Today, Kashgar is an out of the way place but in ancient times it was a strategically important crossroads where the northern and southern routes of the silk road going around the Taklamakan desert to the east, met with the northern and southern routes towards the west ( north through the Torugart pass to the Fergana valley and south through the Kunjerab pass to Gilgit). The Han Chinese arrived here in the 2nd century BC and successively held and lost Kashgar over and over again until now.
