spend in Hotan,. In the morning, head for the Gillam Karakhana Carpet Workshop and the Atlas Silk Workshop, which are both in Jiya Township. Plan to arrive about 08:00 Beijing time / 10:00 local time. Try to continue north of the Atlas Silk Workhop to see the Imam Asim Shrine Complex, especially on Thursdays when the market is in swing. Then head back to the center for lunch at the Lokman Restauant. Then wander the Bazaar and perhaps stop by the Juma (Friday) Mosque. Take a taxi to see the Hotan Museum or the Hotan Jade Factory. In the evening, wander through the large Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang) and have appetizers at the lively night market one block south, then head for dinner at the Technical Cooking School Restaurant, with live Uyghur music nightly 09:00 until 01:00. (This is local time, two hours later than Beijing time.)
To try to make the above all happen in a day, unless you speak Uyghur or Chinese, you may want to contact the Hotan International Travel Service in advance to ask if they can arrange for a translator / guide for the day, for about Y150-200. But if you have a lot of energy, you can probably make do on your own with taxis -- although you'll want to negotiate with one taxi to take you to all three sights in Jiya Township and wait for you, because not too many taxis ply that route.
For a more leisurely single day, skip the carpet workshop, the Mazar Imam Asim, and the Juma Mosque.
To give yourself more time for sightseeing and spend time in transport, look into flying from Urumqi to Hotan and back from Kashgar to Urumqi. See Airport below for more details. Instead of 20+ hours on a bus to Hotan and 23 hours on a train from Kashgar, you can spend a few hours at the airport and on flights and have much more time for sightseeing. For example, the luxury, air-conditioned sleeper bus fare from Urumqi to Hotan is Y374. With the 60% discount plus about Y150 in fees, the one-way airfare from Urumqi to Hotan is Y680. Add in an inexpensive hotel room instead of sleeping on the bus and flying is still only about twice as much as the bus.
If you have two days, spread the above out over the two days, and be sure to take some time to just wander in the Uyghur neighborhoods, and catch the remnant of the city wall on the west site of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang). You may want to include the Shatuo Silk Factory -- as a contrast to the hand-made process at the Atlas Silk Workshop -- or take a taxi to the Melikawat ruins south of town. On your second night, check out the lively street night life east of the main bus station.
Tuanjie Guangchang (Unity Square) 团结广场 tuán jié guǎng chǎng
This large square is actually quite new to the city. It was built in 2004, after they tore down much of the old center and most of the remaining old city wall. Remnants of the wall can be seen west of the square.
The statue at the north end has a large statue Mao Zedong greeting southern Xinjiang resident Kurban Tulum. Read more about Kurban Tulum here.
Briefly, as the story goes, Tulum (whom the Chinese call Uncle Kurban) was a Uyghur electrical worker, born in 1883, was relieved by the arrival of the People's Liberation Army, which promised relief from the corrupt Republican politicians and the fierce warlords who had controlled Xinjiang. He set out on a donkey (or donkey cart) from Keriya / Yutian County, planning to go to Beijing to bring Mao some fruit (some stories -- more likely -- say raisins, others say a melon). When he had gotten as far as Urumqi, more than 1,500 km away, long before any paved roads, the party officials were so impressed, they reported back to Beijing, where Mao asked for him to be flown to Beijing to meet him.
This statue, and a similar but smaller one in nearby Keriya / Yutian, are the only monumental public sculptures in all of China in which Mao is depicted with another person. The Chinese government presents Tulum as they would like all Uyghurs to respond to the government's policies in Xinjiang, and much of the Uyghur popluation resent him for the same reason. Further tellings of the story have Tulum older, with a more tragic life, and/or coming from the better-known Hotan or Kashgar.
At the south end of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang) is a column monument with a large boulder with carved map of China. The quote on the monument has old Chinese characters that say, "Five stars rising (in the) east (is) auspicious (for) China." This refers to a rare conjunction of five planets, and has a historical relevance in China. These older characters were found embroidered on a brocade armband in ancient Niya 450 km to the east dating to the third century CE. These are the modern Chinese characters for what is written: 五星出东方利中国.
Jade has been the claim to fame for Hotan and the entire southern rim of the Taklamakan for more than 3,500 years. It would be unfortunate not to see some jade being carved or at least buy a little nephrite bauble as a souvenir.
Until recently, you could have joined thousands of locals hunting for jade in the two main rivers in Hotan. But due to the enormous increase in the cost of the jade in recent years -- reaching 40 times the value of gold for the best 'mutton fat' white jade -- hundreds of thousands of people had come to Hotan prospect for jade, damaging their livelihoods as well as the ecology of the river systems. Many poor people had gone deeply into debt investing in heavy equipment on the hopes of striking it rich. From Google Earth satellite images, you can see the tracks of these earth movers, bulldozers and shovels along the Yorungkash / White Jade River.
