Kazakhstan Trip Ⅲ Shymkent and Astana are the oldest and newest, the hottest and the coldest

Put Shymkent and Astana together, because these are the southernmost and northernmost points that I have reached during this trip to Kazakhstan. They are the oldest and newest cities in the country, and they have brought me different experiences during this trip. The hottest and coldest experiences in these two cities correspond to Kazakhstan’s national past and future prospects.

On the train from Almaty to Shymkent, there were three young Kazakhs in the box besides me. When I was surprised that they were ten years younger than me and already had 1-4 children, they asked curiously. Why don’t I travel with women? I suddenly remembered the guy I met in Iran four years ago who had 25 girlfriends. He complained to me that Iran was too conservative and envied China’s openness and freedom.

The joys and sorrows of people are not the same.

I actually hesitated when booking train tickets. Although taking local trains is one of the important experiences of my travels, and the name of the Turkestan-Siberian Railway is enough to attract me, I had already taken it for more than 30 times before going to Kazakhstan. It takes an hour to train from Beijing to Yining, and many travel notes told me that trains in Kazakhstan are not known for their speed and comfort.

I still insisted on taking the train and arrived at the Almaty train station at ten in the morning. There was no security check or ticket check when entering the station. I walked into the carriage from the door all the way. Only when I got to the bunk did the conductor check the passenger information. After the train started, I discovered that the biggest problem with this old-fashioned train was not that it was slow but that it was hot. There was no air conditioning in the carriage and I could only open half of the folding windows, but it didn't work at all.

The temperature in the city of Almaty allows you to wear a shirt at noon, and you need a jacket in the morning and evening, but it feels hot even if you wear short-sleeved shirts in the carriage. There were three Kazakh young people in the same box with me. It was very interesting to communicate with them. One of them knew a little English, one knew Russian, and one only knew Kazakh. I used Google Translate to constantly switch between the three languages ​​to communicate with them. chat.

In addition to tourist topics such as where are you from and what do you do, when they learned that I was from China, they were obviously very interested in the life of Chinese Muslims. Maybe because they are relatively young, they have no idea about Chinese Muslims. They also don’t know much about their compatriots in China. It happened to be Ramadan, and they were all strictly observing fasting, which surprised me. From the information I had learned before, I had always thought that Kazakhstan was a relatively secular Muslim country, especially young people who were relatively indifferent to religion. But after getting to know these young people, I found that the new generation of Kazakh young people are very enthusiastic about religion.

Although travelers were not required to fast, I did not want to drink water in front of them, so the sweltering journey became even more difficult. I told them about my hometown and travels, and the shared history associated with the Russian invasion resonated with them, and Turkey was clearly the country of greatest interest to them.

After that, we talked about family life, and I learned that they were all more than ten years younger than me, in their early 20s, but they were all fathers. One of them had four children at the age of 22. They were very curious when they learned that I was single and asked me why I didn't travel with a woman. I told them a little bit about China's contemporary marriage habits. They were surprised that Chinese people get married so late.

The train passed through a place called Taraz, which was once called Talas. A border conflict broke out between the Tang Empire and the Arab Empire. The commander of the Arab army was a Persian, and the commander of the Tang army was a Koryo. They all brought their own Central Asian servant armies. However, this small war did not have a great impact on the relationship between the two parties. The Arab Empire and the Tang Empire soon became close trading partners.

During dinner time, the train stopped for a while in Chuhe City. Chuhe River is also called Suiye River. It flows eastward from here to Kyrgyzstan. There is a city on the south bank called Tokmak, which was the former Suiye City. Li Bai was born there.

At one o'clock in the morning, the train finally slowly arrived in Shymkent. Shymkent Railway Station is a little far from the city center. I was originally worried that I might not be able to find a taxi when I arrived so late. But when I walked out of the station, I found it was very lively because it is close to the border with Uzbekistan. Many people who get off here have to go to the port. So there are many taxis waiting at the train station even late at night.

Prices in Shymkent are cheaper than in Almaty, probably because there are more Kazakhs and Uzbeks here, and there are very few Russians. At the same price, you can only stay in hostels and apartments in Almaty, but you can live in Shymkent. Breakfast at the hotel. The Ramadan atmosphere here is very strong. Many restaurants do not start serving food until iftar time, and dates are prepared for each table. Some of the better restaurants require reservations.

