Last year during the National Day holiday, I went on a road trip through southern Xinjiang. Kuqa (or Kucha) was one of my stops since it’s the starting point of the famous Duku Highway[0].
Before visiting the Kuqa Museum, I had no idea about the history of Buddhism and Islam in Xinjiang. The government also has a very “official” definition of that history, lol.
The landscapes were incredible, and I wrote a few blog posts about the trip (in Chinese)[1].
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_National_Highway_217 [1]: https://gaoryrt.com/2024/journeytothewest/