"Not only specialists, but anyone with an interest in a wide range of areas (China, Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia) and disciplines (geography, anthropology, history, urban studies) will benefit greatly from this enormously stimulating book. Specialists will welcome the breadth of the author's inquiry, the challenging theses put forward, and the remarkable collection of new material, based on fieldwork in remote areas of China rarely studied by Westerners. General readers will be delighted by the rich array of illustrations and maps that illuminate the author's arguments and provide a fascinating introduction to China's multicultural frontier."

—Dru C. Gladney, University of Hawaii

"Illustrated with excellent diagrammatic maps and photographs, Gaubatz's interdisciplinary study examines the foundation, historical development, and distinctive features of five cities on China's inner Asian and southwest frontier. . . . This is an important contribution to the study of Chinese cities and China's frontiers."

—Choice