Page 25 - All About History - Issue 180-19
P. 25
Places To Explore
The Uyghur way of life is still ever-
present in Kashgar and it’s a great
way to learn of its ethnic culture
5 Marco Polo Bridge
Beijing
Beijing is today the capital of the People’s
Republic of China but it once fell into the
hands of the Mongols after Genghis Khan
led an invasion in 1215. Known back then
as Zhongdu, it was razed to the ground
within two years only for Kublai Khan to
begin rebuilding the city in 1267 once he
had ascended to power.
When Marco Polo arrived eight years
GettyImages later, he fell in love with the results and
you can too. “The streets are so straight
© and wide that you can see right along
3 Kashgar’s old city them from end to end and from one gate
to the other,” he wrote. “And up and down
kashgar the city there are beautiful palaces, and
many great and fine inns and fine houses.”
Polo remained in China for 17 years,
Kashgar came under Genghis Khan’s control silks. The friendly streets of the old city district working for the Khan, from where he
in 1219 but the Mongols did not leave a major are also filled with Gaotai Ancient Homes built also travelled across Asia. If you want
mark on the city. Khan looked favourably upon with earthed bricks and tied to the cliff. Times, somewhere to visit, however, you could
its inhabitants and this continued when the city however, are changing. do worse than trek to the multi-arched
came to be ruled by the heads of the Changatai A lot of the old ‘Old City’ is being rebuilt to stone bridge over the Yongding River 15
Khangate. As such, the spirit of those times become more ‘tourist friendly’ and the local kilometres south of Beijing. It is called
continues to shine. Uyghur people are being displaced. It is, therefore, the Marco Polo Bridge since the traveller
Marco Polo was certainly taken by Kashgar, best to visit sooner rather than later before lavished great praise on the original, saying
which he called Cascar after visiting in 1273. He the historical nature of the area is completely it had “very few equals in the world”.
said its people followed Islam and he noted “many razed to the ground, ironically doing for the city The bridge – which was reconstructed in
Nestorian Christians who have churches of their what the Mongols didn’t do all those years ago 1698 following damage from flooding – is
own”. The inhabitants, he said, lived by trade and (although hopefully the results won’t be as bad!). also well known for being the location
handicrafts, had “beautiful gardens and vineyards” where Japan launched a full-scale invasion
and grew a lot of cotton. Kashgar is a bustling city that comes alive day of China in 1937. Today, it is protected
You can get a good sense of the buzz that the and night throughout the week. Ideally visit from traffic thanks to the construction of
silk road brought by visiting Kashgar’s bustling between June and September to sample the fresh a highway next to it in 1985.
Sunday livestock market, which still sells Uyghur fruit and enjoy the warm weather.
Given the Marco Polo Bridge stretches across
4 karakoruM city MuseuM the river in the great outdoors. There is no
charge to visit but the best time to travel to
karakorum Beijing tends to be May, June, September and
October for less extreme weather.
Once the capital of the Great Mongolian That said, Karakorum remained of symbolic
Empire and now a popular tourist destination, importance and Polo was fascinated by what The original bridge began to be
constructed in 1189 and it was
Karakorum was a centre of trade along the Silk he saw (“There are wild cattle in that country highly praised by Marco Polo
Road and the seat of immeasurable power over as big as elephants, splendid creatures”, he
Asian and Eastern Europe. By the time Marco wrote). Chances are you will be too, for while
Polo visited and met Kublai Khan, grandson of the city lies in ruins today, it forms part of a
Genghis Khan, however, the empire’s capital had World Heritage Site and excavations have been
moved to Beijing. unearthing many a treasure.
A number of artefacts from the Great
The beautifully presented exhibits Mongolian Empire are on display at a small
show how the city was built and shed
light on life in this former capital museum giving an eye-opening history
of the area’s golden era. The collections
include writings from the Khans along with
religious statues, coins and bronzes and the
exhibits are regularly updated. For a good
sense of the empire, it takes some beating.
The museum is open between 9am and 6pm daily © Getty Images
© Alamy between April and October and from 10am to
5pm Monday to Friday the rest of the year.
