Gaotai residence

Gaotai dwellings are located in the northeast end of Kashgar old city. Only here can you really feel the pulse of ancient Kashgar from the unique dwellings.

The Uygur people here have lived together for generations, and their houses have been built according to the cliff. From generation to generation, the houses are connected with the houses, and the buildings are connected with the buildings.

Between these randomly built buildings, there are many alleys in all directions. They are like a huge labyrinth. If you are not careful, you will get lost.

Gaotai residence is not only an excellent place for Uygur traditional handicraft production, but also a palace for Uygur beautifying the environment, carving and painting art.

It is known as "living Folk Museum of Uygur" by Chinese and foreign tourists, which is the connotation of Kashgar, a famous historical and cultural city of China.

Gaotai residence

Gaotai residence is a Uyghur ethnic community built on the Loess cliff with a height of more than 40 meters and a length of more than 800 meters at the northeast end of the old city of Kashgar, Xinjiang. It has a history of 600 years. It is a major landscape showing the ancient Uyghur residential buildings and folk customs in Kashgar.

In 2009, Kashgar City carried out centralized transformation of the old city, with an investment of 839 million yuan to reinforce 9722 Uygur traditional dwellings in Kashgar old city scenic area; in 2014, Kashgar City invested 150 million yuan to improve the landscape quality and market radiation of Kashgar old city scenic area, improve the tourism service facilities, and improve the management and operation level; in November 2014, Kashgar old city passed the high score The evaluation of landscape resources of 5A scenic spots organized by the National Tourism Administration.

On July 20, 2015, the National Tourism Administration officially awarded the title of national 5A scenic spot to Kashgar old city scenic spot. As the only preserved traditional historical district with typical characteristics of the ancient western regions in China, most of the dwellings in the old city are composed of civil engineering, brick and wood, which is an important material evidence to study the living customs and architectural characteristics of ethnic minorities.

Introduction to tourist attractions

The Uygur people in Gaotai residential area have lived together for generations. Their houses are built on the cliff. With the increase of family population, they have built one floor on the houses of their ancestors. In this way, the houses are connected with the houses, and the buildings are connected with the buildings. These houses are mostly earth houses, and there are many new brick houses. There are more than 50 lanes extending in all directions, crisscross, zigzag, up and down between these randomly built buildings. Without local people leading the way, outsiders will surely get lost.

Gaotai residence is located in the northeast end of the old city of Kashgar, which is now a residential area of Kashgar Uygur nationality. Built on a cliff, the area has nearly 600 families. From the modern Kashi new city across the river, the terrain of the old city is obviously higher than a section. Gaoya existed two thousand years ago. More than one thousand years ago, Uighur ancestors built houses and settled here. It is said that ban Chao and Geng Gong left their footprints here. In the middle of the ninth century AD, the king's palace was built in the north of this high cliff. Historically, the north slope of Gaoya was connected with the south slope, which was later broken by flood and separated from the north and the south. The North cliff is where the palaces of the karahan Dynasty are located, and the South Cliff is where the Gaotai dwellings are now. Kuoziqiabeixi – Uighur language means "Gaoya earthenware family". After thousands of years of development, unique residential buildings have been formed on Gaoya. There are narrow and curved roadways, and there are many buildings, alleys, and handicraft workshops everywhere. Currently, there are more than 640 households and 4000 people, covering an area of 57000 square meters. Many old houses and mosques with hundreds of years of history have been preserved. Gaotai residence is known as "living Folk Museum of Uygur" by Chinese and foreign tourists. This is the connotation of Kashgar, a famous historical and cultural city in China. Gaotai residence is not only an excellent place for Uygur traditional handicraft production, but also a palace for Uygur beautifying the environment, carving and painting art.

The house is made of mud and poplar. After the wood was removed, it was not planed and used directly to frame and support the roof, attic and balcony. The whole block looked rickety and loose. But it is said that the houses here are very strong, and many of them are hundreds or even thousands of years old.

The core of Uygur living culture is the attachment to home and hometown. Uighur people have lived together for generations, and the family population has increased. The additional rooms take up part of the courtyard, and then extend along the wall to increase one or even two floors. House along the mountain, indoor and outdoor space layout is not bound by the concept of symmetry, make full use of the terrain and space, scattered. Later, the ingenious "crossing the street" appeared, crossing the street and lane from the second floor to the opposite, which did not affect the walking of pedestrians downstairs or the living of people upstairs. In addition to the most common "cross street buildings", there are also "half street buildings" which account for half of the street. In the depth of the lane, you can also see the "suspended building" that will be built on the intersection of the lane. From a distance, it looks like a turret or a blockhouse in an alley. These unplanned and randomly built buildings on and off the building line up the deep, winding, up and down alleys of Kashi high-rise residential buildings. Walking along any lane in the lane, you can see that the gate of the residential courtyard built along the lane is opened outside the wall, with two doors, one door next to the other.

