Zharkent
Kazakhstan · Jetisu Region · 640 m
Description
Zharkent is the last Kazakh town before China and it holds one genuinely strange building, a mosque of the eighteen nineties built by a Chinese architect in the form of a pagoda, with upturned eaves and carved wooden columns and almost no iron in it. The town itself is Uyghur and Dungan as much as Kazakh, and the food follows. The crossing at Nur Zholy a short way east is the road most foreigners use between Almaty and Xinjiang, and the duty-free zone at Khorgos sits beside it. The bazaar here runs entirely on border trade.
Length of stay
Recommended length of stay: 1 to 2 days (optimal 1 day)
Travel season
Best time to visit: April – May or September – October
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Highlights
- Pagoda-form Zharkent Mosque
- Nur Zholy border crossing
- Khorgos duty-free trade zone
- Uyghur and Dungan food of the bazaar
- Zharkent bazaar and its border trade
- Khorgos dry port container yards
- Zharkent local museum
- Ili river valley west of town
- Poplar groves along the Usek
Getting there
- Border town:
- Kazakhstan