Because it is close to Uzbekistan, Shymkent has a stronger Central Asian atmosphere than Almaty. The mutton is so delicious. The classical richness of the Silk Road zone makes every meal feel like being baptized by civilization. The simple local place People were surprised and asked, "Why is this distant traveler so interested in our ordinary daily meals?"

There are few tourist resources in Shymkent city. Some tourists regard it as a transit point to Uzbekistan. However, Turkestan, not far from Shymkent, is a very important place for the Kazakh nation. It is the oldest place in Kazakhstan. One of the cities, the capital of the Kazakh Khanate, and the site of the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, one of the dual centers of Kazakh national politics and belief.

In 1459, two Kazakh leaders Janibek and Kle led a great migration to get rid of the rule of the Uzbek Khanate. They competed with Shaibani, the founding monarch of the Bukhara Khanate, for territory in the river, and once forced Shaibani Khan to Withdrew to Samarkand and Bukhara, Turkestan and surrounding cities were acquired by the Kazakhs. During the reign of Janibek's son Hasim, the Kazakh Khanate reached its peak, basically determining the territorial scope of today's Kazakhstan and gaining recognition from the Russian Empire.

On a light rainy day, I took a crowded minibus from Shymkent and arrived in Turkestan in more than an hour. The rain got heavier on the way, which made me worried because I didn’t bring an umbrella. But when I arrived in Turkestan, I could see the mausoleum from a distance. At the top of the vault, the sky suddenly cleared and the sun shone brightly. Now a large tourist area has been built around the Yasavi Mausoleum, including shopping malls, pedestrian streets, museums and art galleries.

As the most important figure in the Sufi faith of the Central Asian Turks, Yasawi, I know very little about his life. This mausoleum was only built by the famous Timur the Great 233 years after his death. At that time, Emperor Timur defeated Tokhtamysh, the ruler of the Golden Horde. He ordered the construction of a huge and gorgeous mausoleum for this great philosopher, religious scholar and poet to express his religious and political pursuit of the people's support. Support, but until the death of Timur the Great, the mausoleum was not completed. Up to now, the second floor is not allowed to go up. The main dome of the mausoleum is the largest existing brick dome in Central Asia.

The mausoleum was an important political place during the Kazakh Khanate period. In addition to the mausoleum itself, it also included palaces, libraries and restaurants. As the political center of the Khanate, the Khan's enthronement ceremony and missions from neighboring countries were all held in Turkestan. . The most important meetings of the Kazakh nobility were also held here to decide matters related to the state, and in the following centuries Turkestan and its historical monuments were associated with the idea of ​​the Kazakh state system.

In the center of the mausoleum hall there is a large vat, the surface of which is decorated with relief inscriptions against a background of floral decoration. This large water tank was a gift from Emperor Timur to Asawi's mausoleum. The inscription shows that the date of manufacture was May 25, 1399, and that the craftsman was Abdulgaziz ibn Sharafutdin from Tabriz. After 1934, the vat was displayed in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad until 1988 when it was returned to the mausoleum.

Back in Shymkent, I came to a museum about the Soviet political persecution in Kazakhstan. The museum itself is small and mainly displays some archives and photos, from the 1916 Central Asian Uprising to the 1986 demonstrations against the removal of Kuna. Yev. One of the benefits of the cumbersome bureaucracy in the Soviet era was that it produced a large amount of paper documents that were too late to be destroyed. The evidence of these persecutions can be seen in museums. Now that paperless office information is stored electronically, it will be difficult for us to have such a museum in the future.

There were many tulips on the roadside in Shymkent. A girl looked at me taking pictures and asked me if I was a foreigner. She said that Kazakhstan was the birthplace of tulips, which was a very novel knowledge for me. In the 16th century, the Dutch obtained tulips through the Austrian ambassador who visited the Ottoman Empire. Later, Europeans became aware of this flower. The name of tulips also comes from the Turks. The tulips in the gardens of the Ottoman monarchs are cultivated varieties of wild Dzungarian tulips. Their origin is from the Kazakh grasslands. Kazakhstan accounts for half of the 70 species of wild tulips in the world.