Finally, in fall of 2007, the government acted to put stringent limits on jade prospecting in or near Hotan, as seen in the following two articles.
Despite Hotan's multi-millennium history as a jade capital, two-thirds of Xinjiang's jade today actually comes from the mountains south of Cherchen / Qiemo. All jade from the Kunlun Mountains is chemically similar and is all usually referred to as Hotan jade.
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Jade Rush 'Damages Chinese River' Thursday, 31 August 2006 (BBC) As resources dwindle the price of Hotan jade has soared. Jade prospectors are putting one of China's rivers in peril and could soon exhaust supplies of the precious stone. About 200,000 people are sifting the Yurungkax river in Xianjiang for Hotan jade - which costs up to $12 (£63) a gramme - state media reports have said. As well as the prospectors, around 2,000 mechanical diggers are sifting through the river bed for the gemstone. Experts say the search is damaging the river bed and its biological system leading to serious soil erosion. "The river bed, which is hundreds of millions of years old, is undergoing unprecedented degradation," said Wang Shiqi, a gemstones expert at Beijing University. "If the mass hunting continues like this, the river's Hotan jade resources will disappear in five to six years," he added. Dwindling supplies The price of Hotan jade has surged in recent years as a result of a sharp drop in output. The stone is deemed to be the highest quality because of its texture and colour - said to be "as white as sheep fat". Most of the seals of Chinese emperors were made of Hotan jade. Most prospectors rush to the river in north western China during the summer, before it freezes over in the autumn. In 2004, jade hunters using heavy equipment wrecked the ruins of an ancient civilisation dating back as far as the Han Dynasty, which began in 206 BC, on the west bank of the Yurungkax river. [Ed. This was damage to the Melikawat site.] Despite the region's water conservation authorities admitting that the jade rush has damaged the environment, local authorities have yet to put any measures in place to limit activity at the river. |
China Orders Crackdown on Rush for Rare White Jade Tuesday, 30 October 2007http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK7200120071030 BEIJING (Reuters) - Authorities in northwestern China have ordered a crackdown on private mining of a precious jade whose soaring value in local markets has lured thousands of people to a remote river to extract it. The value of white Hotan jade, a rare nephrite jade found in alluvial deposits along the Yurungkax river in the Xinjiang region and prized in China for centuries, has exploded in recent years, fuelled by speculators and its increasing scarcity. Trading at about 40 times the value of gold, the jade had drawn about 100,000 people and thousands of earth-moving vehicles to the Yurungkax, the Beijing News reported on Tuesday, citing an investigative report on state-run China Central Television. The gold-rush had impoverished many villagers who had formed collectives and spent vast sums in unsuccessful attempts to find the jade, the paper said. "They had already spent a long time digging but had not found any jade, and the significant expenses for earth-moving equipment and workers were proving difficult to bear," it said, citing local villagers. The paper showed photographs of bulldozers dredging at the foot of towering slag-heaps and car-parks jammed with rows of earth-moving vehicles. The situation had prompted authorities to issue a notice to "clean up" the phenomenon, and slap fines of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,300) on private prospectors who ignored orders to withdraw from the river. But due to the large river area and widely-scattered nature of the jade deposits, the clean-up would be "difficult," the paper said, citing an local official. "After it is put in order, we will do our best to implement legal and orderly extraction," the paper quoted Zhang Shaolong, a Hotan district official as saying. ($1=7.473 Yuan) |
China 
Xinjiang Hetian Arts & Crafts Jade Carving Factory
Tel: 0903 203 5281, Fax: 0903 203 8236. Gu Jiang Bei Lu 1, near the main bazaar.
Web: www.kgyd.com Email: ndh5005@xjnet.cn
Tour is free, but no English spoken.
This site has a workshop on the first floor where 6-8 artists work with modern tools carving jade. Since jade is so hard, no ancient metal tools could work it, so it was laboriously carved with sand. The workshop is closed from late fall to early spring.
An extensive showroom fills the second floor, with prices ranging from low-quality polished rocks for less than Y100 to intricate sculptures for tens of thousands of yuan. The showroom is open year-round.
You will find jade for sale everywhere you turn in central Hotan, from large jade showrooms, as above, to small jade shops, to jade counters in shopping malls and hotels, to men with their own river finds on a cloth along the sidewalks.
There is a large concentration of jade shops on Beijing Xi Lu west of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang). Another source said the biggest concentration of stalls selling jade is at the east end of Navakh / Nawage street, but the author has not been there.
Bazaar
大巴扎 (dà bā zā)
The main bazaar radiates off in the area northeast of the intersection of Gu Jiang Bei Lu and Tai Bei Dong Lu. The big market day here is Sunday, when the market spills out into the surrounding streets as the population from the city and countryside pours in.
