Upal

Not to be confused with Uppal.

Upal (Chinese: 乌帕尔镇; Uyghur: ئوپال) is a town in Shufu County in Western Xinjiang, China.

Upal
Monday bazaar at Upal
Upal
Coordinates: 39°18′N 75°32′E
Country	People's Republic of China
Autonomous region	Xinjiang
Prefecture	Kashgar
County	Shufu

Upal
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	烏帕爾鎮
Simplified Chinese	乌帕尔镇
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wūpà'ěr Zhèn Wade–Giles Wu1p‘a4êrh3 Chen4 other Mandarin Xiao'erjing ءُپَاعَر سِيْا
Uyghur name
Uyghur	ئوپال‎
Transcriptions Latin Yëziqi Upal Siril Yëziqi Упал

Karakoram Highway

Upal is on the Karakoram Highway, which follows the old Silk Road route from China to Pakistan. Travelling from China, it is about 50 km southwest of Kashgar or about 180 km north of Tashkurgan (which is about 120 km over the Khunjerab Pass from Sust in Pakistan).

Mahmud al-Kashgari

Mahmud al-Kashgari died in 1102 at the age of 97 in Upal. There is now a mausoleum erected on his gravesite. He is remembered as a prominent Turkic language scholar.

Monday Bazaar

A bazaar (Chinese: 乌帕尔乡的周一巴扎) is held every Monday. Being that this village is along the Karakoram Highway, it is frequently visited not only by local people but also by the tourists on their way back from Karakul Lake, a popular sightseeing site in Kashgar.^[1]

This simplistic, but colorful bazaar is held along the national highway, especially under the large tents in the back of the houses on the western side (the left side as you go back to Kashgar) of the highway. The animals market is located in the southernmost part of the market.^[2]

References

1. A Traditional Bazaar and Karakul Lake in Heaven (in Japanese)
2. "KARAKORAM HWY - Kashgar to Karakul Lake" in the guidebook Lonely Planet - China (2005).