The Silk Road lives on in Kashgar

From here, many head onto Tashkorgan, which is the last town before the Pakistan border; but, even a day trip to Karakul Lake is well worth the scenery.

Despite Kashgar's distinctive and lively atmosphere, the city has not yet been overrun by hoards of tourists. Husan, who has worked as a tour guide since 2002, says that tourists first became noticeable after 1995, and the city is just now in the process of building 5-star hotels. About 98 percent of his clients are foreigners. "A lot of clients work in Shanghai or Beijing, where every site has thousands of tourists. They want to avoid that, so they ask to be taken 'off the beaten track,'" he says of visitors who book his services. "Kashgar still has that advantage."