Travis and Elisha
December 15, 2023
Wow! What an amazing place to stay and how lucky we were to find it. By far the best place we stayed in China. Mrs. Li (the owner) was so genuinely nice and caring, and we felt like part of the family staying there. One of my favorite things in Kashgar was hanging out with her and her family in the evenings. She always invited us at night to hangout in the common area where she would make us tea and share her fresh and dried fruits with us. She was really good at using a translator app, so we were able to have a good conversation with her through that.
She has a great little family. Her son speaks good English and was also very nice. She had a young daughter who also speaks English, but is more shy with it (though she will sing you a Taylor Swift song..she has a great voice). They have 3 cats and the youngest one, little tiger, is just the sweetest and the friendliest cat I have ever met.
It was such a good and warm feeling to stay there. We definitely wish we could visit again. A home away from home. And we were treated so generously in more ways than we can write here.
Mrs. Li asked us right away if there was anything she could help us with, without us having to ask, which we really appreciated, and she took the time to sit down with us to go over our plans. She let us store our luggage for 3 days and walked us out to help us get a taxi when we departed.
While it was the family that made it simply amazing, some might also be interested in the following information.
The location is great. On a quiet street. Close to the big mosque which is a good landmark to use to find the area. And of course close to the old city. It's also really close to the biggest supermarket we have found thus far in China (we have to admit it was nice to get a few "luxuries" from home like cereal and hot chocolate).
The guesthouse is cute and has a Central Asian feel. The shower works great and is hot. We were there in the winter, and the room has heat if you needed it. Mrs. Li was able to arrange a driver for us to go to Tashkorgun and the Karakorum Highway, which was super helpful. The place was nice and clean.
Thank you so much Mrs. Li! You will be a highlight of our visit to China and will be remembered in our hearts forever.
-Travis and Elisha (Colorado, USA)
PS: when we get home I'm going to try to write up a bit about our trip on Tripadvisor because I couldn't find anything about Kashgar on trip advisor since covid, and some things have changed, so I thought it might be helpful for fellow travelers, so look for that.