In the old city district of Kashgar, Gaotai Ancient Homes is the most typical Uyghur dwelling house. With a history of over 600 years, Gaotai dwelling is located at a small loess highland, northeast end of Kashgar old district. It offers a unique sight of Uyghur architecture and ethnic culture.  

Uyghur Gaotai homes are built with earthed bricks and tied to the cliff for generations. For the Uyghur families there, each new generation is given birth, one new floor will be added to on original base of the buildings. So the dwelling area has been densly criss-cross for centuries. Without local guide, visitors are very easy to get lost in the maze.      


Reviews from trip advisors:
We visited the Gaotai Ancient Homes and found the Old enchanted Kashgar! I was a bit disappointed when I first arrived Kashi (well the new area) to see that

it is modernized/standardized just every other major big cities in China. Anyhow, we had fun here and took photos with local kids! I strongly recommend a visit to Gaotai Ancient Homes.

Great place to walk if you have a guide - We were about to enter the old town and had heard that you need to buy a ticket of some sort (no true) so we popped our head into a youth hostel just next to it. The guy was super friendly. He actually walked with us, great to have in this maze. He explained a few things and even showed us into the house of a friend. We went to the place of a guy who makes pottery. We did not have to buy but decided to get something in any case and he got the lady to reduce the price saying we were his friends. We took tons of pictures.