Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately 3.5 million.

The city covers an area of 15 km². The altitude averages 1,289 m/4,282 ft. above sea level. The city is located in the western extremity of China, near the border with Tajikistan.

The modern Chinese name is 喀什 (Kāshí), a shortened form of the longer and less-frequently used (simplified Chinese: 喀什噶尔; traditional Chinese: 喀什噶爾; pinyin: Kāshígé’ěr). Ptolemy (AD 90-168), in his Geography, Chapter 15.3A, refers to Kashgar as “Kasia”. The name is Middle Iranic in its origin, meaning "Kush Mountains" (from gar/ghar, "mountain", and Kush/Kâsh, being the same as the ethnonym of the Kushan Empire and the Hindukush mountains in the neighboring Afghanistan.

An early Chinese name was 疏勒 (now Shule County), variously romanized as Su-leh, Sulei, Shule, Shu-le', She-le, Shu-lo or Sha-le, which perhaps represents either an original Solek or Sorak.^{[citation needed]}

Tashkurgan or Tashiku'ergan (Uyghur: تاشقورغان بازىرى‎; Sarikoli: [tɔʃqyrʁɔn buzur]; Chinese: 塔什库尔干镇) is the principal town and seat of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China.

Tashkurgan means Stone Fortress or Stone Tower. The official spelling is Taxkorgan, while Tashkorgan appears occasionally in literature. The town's name is written in Uyghur as تاشقۇرغان, and in Uyghur Latin Yëziqi, Tashqurghan baziri. In Chinese Tashkurgan is written as 塔什库尔干镇 in simplified characters and 塔什庫爾干鎮 in traditional characters; it is pronounced Tǎshíkù'ěrgān Zhèn in pinyin.

Historically the town was also called Sarikol (سريكال) or Sariqol (سرقول).

Tashkurgan has a long history as a stop on the Silk Road. Major caravan routes converged here leading to Kashgar in the north, Karghalik to the east, Badakhshan and Wakhan to the west, and Chitral and Hunza to the southwest in Gilgit Baltistan of Pakistan.

About 2,000 years ago, during the Han Dynasty Tashkurgan was the main centre of the Kingdom of Puli (蒲犁) and is mentioned in both the Hanshu and the later Hou Hanshu. Later it became known as Varshadeh. Mentions in the Weilüe of the Kingdom of Manli (滿犁) probably also refer to Tashkurgan.

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