Kazanqi Folk Culture Scenic Area 喀赞其民俗旅游区

About Kazanqi Folk Culture Scenic Area

The quarter lies in Yining's core old town. The prefecture government records that it holds more than 300 traditional buildings and over 20,000 courtyards with ethnic features, that its history is reckoned at more than two centuries, and that about 120,000 residents still live there, forming what the page calls a multi-ethnic community. The city's tourism bureau says the Uyghur settlers recorded in the sources as Taranchi came from southern Xinjiang to open land in Ili in the 17th century and were the first to settle here, and that Uyghur, Han, Hui, Uzbek, Kazakh, Xibe, Manchu, Russian and Mongol residents are among the communities living in the quarter today.

Yining began a protection-and-development programme in the quarter in 2007, when the city invested more than 100 million yuan, and the tourism bureau describes the aim as keeping the original houses, customs and people rather than rebuilding. In September 2024 the city submitted the area for review by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism under the name Ili Old Town Cultural Tourism Area (伊犁老城文化旅游区), passed the landscape-resource assessment and entered the sequence for creating a national 5A-level scenic area; the prefecture government records that the signs were then being changed over. The prefecture government does not state when that renaming was completed.

What to look for

• The traditional courtyard houses and lanes, which the city's tourism bureau says keep the layout and appearance they had a century ago, combining Central and West Asian features with the local Taranchi tradition.
• Household gardens, flowers and fruit trees — the tourism bureau notes that residents plant them whether or not they are well off.
• The mix of communities living in the quarter, among them Uyghur, Han, Hui, Uzbek, Kazakh, Xibe, Manchu, Russian and Mongol residents.
• Traditional foods of the different communities, which the tourism bureau says have become thoroughly intermixed here.

Location & getting there

Getting to Kazanqi Folk Culture Scenic Area

Identify the main visitor approach and any separately managed houses, museums or performances. Ask before entering residential spaces or photographing residents.

• Search for 喀赞其民俗旅游区 with 伊犁哈萨克自治州 and 伊宁市.