Lonely Planet - China recommends heading for the section for gillam (carpet), which also has some Atlas silks and doppi (skullcap), and also checking out the livestock 牲畜 (sheng chu) area.
Mosque 
Uyghur: mechit Chinese: 清真寺 (qīng zhēn sì)
There are many mosques in town. To the left is the main or Juma (Friday) mosque, located just south of the main bazaar, on Jia Mai Lu, at the corner of Tai Bei Dong Lu.
To the right is a mosque gateway, on Beijing Dong Lu, being squeezed by new buildings on both sides.
Here are few words in Uyghur that might be useful if you strike up a conversation around here:
Uyghur: Muslim - musulman. Christian - kristiyan. Jewish - yehudi. Hindu - hindu. Buddhist - budda'i. Alternatively, the hand sign for Christian is with the hands with palms together, fingers up, the position for Christian prayer, while the sign for Muslim is with the hands in front, palms cupped, facing up, the position for Muslim prayer.
Much of the value of a visit to Xinjiang, and to Hotan in particular, is to experience the native Uyghur culture and the daily life of the Uyghur people, which you won't do if you stay in the modern center of Hotan.
Since Hotan is predominantly Uyghur, you will find older Uyghur neighborhoods almost everywhere outside the modern center. The author found a pleasant wander here: North of the Hotan CITS office, Urumqi Lu ends at Tunken Lu. Taking the northwest fork on Nanhuan 南环 Lu at the intersection leads into a Uyghur neighborhood. If you look down the side streets, you'll see remarkably rural roads for being so close to a city center.
A large area just southwest of Unity Square (Tuanjie Guangchang) also appears, from satellite images, to be an older Uyghur neighborhood.
和田博物馆 Hetian Bowuguan
Tel: 0903 251 9286, Fax: 0903 251 5570, Beijing Xi Lu 342
Entry Y20. Open 09:30-13:30, 15:30-19:00 Beijing time. (Winter: opens 10:00) Photos restricted - see below.
Take bus 2 or 6 west from the center on Beijing Lu or take a nice long walk.
See the Hotan Museum in its new location at the corner of Beijing Xi Lu and Xi Huai Lu. The first floor is the archaeology exhibit. The second floor offers an extensive ethnographic display, including carpets, clothing, jewelry, musical instruments and an extensive collection related to Uyghur traditional medicine. The museum has 10,000 artifacts in an exhibition space of 3,400 square meters.
Downstairs, in the ancient history exhibit, photos can be taken for a fee. The fee depends on what you want to photograph, and the fees aren't written anywhere, don't seem to be fixed, and are likely negotiable. Photographing either of the mummies is the most expensive - this author was quoted Y200 - followed by the wooden coffin, Y100. If you snag any photos of items on the first floor, apart from the mummies and the coffin, and would be willing to share them with others here, please contact us.
Photographs are free in the upstairs gallery.
The building is new and spacious, the displays cases are of high quality, and the signage at the museum is all in Chinese, Uyghur, and English, down to the smallest item. The staff is very pleasant and helpful, though very little English is spoken.
The first floor archaeology exhibit has an interesting diorama of ancient Niya site, drawing the viewer into the site. Another focus of the first floor is the two mummies. Both are Caucasian women Buddhist nuns in red wool robes, with pointed slippers. One was 10-15 years old, the other 35-45 years old. Both are about 1,200 years old, from the Imam Musa Kazim cemetery. Another main exhibit is the painted wooden coffin.
However, the archaeology display as a whole is somewhat difficult to follow. One reason for this, in the author's opinion, is that the museum staff is constrained by the Chinese government's policy that all government venues must reflect the position that "Xinjiang has been, since 77 BCE, an inalienable part of China." This problem is discussed at some length in a good article at China Heritage Quarterly of Australian National University. This position is officially required despite the fact that, until the 19th century when the Qing dynasty entered in force, not even China considered the region to be part of China, but rather other kingdoms or countries where it had interests or which paid it tribute. Central China's influence and even interest in various parts of the area it long called Xiyu 西域 (western regions) has waxed and waned through the ages.
As a result of this policy, for example, each item is dutifully labeled with a central China dynasty for its date, even though these dynasty designations had almost no relevance for this region. The Tocharians, the Yuezhi 月氏 and the Saka (which the Chinese call the Sai 塞) -- the main peoples who lived in Xinjiang in ancient times -- are not mentioned by name to the author's recollection. (In the Hotan region, the population during most of the first millennium was mainly Saka, from what is now Iran from about 1200 BCE,along with some later immigrants from what is now India and Pakistan starting in the mid third century BCE, while the earliest entrants found to date, whose decendents became the settled Tocharians and the nomadic Yuezhi, who started entering Xinjiang as early as 5,000 years ago, were concentrated in the north and east of Xinjiang.)
To be fair, though, United States history museums, for the most part, give short shrift to Native American history and the Native American point of view. In any case, a visitor with an interest in history may want to read up before visiting. Wikipedia is a good source, but this site is usually blocked inside China.
