Souvenirs Earning Fame, Profits for Oasis City Hotan

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

 ◆ Souvenirs Earning Fame, Profits for Oasis City Hotan

Hotan, in the westernmost Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, boasts far more than the 360 desert oases on which it stands.

Dubbed "the home of silks" and "No.1 city in western China", Hotan was once a strategic hub on the ancient "Silk Road", long famed for its advanced agriculture and booming silk industry over 2,000 years ago.

In the 1950s, Hotan was known to almost everybody in China and many people overseas when tens of thousands of People's Liberation Armymen (PLA) settled there to develop the Taklimakan, the country's biggest desert.

PLA soldiers then put down their guns and took up hoes and spades to turn some 670 hectares of desert into fertile cropland. A large number of the farms they reclaimed have become leading grain and cotton production bases.

Hotan has more claims to fame, and the most admirable among them were three kinds of distinguished souvenirs, namely, carpets,silks and jade.

Exquisite carpets made in Hotan, which are priceless because of their typical local national flavors and beautiful designs in picturesque order, have been presented as special gifts by the Chinese government to foreign dignitaries and used as imposing interior decorations in the magnificent Great Hall of the People in the Chinese capital.

For 2,000-strong years, Hotan has produced hand-knotted carpets by indigenous craftsmen using top quality wool. Thanks to their unique style of knotting, Hotan carpets are durable and able to stand wear and tear for up to some 100 years.

At present, more than 20,000 able local craftsmen in Hotan make carpets. This year, Hotan plans to produce 400,000 sq m of carpets, earning an income of 20 million yuan (2.4 million US dollars), according to Wang Jingqian, secretary of the Hotan Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Hotan also turns out a kind of silk with its raw materials derived from plants. All work involved in the silk-making, from winding the silk thread off cocoons, to tie-dying and weaving, is done by hand. These wholly hand-crafted silk goods with gorgeous designs were traded in the interior areas of China in the 10th century, according to historical records.

Attracted by the special production method, buyers from all over the world order huge quantities of Hotan silk. These days it is exported extensively to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Germany and the United States among others countries and regions.

In Hotan, silk production involves not only special plants, but ordinary ethnic Uighur people. Their silk-reeling technique has been handed down from generation to generation for several hundred years.

Hotan is also famous for jade and it was known as a "jade river" in ancient times. Skillful and experienced craftsmen carve Hotan jade into human images, flowers and utensils, which are selling very well both in China and overseas. Hotan jade products, which are now exported to more than 20 countries and regions worldwide including Sweden, Italy, Britain and France, also enjoy popularity with overseas visitors to Xinjiang.
Meanwhile, Wang said, local government had devised a series of preferential policies to encourage Chinese and overseas businesses to take part in the development and production of Xinjiang souvenirs.