preparing the food is done outdoors
looking into a larger street of old town Kashgar
you can park your bicycle and bike here
he is honing his skills
the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum dates from 1640 and contains the tombs of 72 members of the Afaqi family
in this section of town they specialize in copperware
some women fully cover their head
the pomegranate business is slow today.
the old town of Kashgar

Kashgar is China’s most western city and thanks to the status of Special Economic Zone is developing into a typical Chinese boomtown, including the familiar high rise residential areas.

Since 2009 large sections of the old town have been cleared and replaced by concrete buildings because the old mud brick buildings were suddenly considered too earthquake-prone. For the tourists a part was rebuild as a copy of the original.

Despite a recent influx of Han Chinese, 70% of Kashgari are still ethnic Uyghurs. Racial and religious tensions are tense and sometimes turn bloody, like the 2011 Kashgar attack and the killing of the imam in 2014. The Chinese reaction has been swift and severe. 

When we visited in October 2003, the old town was still intact and thriving like it had for the last 2000 years.

Kashgar was one of the few places that look and feel really different. Not because of the heavily polluted air, but the way people lived in a for us medieval setting, which was probably not much different from when Marco Polo was here in 1273.

 

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looking towards Kashgar: a nearby market, the mud brick old town and modern highrises in the background
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the Kirzlesu River runs right through the city
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a typical street view
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cutting the meat takes his full attention
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a wood processing factory
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