The museum has two mummies on display. These mummies are Caucasoid / Europoid, like the hundreds of even older mummies that have been found in southern and eastern Xinjiang, as old as 3,800 years. These are two women, Buddhist nuns, who lived about 1,500 years ago, when the Kingdom of Khotan was a leading center of Buddhist learning, and more than 5,000 monks and nuns lived here in hundreds of monasteries. This woman was 15 years old when she died. The other mummy was 35 years old at her death.
The museum also refers to the city or area by the name of Udun. The author finds this confusing for the English-speaking visitor. Udun is a very rare name for Hotan for a brief period of history. Udun, in one Chinese source, is given as the Turkish translation of the Chinese ancient name Yutian (jade field). However, the Uyghurs, the primary Turkic peoples in Xinjiang, did not enter the area until 850 CE, so this was clearly not its most ancient name. One source indicates that Udun was an old Uyghur name for the area in Islamic times, but the author doesn't have exact details on the dates.
The earliest item, a lonely fossil shell from 65 million years ago, reminds the visitor that the entire Taklamakan Desert was once under the sea. This was the remains of the vast Tethys Sea which was compressed by the collision of the Indian tectonic plate which collided with the Asian Plate 50-55 million years ago. The top of Mount Everest was originally at the bottom of the Tethys Sea.
The exhibit moves immediately to a Neolithic stone knife (5,000-6,000 years ago). Finds of these type of tools in the area indicates that the Hotan oasis has been populated for at least 9,000 years.
Several items from the Bronze Age and Iron Age (grouped together) (2,000-200 BCE) include stone sickles, a copper axe, a stone plough, a grinding stone, a red pottery jar, a bracelet with tiny clay heads, a pottery bowl and a blue jade axe. (The Bronze Age in Xinjiang was from about 2000 to 900 BCE, and the Iron Age was from about 900 to 180 BCE.)
A sign notes that the Hotan area has been exporting jade for more than 3,000 years to central plains China, the Middle East, the West, and to Russia in the North. Not noted in the museum, more than 700 jade items in the Shang dynasty tomb of the famed woman general Fu Hao from 1200 BCE were all chemically determined to have originated in the Kunlun Mountains.
Displayed items from the undated "Jiango" period (which name the author cannot find referenced elsewhere) include ancient food made from millet, jade articles including a rabbit, tiny jug, buckles, bracelet, elephant and tray. Photos include 'stone age rock carvings' at Kiyik Toz, Kiya Tax, and Suratliri.
A sign notes that "In 60 BCE, Eastern Han [dynasty] united Western region." A large collection of Han dynasty Wuju coins found in Melikawat are displayed, plus a single large coin and pottery jars.
An entire case is devoted to some of the extensive finds at the nearby Sampul (aka Sampula, Shanpula) cemeteries, including metal knives, a leather bag, a hair pin, a horn spoon, a sleeve cover, bows and arrows, a spindle, combs, a yoke, bowls, and a tray.
Next is a display of items from ancient Niya, alongside a large full-wall diorama showing the ruin of Niya, with the wooden remains of a building including its door, half buried in the sand, which gives the visitor a sense of how it might feel to visit Niya today.
Items from Niya include grape/walnut mixed candy, pottery, six types of seeds including Job's tears, bow & arrow, knotted rope with wood handles, carved wood items, and weaving tools. In other sections of the museum, you will see some of the excellent woven wool fabric from Niya and some of the famous written wooden tablets from Niya. See the Niya / Minfeng page of this web site for an extended discussion of ancient Niya. [This discussion is not at the web site yet, but a draft is available from the author on request.]
One section is devoted to the development of weaving, especially textiles found at ancient Niya and Sampul, the Hotan Prefecture's largest cemetery. Both sites date from about the fifth century BCE to third century CE. Many wonderful items are on display. The signage does not mention that these particular ancient woolen weaving techniques, as well as the art of making bronze, came into the Tarim Basin from the west more than 4,000 years ago. Bronze metallurgy moved from the Tarim Basin, over the course of several hundred years, into central plains China. Of course, Chinese silk weaving was developing independently and splendidly during the same period, and the Chinese took bronze metallurgy to unequalled heights. Later, the chariot and iron making also moved into China via the Tarim Basin, though China also advanced iron manufacture and became a major exporter of quality iron works to the west.
Another section presents "Ancient Scripts." The items are of excellent quality and well displayed. The signs list the names of several of the scripts found from ancient times, but do not note that the scripts came from India, Tibet, Iran, and Central Asia. Probably for the same reasons noted above, the sign seems intended not to convey the many deep cultural, social, economic and political ties of the region with other countries and cultures throughout its history.
One section is called Cultural Art of Udun (Hotan) Kingdom, for many items from after the Han period.