Walking into the courtyard, we will see different kinds of courtyards, some large and some small, with different terrain and different space utilization. No matter walking into any courtyard, we will first see the mulberry, fig, pomegranate, apricot, grape, rose, rose, oleander and other trees and flowers planted in the courtyard. The fruit trees are shady and the environment is elegant. Some large courtyard, a variety of grapes, built into a shed, not only can eat fruit, but also a good place to cool in summer. In the courtyard, there are usually front porches with earthen Kang covered with straw mat, felt or carpet. When it is hot in summer, most people live on the earthen Kang on the front porch.

Uygur people like to grow flowers and grass very much. If there is no open space in the courtyard to grow flowers and plants, they plant them in flowerpots and put them in the courtyard or on the balcony upstairs. And the space where the flowerpots can be placed is full of flowerpots everywhere. It is no exaggeration to say that flowers fall everywhere on the high platform. It can be seen that Uyghur people love beauty and flowers, especially Uyghur women have a close relationship with flowers and have deep feelings with them. The life and life of Uygur women are connected with flowers. Wearing a flower hat, a flower scarf and a flower skirt, you can dress yourself up with flowers and use natural flowers as cosmetics. You can enter the master's living room and living room in the courtyard to see the interior architectural art and architectural style. The master's bedroom is relatively simple. Uighurs like to sleep on the earth Kang. The earth Kang covers half of the room, which is different from the fire Kang in the rural areas of northern China. It is made of earth bricks, flat and thick. The Kang is covered with straw mat, flower felt, carpet and cotton mattress as large as the Kang. There are many bedding on the open wall cabinet. The walls were decorated with carpets.

Uighur houses have a strong Uighur architectural style. The formation of its style characteristics is influenced by Islamic culture under the special environment and natural conditions of Kashgar, and gradually formed after hundreds of years of historical evolution. Gaotai residence has several characteristics

The layout of residential courtyard is free and flexible. The indoor and outdoor space layout of residential buildings is determined according to the actual needs of specific conditions. It is not constrained by the concept of symmetry, and it is built by making full use of the terrain and space. The courtyard houses in Gaotai residential buildings have bungalows, two-story buildings, three-story buildings and even seven story buildings. There are three stories on the cliff and four stories below the cliff. You can go up from the cliff and down the cliff, and you can live in the courtyard The main wonderful design makes full use of the terrain. The three floors on the earth cliff can go out from the cliff, and the four floors below the cliff can go from the three floors to the bottom floor, or from the bottom floor to any floor along the upper and lower stairs.

The courtyard is strongly enclosed. It can not only meet the needs of Uygur people's family life, but also adapt to the local natural environment. The utility model has the shielding effect of wind and rain protection.

Simple and varied shape. Uygur architecture is composed of buildings with few concave and convex lines and feet on the external wall. The walls are generous and smooth. The outdoor doors are mostly two doors, which are solemn and thick. The doors are inlaid with copper and iron protective panels with patterns. Lift two bowl sized door rings for locking. The outer wall along the street is made of adobe and plastered with wheat straw mud, which remains the same for decades or even centuries. It can also be painted with white lime.

The interior architecture is divided into master's living room, living room, and houses with children and families on both sides. There is no wooden bed in the living room, almost all of them sleep on the earth pit. Different from the fire pits in the northern rural areas of China, they are filled and leveled earth pits, accounting for half or two-thirds of the whole area. On the wall, there is an open wall cabinet with many layers for daily necessities. The wall cabinet in the living room has Islamic architectural decoration style. Most of them are arched, with niches of different sizes and different layers. There are traditional plaster lace patterns of Uygur around. Some niches are gypsum floor, and the pattern of hollow pattern is inlaid on the whole niches. The white pattern on the orchid bottom of the plaster carving is a sculpture with distinctive national characteristics. Hotan carpets are also hung on the walls of the house and living room. In front of the larger courtyard houses, there are cloisters, with various flower patterns carved on the cloister columns. Under the cloisters, there are guardrails, which are all made by carpenters. They are round, thick and thin, with different intervals and lengths of wooden guardrails. There are earth pits in the cloister, carpeted with tapestry, grape trellis in the courtyard

Chinese PinYin : Gao Tai Min Ju