Kuche/Kuqa is a small city about halfway between Urumqi and Kashgar along the northern silk road, which skirts the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert.
Although there are trains that run between Urumqi and Kashgar, stopping in Kuche, the train takes 14 hours and there's only one night train, arriving just after noon. I instead decided to take a night bus, which is quicker as it takes a more direct route instead of going through Turpan, and arrives early in the morning.
Since there's no cheap place for foreigners to stay in Kuche, and not a lot to see in the city proper, I decided to only stay the day and to take a night bus to Hotan, on the south side of the Taklamakan (there's a new highway that cuts through the middle of the desert, connecting the north and south sides). Unfortunately, this bus leaves at 2:30 pm (Xinjiang time), meaning I wouldn't have too much time in Kuche.
As usual for the Xinjiang section of Lonely Planet, the practical information isn't as helpful as you one would like. Kuche, like many Chinese towns, is split into an old town (mainly Uyghur) and a new town (where the Han live). The bus station is in the new town, while the old town is some four kilometers east of the old town, which lies on the western side of the Kuche river. Between the bus station and the old town are the ruins of the Qiuci ancient city, which were closed for restoration and construction when I was there, but which looked like a less impressive version of Jiaohe crossed with the unrestored Great Wall at Jiayuguan: the vague remains of rammed-earth walls, but not much more. Perhaps that has changed.
The road west to old Kuche splits in two before the Qiuci ruins, and I took the northern path, which passes by the ruins before crossing the river and running along a stretch of Qing-era city walls.
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| Xinghua park, across from the Qiuci ancient city, is Chinese in concept, with the typical pond and weeping trees, but the spaces around the pond are very dusty and scraggly, unlike your typically grassy Chinese park. |
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| A stretch of the old rammed-earth city walls. |
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| The transition from old city wall to (relatively) modern buildings is remarkably abrupt. |
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| Moderately-restored wall, unrestored wall, and typical Uyghur buildings. |
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| Colourful house-fronts along the main street in the old town. |
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| Shops with their goods displayed in the street. |