For brevity at this point, the author will only mention the other displays.
- Pottery Idol Art of Yotkan - wood, clay, and jade figurines.
- The Art of Paintings discusses especially Buddhist murals, called the Udun (Hotan) style.
- The Shining of Holy Buddhism discusses the history of Buddhism, with photos and various items from various Buddhist sites such as the Rawak Stupa.
- Great Brotherhood of Udun Kingdom - 9th century.
- Islamic Arts and Handicrafts - Condenses a thousand year of Islamic religious and cultural dominance in Xinjiang to a few copper pots and jade pencil boxes.
For those very interested in Xinjiang archaeology, the museum sells a 450-page photo book of ancient sites throughout Xinjiang called "A Grand View of Xinjiang's Cultural Relics and Historic Sites." Only the site titles are in English and there is a table of contents in English at the back. It has pictures of both the sites and of several artifacts found at each site, for nearly 200 sites throughout Xinjiang as well as its museums. The list price is Y338, and the museum sells it at a discount.
The visitor then moves to the second floor, with extensive ethnographic exhibits, each item signed in Uyghur, Chinese and English. Because of Hotan's worldwide fame as a center for carpets, the museum presents an array of traditional carpets and patterns, including Sea Wave, Flower Scattering, Pomegranate, Irani, Adiyal, Gazi.
Since jade has been much longer central to the history of Hotan, the museum has large jade collection, including several colors of jade: black, green, blue, yellow, and white. Several colorful samples of the locally hand-made Atlas silk (khan-atlas) are also on display.
There is a large collection of men's and women's traditional clothing and hats, especially the tiny Keriya hat that holds the Guinness record for the world's smallest traditional hat. Accompanying the clothing is a large assortment of traditional jewelry. The exhibition has many household and farm items, including pottery, brass and wood, as well as traditional food items, as well as craftsman tools for weaving, wood working, and jade carving.
The museum also presents a wide range of traditional musical instruments, including the hushtar, gejek, rawap (tambourine), dutar, tambur, satar, sunai, flute, balman, sapayi, dap (hand drum), and pairs of stones and wooden spoons. The Chinese pipa and several other common Chinese traditional musical instruments originally came from Central Asia, and Central Asian musicians and dancers have been popular in central plains China for nearly two thousand years. See pictures of these instruments at Uyghur Music & Dance.
To experience Uyghur music, check out thousands of clips at youtube.com. Search for: uyghur OR uygur OR uighur OR uigur.
Read more at Music of the Uyghurs or Uyghur Art Music and the Ambiguities of Chinese Silk Roadism in Xinjiang.
An extensive exhibit on Uyghur traditional medicine is on offer at the museum. If one has a great interest in this subject, the building on the opposite corner from the museum is a hospital of Uyghur traditional medicine.
See a review of the Hotan Museum here.
See more images from the Hotan Museum in the Hotan collection of the author's Flickr site.
Atlas Silk Workshop Uyghur: Atlas Karakhana (silk workshop)
Chinese *:吖棏喇丝 ā tè lā sī (a te la si) 丝绸厂sīchóu chǎng (silk fabric factory)
(* Be sure to specify the Atlas silk factory, in Jiya, not the modern factory.)
In Jiya (吉亚) township , 25 km northeast of central Hotan
Y5 tour. Author didn't record opening times or days; probably open seven days. May be closed 13:00-15:00 for lunch.
You can take a taxi here. Or you can go by bus: Catch bus or minibus 2 east anywhere on Beijing Lu to the end of the line, which is at a traffic circle where Beijing Lu, Tai Bei Lu, and several other streets come together. Walk clockwise from Beijing Dong Lu one street over to Tai Bei Dong Lu and there catch minibus 110 going further southeast. Ask the driver for "at las."
This is not the larger, mechanized Shatuo Silk Factory, northwest of the city (below).
The carpet workshop (below) is in the same township the Atlas silk workshop, but 25 km closer to the center of Hotan.
Since you are probably in Hotan in part because of its historic place on the ancient Silk Road, it would be a shame to miss this excellent opportunity to see silk made in the age-old manual method, especially since Hotan is, according to legend, the first location where silk-making was established outside of China.
This is a small workshop where you can take a tour of the entire silk-making process, which is done by hand, including boiling the cocoons, reeling the strands, spinning the thread, tying and dying the design, and weaving the fabric.
This handwork is in contrast to the Shatuo Silk Factory, which is interesting in its own way, but is on a larger scale and has a much more mechanized process. If you have time to see both places, by all means do. But if you can only see one, definitely see this one.
The name Atlas is the Uyghur (and Uzbek) name for silk. This process is identical to the one at the Yodgorlik Silk Factory in Margilan, Uzbekistan. This particular tie-dye fabric is called khan-atlas, or the King's silk.
