Tales of Hotan: Tradition, religion and innovation

Tuancheng, once a run-down residential community, is now the most renowned pedestrian street in Hotan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (People's Daily Online/Kou Jie)

Hotan is a place of such delicateness that it is described in Uygur literature and folk songs in the feminine – always as a goddess of unparalleled charisma, yet at the same time a woman with terrestrial beauty. It is a conglomeration of continuity and co-existence, a hybrid city of hybrid buildings and hybrid people who defy narrow religious, ethnic or cultural categorisations.

The best way to bring the city to life and to show how its magnificent cultural fusion and breathtaking development are the results of the co-existence of tradition and innovation is through the lives of the men and women, artists and merchants, imams and scholars, as well as families who made Hotan. By becoming immersed in their stories, we will embark on a journey to unveil the mystery of the finest jewel in Xinjiang's crown.