Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County sits on the Pamir Plateau in China's far northwest. It is the only Tajik autonomous county in China, with more than 80 percent of its roughly 41,000 residents belonging to this ethnic group.
Taxkorgan, meaning "stone fortress," is named after a stronghold first built some 2,000 years ago. Some scholars believe Taxkorgan is the "stone tower" mentioned by famous second-century mathematician and geographer Claudius Ptolemy in his treatise Geography, a manual on how to draw maps, said to have marked the midway point between Europe and China on the old Silk Road.
Today, the ruins, reminiscent of the role Taxkorgan once played along the ancient route, attract visitors from far and wide.
(Photos by Zhang Wei)