To make the traditional Atlas silk fabric, the thread warp is laid out on a two-meter rack and laboriously hand tied for the pattern with silk cords, then removed in sections and dyed. The dyed threads are then, one by one, laid out again on tiny posts and the process is repeated for two or up to eight separate colors. See a picture of the beautiful result of this tie-dying. If they can afford them, most Uyghur women have a khan-atlas dress for special occasions and, if not, a cotton or polyester silk with a pattern imitating the khan-atlas patterns.
You may want to arrange for a guide (perhaps from the Hotan CITS) to go with you, because the workshop likely will not be able to offer tours in English. But there are English signs describing the procedures.
If you want to get an idea of where the story of silk begins before the cocoons reach the workshop, check out the excellent Wormspit. The linked page there on the Bombyx mori is a wonderful, though photo-intensive page on every phase of the silkworm's life. The link to Serving the Tiny Masters discusses the arduous process of caring for the world's only domesticated insect. And the link to Silkworm Foods is not about food _for_ silkworms, which is always and only mulberry leaves, but rather about actual food products made from silkworms or, more accurately, their caterpillars. The name of the page, worm spit, derives from the fact that silk is exactly that.
Find an excellent source on the History of Silk is presented here from the Silk Road Foundation, including the legend that a Chinese princess in the fourth century smuggled silkworm eggs and mulberry seeds with her when she married a prince of Hotan, bringing the knowledge of sericulture out of China for the first time..
See more pictures from the Atlas Silk Workshop in the Hotan collection of the author's Flickr site. Other pictures of the workshop can be seen at Don Croner's Silk Workshop page.
Don Croner notes that, in the showroom, "the naturally dyed silk is much more expensive than the chemically dyed version. One four-meter-length of chemically dyed atalas silk costs about 250 yuan ($30), while the naturally dyed version cost about 600 yuan ($72). "
Uyghur: gillam karakhana, Chinese: 地毯厂 dì tǎn chǎng (carpet factory)
Free tour. Author didn't record opening times or days; probably open most days. May be closed 13:00-15:00 for lunch.
The handmade carpet workshop is five kilometers from central Hotan, 25 km from the Atlas silk workshop (above), also in Jiya township, on the east side of the Yorungkash River.
Since ancient times, Hotan has been famous for its jade, its silk, and its carpets. This is no longer so true, alas, but the carpet-making tradition lives on in this small handmade carpet workshop and many other family-run operations around the region. The oldest carpet in China, some 2,000 years old, was excavated in this region at Niya.
The workshop is one large room, perhaps 20 m x 50 m. The workers are exclusively women and almost exclusively young. They kneel singly or in groups at one of about fifteen looms in the room, each following a complex computer-printed pattern sheet, hand-tying one knot at a time. We were told that each of their carpets is custom ordered, for its designs and its colors.
At the Hotan Museum, on the second floor, is an extensive and well-signed exhibit on Hotan carpets, showing the tools and techniques as well as the names for the different design styles.
Read an article here on the current issues in carpet-making in Hotan: The End of a Golden Age in China
See more images at Don Croner's page on the Carpet Workshop, which also includes information on carpet pricing.
Formerly the Hotan Silk Factory
Chinese: 沙驼 (沙漠骆驼) 丝绸厂
Chinese pinyin: Sha Tuo (sha mo luo tuo) Sichou Chang (silk fabric factory)
Tel: 0903 294 0918 294 0886, Fax: 0903 294 0310
Address: 和墨路 Hemo Lu #107, in the Laskui township, a short distance northwest of central Hotan.
One source says visitors can take bus #1 from outside the main bus station to the last stop and then walk back 150 m. The factory has an enormous white tile gateway.
There are no fixed times for tours, but rather tours are given when visitors arrive. Tours are Y10.
The author did not write down the opening hours or days, but probably open most days.
One source said to avoid the long lunch hour, 13:00 -15:00.
No English is spoken, so it might be best to come with a guide or translator.
The factory's new name, Shatuo, is a contraction of shamo (沙漠 desert) and luotuo (骆驼 camel). It was formerly called the Hotan Silk Factory. It was clearly once a much larger operation, when it was apparently heavily subsidized. The main building is new with a sweeping circular stairway but on the rest of the large site, most of the facory buildings and equipment are quite dated. The site includes a school for children of the workers and a medical clinic for workers and their families.
On the tour, the visitor will see the entire process of silk manufacture. In one building are the huge sacks of silk cocoons brought to the factory from all around the region. One can imagine the amount of work the households to provide the bags of cocoons by reading the process at Serving the Tiny Masters. For all this work, the cocoon providers get paid just Y20 per kilo of the very lightweight cocoons.
In the receiving room, staff examines the cocoons for quality.
In the heating room, the larvae inside the cocoons are killed by dry heat, to preserve the single long silk strand.
In the reeling room, many workers tend several hundred reeling machines for drawing the thread, ten cocoon strands spun together per thread, off the cocoons softening in the hot water chambers.