The following story happened 20 days later.

Since Chinese passports only have 14 days of visa exemption in Kazakhstan, my journey will be divided into two parts, from Kazakhstan to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, and then back again, this time entering from Astana.

It was six o'clock in the morning when we arrived at Astana Airport. It was so hot in Almaty a few days ago that I had to wear a shirt. It started to snow when I arrived in Sarajevo. Now that I'm back in Kazakhstan, Astana is still covered with snow. It's my season. Feeling in a trance.

The city of Astana is particularly like a combination of New York and Pyongyang. Walking into the residential area after the snow, the impression is similar to that of my hometown in Shenyang. It is a kind of post-socialist era in which old bureaucrats become new leaders relying on nationalism and The familiarity of capitalism in action.

Originally, I was not interested in this city that became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997. The vast new city opened up by state capital and vanity is an environment that I am very familiar with and disgusted with. I originally planned to stay for only one day for a layover and rest, but maybe this is The comfort of the cold attracted me, and I began to regret not staying a few more days. The city is so vast that it was almost impossible to explore it on foot. In the end, I only visited a small part of the city.

Astana reminds me of Ordos, two new cities built on the grasslands with resource-based financial resources, and both are famous for their avant-garde buildings. Before going to Ordos, I would unabashedly and maliciously ridicule such rustic new cities, but my trip to Ordos changed my impression. What chance does a region or a nation have to become independent on its own? Perspectives and stances to look forward to the future.

Although the relocation of the capital of Astana is related to the balance of political power among different tribes in Kazakhstan, behind this luxurious city are the poor people in Kazakhstan that cannot be ignored. Those buildings that yearn for the future but cannot get rid of the large-scale aesthetics of the Soviet era. It’s hard to say to what extent it represents local culture, and to what extent it’s just a pretense of internationally renowned architects.

What surprised me was that the day I came to Astana coincided with Eid al-Fitr, but I didn’t feel any atmosphere in this city. Although this city has the largest and second largest restaurants in Central Asia, mosque, but there was no relevant festive color on the streets. I was wondering if I had mistaken the date, because the specific time of Eid al-Fitr does vary in different regions, but the restaurant owner gave me a dessert during dinner and told me that now It's their festival, and the date is correct.

I think if we were in Shymkent in the south, the festive atmosphere would be very strong at this time, but in Astana, maybe it’s because of the cold, maybe there are more Russians, maybe it’s the initial cultural tone of this new city. They are trying to downplay religion and look forward to reshaping a common consciousness belonging to Kazakhstan.

An obvious problem is that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Central Asian countries are trying to get rid of the Soviet imprint and establish their own national identity. However, the forms they can think of still have a strong legacy of Soviet education. Turkmenistan’s urban architectural planning is more It is also an exaggeration here. Uzbekistan has specially established a Central Asian rice-grabbing center. Everyone unanimously chose the "tall" (although I hate this word very much, but it is really appropriate) method to express their strong national self-esteem with the grandeur of size and scale. .

Perhaps Kazakhstan is eager to express its desire to explore the future from the perspective of an independent nation-state and get rid of the neglected border area identity in the Soviet era. Then Ordos is also expressing this desire in a state of undisintegration. Those architectural and block planning entities Volume and shape can be said to be "overcorrecting" with strong emotions, and it is also an inevitable process of exploring one's new direction in the old consciousness.

At the end of Astana, I came to the Khan Tent, an iconic shopping mall in Astana. In the capital that is said to be the coldest in the world, this building allows landlocked nationals far away from the sea to experience the cold weather at minus forty degrees. Of course, only a small number of citizens can enjoy indoor beach and ocean bathing.

Shymkent and Astana, the oldest and newest cities in Kazakhstan, brought me the hottest and coldest experiences. If the Yasawi Mausoleum in Turkestan represents the spiritual exploration of Islamic faith on the Kazakh steppe, it is The classical side of this country, then the Khan's Tent in Astana, a magnificent construction that combines commercial capital, national symbols, and national will, is also the country's yearning for the future.