Kuqa and the first of the Buddhas

Saturday 18 October 2025

We arrived in Kuqa (Kucha) at 07:10 and were collected by a new, to us, driver.  Sunrise was earlier now we'd moved east, up at 08:42 and sunset at 19:39.  We plonked ourselves at the Hilton Homesuites (not as expensive as it sounds for us) and they let us into breakfast where we kind of came to after our short and interrupted night’s sleep (how did I used to do this with kids?).   My hearing aids had died as I was unable to charge them on the train and I was very grateful I had my old pair with me which fired up beautifully.

We headed for Kizil Thousand Buddhas caves, a 70 km drive across the dry, barren and dusty plains.  Smog was also prevalent so views of the mountains were in short supply.  JC commented that each city he'd been to in China seemed to have a power station just on the outskirts - no doubt making power supply easy but the chimneys belching smoke obviously didn't help the air quality.  The weather forecast for today had a symbol we'd never seen before - we think it meant haze/dust storm - we just get drizzle in Ottery.

Kizil caves, of which there are 236 in the complex, illustrate development of Buddhist art forms across the centuries.  They were created between the 3rd and 8th Centuries CE and are said to be the earliest major buddhist cave complex in China.  They have not fared well since their formation, being ravaged by early 20th Century explorers stealing the paintings away to their homelands and, then, graffitied by passing Muslims (according to the guide book and messages on the walls). 

Cameras are banned, so we left JC's in the car and just headed out with our phone.  To start us off, we explored the explanation centre to learn more about the caves.  There is no photography allowed in the caves so we took our photos here of the replica paintings. 

Then we were grouped into 10s and formed queues outside each cave.  Once inside we had a short explanation of the cave and art from the guide in situ (in Chinese only).  The paintings were pretty cool, but we didn't gain much from the Chinese narration.  And, by the looks of things, some of our group of 10 didn’t.  We only saw six caves and after the second a few people drifted off and, by our sixth, it was just us and a Chinese lady.  Fortunately she spoke English and whilst we were queuing for our last cave she and JC swapped Buddhist cave stories.   There was a lot we weren't allowed to explore :-(

We headed back to Kashgar exploring the desert/ravine area through which we passed.  Dry, dusty and flaky.

They are building another road through here so parts of it are a big construction site. 

On our way back we visited Kizilgahar Beacon. This was built in the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynastry (202 BCE to 220 CE) and was an extension of the Great Wall: where the wall finished the beacons began providing an early warning communication system.  During the day 'sui' (smoke) provided the alert, at night 'feng' (fire) was used.

It’s done well to still be standing.  Now it's 13.5 m high but I suspect it was taller once.  I peered over the edge down into the flood plain of the rarely-there-river.

Our final stop for the day was the Grand Mosque.  After the spread of Islam in Kucha, a religious building was built here in the 15th Century, and converted into wooden structure in the 17th Century.  In 1918 it burnt down and it was rebuilt between 1923-27.  

With a capacity of 3,000 people it was the second largest mosque in Xinjiang - we had seen the largest one in Kushgar on Monday.

I liked the lattice windows which varied in design. 

We spent an hour or so wandering around the old city area.  This appeared more genuinely old compared to Kashgar.  Naan bread production was in full swing late afternoon. Freshly fried fish anyone?

It was falling into disrepair, though, but disguised behind creatively designed facades (there is only empty space behind these doors).

I loved all the art designs dotted around the place - local hardware, lanterns, drums etc - adorned walls and were hung across the streets.

And lovely decorations everywhere.  This was the toilet block.

Now I'm a butterfly.

We had an unsuccessful attempt to eat in the Old Town.  The restaurant we’d selected had a menu with a few things marked as “méi yǒu” (we do not have) but everything else we pointed to, expect one meat skewer, was also "méi yǒu".  So we abandoned the idea of eating in the Old Town and had a good meal in the new part of the city where they had more choice.