In the boiling room, hanks of silk thread or woven silk fabrics are boiled in large machines. The boiling process remove the sericin or gummy covering over the thread, which distinguishes cultured silk from raw silk.
In the spool room, thousands of machines roll colored thread off large reels or spools onto smaller retail spools, one clanking rotation at a time.
In the weaving room, hundreds of mechanical looms weave huge rolls of silk, primarily for commercial purposes.
At the end of the tour, the visitor will be invited to see the silk showroom, where fabric is available for Y40 to Y90 per meter, as well as many finished silk items. Some of the fabric is the famous Atlas silk and other designs which likely aren't actually made at this factory. You can also buy cocoons for Y90 per kilogram, but you might have a problem getting more than a couple of the brazil-nut sized cocoons past your customs officer, even if you can show him in guidebooks that the worms are all killed by heating as soon as the cocoon is spun to protect the integrity of the single thread.
Within the grounds of the silk factory are a school and a medical clinic for the workers and their families. Directly across from the silk factory is a small Uyghur bazaar.
See more pictures from the Shatuo Silk Factory in the Hotan collection of the author's Flickr site.
Chinese: 和田he tian 玫酒瑰厂 méi jiǔ chǎng (mei jiu chang)
Lasikui Industrial Zone, Hemo Lu 6. Entry / tour cost unknown, but likely free or very low cost.
This winery is said to make claret and pomegranate wine, and Hotan CITS says tours of the winery are possible. The winery is near the Shatuo Silk Factory, on the same street.
The winery was closed to tours in the winter when the author visited.
瑪利克瓦特 (ma li ke wa te) 古城 (gu cheng = ancient city)
Entry Y10. 28km south of the city. A taxi will cost about Y100 round trip (return). Photo fee Y5.
37°56'39"N, 79°53'47"E
Most of the city is under a few meters of mud from two millennia of flooding of the nearby Yorungkash (White Jade River). A few eroded remains emerge above the mud plain, of which the Buddhist monastery is slightly better preserved. You may want to have a guide come to explain what you are seeing, but make sure before you hire him/her that your guide is actually familiar with the history of this site. For a brief discussion of Khotan Buddhism, see Buddhism in Khotan.
One source says that the Melikawat site was the capital of ancient Khotan during the Han dynasty, which later moved to the Yotkan site. But most sources the author has read say the capital was and remained at the Yotkan site, until it was destroyed by the forced of Genghis Khan in the early twelfth century, and Melikawat was the location of one of the larger of the many, many monasteries in the area. In 644, the Chinese Buddhist monk, returning from a trip to India, reported more than a hundred monasteries in Khotan.
The kingdom of Khotan, however, was a major city for centuries in ancient times, with as many as _____ monasteries and ______ monks reported in __(year)___ by Chinese monk ______. These, and the civilian population, spread out over a large area, and Melikawat was quite a large site, in any case.
At the Hotan museum, you will see a few items from this site, including a large pile of verdigris-patinaed ancient Han dynasty Chinese coins.
It would be unfortunate if you were to visit the famed Silk Road and didn't see at least one ancient city ruin.
You can see some photos and a brief background at Don Croner's Melikawat page.
Melikawat is also written in various other ways, including, most commonly, Malikawate but also Miligawate and Malikurvatur. The Chinese characters for the place name also vary widely.
See more pictures from Melikawat in the Hotan collection of the author's Flickr site.
約特干 (yue te gan)
Entry Y15. Open 10:00-20:00
10km west of central Hotan, in Baghqi / Bageqi township in what is today called Ailaman / Alnama village (formerly called Yotkan / Yuetegan village).
Yotkan is not of interest to the casual observer since the site is completely submerged two meters or more underground in what is now a marsh. The only visible item at the site is the sign.
Even the buried mud-brick structures have long since completely disintegrated, and only small artifacts have been excavated. Several artifacts from Yotkan can be seen at the Hotan Museum and in the Xinjiang Regional Museum in Urumqi.
The only reason the author mentions Yotkan here is because the site was the capital city of the Kingdom of Hotan. The Chinese called the place Yutian from at least the 2nd century BCE in the Han Dynasty until the 10th century CE in the Tang Dynasty -- from at least 123 BCE. (China has confused matters a bit by using the ancient name of Yutian as the new Chinese name for a town 170 km east, whose Uyghur name has long been Keriya.)
Some sources claim the Melikawat site was the capital of the kingdom of Khotan until the third century CE, and the Yotkan site was the capital after that. But most sources the author has seen indicate Yotkan was the capital until it was destroyed by the forces of Genghis Khan, and Melikawat was a large religious and administrative center. Another source says that Khotan was a double-city state, with an Eastern and a Western city as the capital.
