Kuqa Old Town 库车老城

About Kuqa Old Town

A Xinjiang Daily report carried by Altay News records the ministry's announcement of the fourth batch on 13 March 2025 and says the Restan district lies in Kuqa's old town, one of the few old residential quarters in the city that still keeps its ethnic character. Its long old street has cultural landscape and historic remains alongside shops of many kinds, among them antiques and porcelain, local dried goods, teahouses and snacks. The report singles the district out as the old town's colour bearer (色彩担当), with painted doorways in well-judged colour on both sides of the street and mottled, uneven old walls, and notes that along the street teahouses, dried-fruit shops, naan bakeries and the like each have their own small touches.

A China Culture Daily article republished by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism describes the lanes inside the district, among the many being the distinctive Flower Hat Lane (花帽巷), the Gate Bazaar (门巴扎) and the Drum Lane (击鼓巷); in the Drum Lane four Uyghur performers sit cross-legged on a wooden platform and play Kuqa-flavoured melodies on rawap, dutar, hand drum and other instruments. Guizi Lane (龟兹小巷) is known for its old houses, with palace-style columns and upturned eaves and bracket sets and courtyards of the three-sided and four-sided kind, and the article describes it as the quarter of the old town with the best-preserved lane pattern of the late Qing and early Republic, restored by adding rather than demolishing so as to keep its original texture.

The same article follows a Kuqa flour mill built in the 1960s that had become a disused old factory building, and which the city began converting in 2024 into the Kuqa historic-city exhibition centre, the Guizi traditional-craft centre, the Guizi book house and heritage workshops among other uses, where visitors can see heritage crafts and exhibitions and join study activities in one place. The deputy director of the city's culture, sports, radio, television and tourism bureau is quoted on the repair-as-old principle, on unused courtyards turned into heritage workshops, guesthouses and creative spaces, and on the 33 businesses now in the lane. The article says Guizi Lane has received more than two million visits since 2024 and that the heritage workshops have averaged more than 8,000 visitors a day since opening at the 2025 Spring Festival.

No cited page describes Kuqa's old town as one managed attraction; the two sources describe the Restan district and Guizi Lane rather than the old town as a whole, and the visitor figures come from the city's tourism bureau through the article.

What to look for

• The Drum Lane (击鼓巷) in the Restan district, where the article describes four Uyghur performers playing muqam on a wooden platform
• Flower Hat Lane (花帽巷) and the Gate Bazaar (门巴扎), named among the district's distinctive lanes
• Guizi Lane (龟兹小巷), with palace-style columns, upturned eaves and bracket sets and three- and four-sided courtyards
• The converted 1960s flour mill, whose new uses include the Kuqa historic-city exhibition centre, the Guizi traditional-craft centre, the Guizi book house and heritage workshops
• The painted doorways and mottled old walls the Xinjiang Daily report singles out along the Restan street

Location & getting there

Getting to Kuqa Old Town

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

• Search for 库车老城 with 阿克苏地区 and 库车市.