Two thousand years ago, silk merchants made Kashgar in southern Xinjiang a major hub on the trade route between Central Asia and Europe. One of the most popular products traded along what became known as the Silk Road was tea. Today in the old city of Kashgar, teahouses are still popular meeting places. It's common for the elderly to bring their own nang bread, buy a three-yuan pot of tea, and stay for many hours. Ubul is a daily visitor to his local teahouse, where chatting with people is a way of escaping loneliness.