The site was a dry, sandy, silt flat by Yotkan Village until the 1860s. It began to be irrigated for agriculture, with a canal dug from the Karakash River which was then crisscrossed in ditches around the fields. Locals quickly began to find pottery, jade and gold items washed out by the canal and ditches. The local governor heard of the gold finds and sent crews to pan for gold. They increased the water flow to act like a sluice for prospecting all across the site in trenches, going down two meters or more where most of the ancient city lay buried.
The former irrigation canal began to cut a deeper bed through this area and became a yar or a shallow ravine with steep banks running through loess. The yar eventually cut 10 meters below the level of the fields and, unfortunately, tapped some underground springs at the bottom of the ravine which then turned the entire area into a swamp by the time archaeologists Sven Hedin (1896) and Aurel Stein (1901, 1906) arrived.
Stein was able, upon examination of the finds, which included written tablets and coins, to determine that this site had been the capital of ancient Khotan. Most of this section on Yotkan was taken from "Sir Aurel Stein: Archaeological Explorer" by Jeannette Mirsky, 1998, pages 151-153. Other excerpts of this book can be previewed at this Google Books site.
Permit Y350 per person (may be negotiable), from Cultural Relics Bureau director at Hotan Museum.
Permit can be arranged through CITS or any travel agency.
37°20'45.7" N (37.3460278), 80°09'49" E (80.16345278)
The famous stupa at Rawak (sometimes written Rawaq or Rewak) is in the desert northeast of Jiya Township.. An entry permit costs about Y400, which must be arranged ahead of time through a travel agency, such as CITS (above under Information) or directly with the Cultural Relics Bureau director at the Hotan Museum.
To the right is a map of the northeast portion of the Hotan oasis, including the location of the Rawak Stupa in the upper right. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger version. Head to our Flickr page for a much higher resolution image of this map.
The stupa is 20-30 kilometers northeast of the Imam Asim shrine complex. However, the dirt road approach is not from the shrine but instead from several kilometers to the west or east, first on a rough road with a 4WD vehicle and, according to reports (the author did not visit), the last par, through serious sand dunes is accessible only on foot or by camel. .
See a larger version of this excellent photo, left, of the Rawak Stupa, with a discussion of his challenges arranging access to the site a number of years ago, here: Don Croner's World-Wide Wanders - Rawak Stupa. If you would like to arrange a visit today, it is straightforward today, though still expensive and tough to reach.
At this blog under the heading Taklamakan Desert for Monday, 06 August 2007, you can read the adventures of two folks for whom Hotan CITS arranged an overnight camel trek to see Rawak, for Y2300, inclusive except for food. Here is a brief snippet of their journey with pricing details.
"Costs: A tourguide Y150 per day, which happened to be Kurban himself [a CITS guide], a cameldriver Y50 per day, 3 camels Y150 per camel per day (normally it's Y100, but now it was too hot for desert trips, so we had to pay more), a tent/matrasses/waterkettle Y50, transportation to and from the camelplace Y150, permit Y400pp. All in all our Avis-rent-a-camel charged Y2300 (€230) for two days."
A 9-meter eroded Buddhist stupa is all that is visible of what was likely once a larger temple complex. It was built in the third or fourth century C.E. when the Kingdom of Khotan was a leading center of Buddhist learning. It was was abandoned by the fourth to seventh century, likely due to climate change in the region and a decrease in trade along the Silk Road in the period between the Han dynasty and Tang dynasty in China in the east and the fall of Rome in the west. Explorer Christoph Baumer, in his book "Southern Silk Road," calls it "one of the most remarkable constructions of ... and the best preserved Buddhist sanctuary on the Southern Silk Road."
Stein unearthed nearly a hundred stucco statues here along the sides of the stupa. These have, unfortunately, all been destroyed by being exposed to the air or by later treasure hunters seeking possible gold or jewels inside. Based on the statues found, it seems there were originally almost 500 larger-than-life-size Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the temple.
See a diagram of the Rawak Stupa in explorer M. Aurel Stein's 1901 book, Ancient Khotan. Read about Stein's discovery of the Rawak stupa in his less technical discussion of this expedition, Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan. See Stein's photographs of the now-destroyed statues on the stupa in 'Early Buddhist Art in China and Central Asia' by Marylin M. Rhie. (Type in 'Rawak' in the 'Search in this Book' box to read more about the site and the significance of its art.)
Rawak means pavilion or high mansion in Uyghur. (Sources: Footprints of Foreign Explorers on the Silk Road, Dunfu Wu, p. 155; and Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan, M. Aurel Stein, p. 425)
Permit Y200-300 per person, from Cultural Relics Bureau director at Hotan Museum. Permit can be also be arranged by CITS or any travel agency, which can also arrange transport.
160 km north of Hotan. 38°27'03"N, 80°51'45"E.
Still at a distance from the new Hotan / Aksu Highway (opened October 2007), so a 4WD vehicle is still required.
