China · Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Where to Stay in Shache, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Shache, known in English as Yarkand, is a county of Kashgar Prefecture on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert, once seat of the Yarkand Khanate.
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Where to stay in Shache
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Most people arrive mid-journey. Yarkand works as the break in the long bus ride between Kashgar and Hotan, which means a bed here is usually chosen for its distance from the road rather than for a view. The tomb complex is the other reason.
Anyone stopping to see the Yarkand Khanate Royal Cemetery and the Amannisa Khan Mausoleum wants to be within walking reach of them, because the county itself spreads across nearly nine thousand square kilometres of desert-rim ground. Altitude is part of it too; the county sits close to twelve hundred metres up, which the bus makes obvious long before the town does. Ask which Shache the listing means.
Jiaman Mosque marks the older core. Rooms near it put the Silk Road town within reach on foot, and that is the part of Shache County a visitor actually came for rather than the newer administrative streets. Kashgar Prefecture runs the county.
Beds attached to that administration sit apart from the monuments, which suits work trips and suits anyone catching an early bus out toward Hotan. The Taklamakan Desert begins past the fields. Nothing on that side is built for staying.
About Shache
Tombs anchor the town.
What is Shache known for?
Yarkand was the seat of an ancient Buddhist kingdom on the southern branch of the Silk Road and later of the Yarkand Khanate, and the Yarkand Khanate Royal Cemetery still carries that second inheritance. The Amannisa Khan Mausoleum stands with it. Jiaman Mosque completes the group, and travellers on the long road from Kashgar to Hotan break the journey here for exactly that tomb complex.
What are the main landmarks in Shache?
The cemetery comes first. Yarkand Khanate Royal Cemetery holds the burials of the khanate that ruled from this town, and the Amannisa Khan Mausoleum sits within the same complex, which is why the tombs get singled out above anything else in Shache. Jiaman Mosque stands alongside.
Together the three make the reason to stop, and the Silk Road town underneath them explains why a county on the desert rim carries monuments of that rank at all.
What is the history of Shache?
A Buddhist kingdom held this ground. Yarkand was its seat, set on the southern branch of the Silk Road where the Tarim Basin gives way to the Taklamakan Desert, and the caravan traffic of that route is the reason a kingdom sat here at all. The khanate came later.
The Yarkand Khanate ruled from the same town and left the Yarkand Khanate Royal Cemetery, which remains the clearest physical record of that period anywhere in Shache County. Amannisa Khan is remembered in stone. The Amannisa Khan Mausoleum stands among the khanate tombs, and it is one of the three monuments, with the royal cemetery and Jiaman Mosque, that give Yarkand its standing among the counties of Kashgar Prefecture.
Names multiplied over the centuries. English writing gives Yarkand, Yarkant and Yarkhand for the same place, Chinese administration records it as 莎车县, and the county answers to Yakan County and Shache County in the same breath. Eleven counties make up Kashgar Prefecture.
Shache is one of them, and its altitude of close to twelve hundred metres puts it well above the desert floor it looks out on.
Where is Shache?
Desert defines the edge. Shache County lies on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert within the Tarim Basin, close to twelve hundred metres up, and its territory runs to nearly nine thousand square kilometres. Kashgar Prefecture surrounds it.
The road from Kashgar to Hotan crosses that ground, and it is the line most travellers actually see of the basin.
What is the climate of Shache?
The Taklamakan Desert sets the terms. Shache sits on its southern rim inside the Tarim Basin, which is dry ground by definition, and the altitude of close to twelve hundred metres sharpens the swing between day and night that the desert already imposes. The temperate band still applies.
Yarkand lies north of the equator within that band, so its warm season lands in the middle of the year and its cold months gather at either end of the calendar.
How do you get to Shache?
The bus is the way in. Yarkand sits on the long run between Kashgar and Hotan, and most arrivals are people breaking that ride rather than travellers who set out for Shache County as a destination. Kashgar Prefecture administers this end.
The road tracks the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert, so the approach is a desert approach whichever direction the bus comes from.
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Updated August 2026