history
Major stop on the Silk Road for two thousand years. Largely rebuilt after the catastrophic 1966 earthquake - now home to over 2.5 million people and the only metro system in Central Asia. The Uzbek name means 'stone city' (тош 'stone' + кент 'city'), and the Chinese transliteration roughly preserves the sound.
culture
Hub of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (上合组织) and a key node in China's Belt and Road Initiative. The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, when completed, will pass through here.
