I woke up in Urumqi early on Sunday, June 24. Unfortunately due to noisy Chinese in the room across from me, I didn’t get more than a couple of hours of real sleep which was a shame, as the bed was much more comfy than the typical backbuster Chinese mattresses. Checked out at 6 am (Beijing time, 4 am equivalent Xinjiang time!). No trouble getting a taxi immediately to the Urumqi airport, traversed in 25 minutes on traffic-less roads. Urumqi airport has more stringent security than nearly all other Chinese airports, with a baggage x-ray and explosives swab right inside the terminal entry, also a layer of security that requires USA-style shoes-off at the people checkpoint. No doubt due to fears of local terrorism. (Kashgar is the only other PRC airport I’ve seen that does shoe carnival.) Got checked in, decently humane waiting area, but
Note: There is no bottled water sold in this airport on the secure side. Nada. So, take an empty plastic bottle with you through security, and fill up at the special drinking water dispensers once you get airside. On time departure and arrival, with a beautiful flying day. Arrived in Kashgar to a cute airport, a bit bigger than I expected. Of course, my bag was one of the last off. I went outside the terminal to the meet-and-greet on the sidewalk (non-passengers are not allowed inside the terminal) and without trouble found my driver holding my name placard. For those of us who usually have to deal with bus shuttles and taxi queues, having a personal pickup is a nice treat.
As I had prearranged with my local agent Abdul Wahab Tours, the driver took me immediately to my hotel (which I had prebooked separately) for a check-in and to toss my stuff up in the room, then Abdul Wahab (AW) himself showed up in the lobby and off we went to his company office at the Seman Hotel. (A good English speaker, Abdul also has a second office in another local hotel.) I had already told him I’d be paying cash RMB and as agreed, I paid him 100% of the day’s city tour (including pick up) and 50% deposit of the Karakul/Karakorum tour, with the balance of that to be paid when we returned to Kashgar at the end. Got receipts and everything. Sometimes you just know when you don’t have to worry, and are dealing with honest people. I met my guide for both the day and for the Karakul trip, an excellently-English-speaking relative of AW that for brevity I’ll just refer to as “M.” I’d also brought along a small plastic sack for dirty laundry (Kashgar was designated jiejie laundry stop #2 for this trip), and M took me to a nearby mom-and-pop (Uighur) place who did 2 pants and 6 shirts for a total of RMB 12. Yes, twelve—you read that right. Then finally, off to the formal touring. It was still only around 11:00 BJ time (09:00 Xinjiang time).
Sunday Animal Market and Sunday Bazaar
Kashgar has been a legendary oasis stop on the Silk Road for 2000 years. Over the centuries and before air travel, the vast majority of traffic between Central Asia and China passed through here. Kashgar was the point at which caravans either took the northern route to Turpan and Dunhuang, or the southern route to Hotan and Cherchen then Dunhuang and beyond. A spur route headed south over the mountains to Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent. A very busy place indeed. Amazingly enough, in modern times, pretty much the same routes are still followed for all sorts of commercial and passenger traffic. As a true crossroads city, this is another critical place to visit on any good Silk Road trip.
Our first stop was my main priority and the driver of how the entire Xinjiang trip itinerary got laid out—the Sunday Animal Market. As the name suggests, it only happens every Sunday and in warm weather months is pretty active. It’s also really grubby, as you might expect when dealing with livestock. Lots of sheep and goats of various breeds, many cows, and a few horses and donkeys around the side. Today there were no camels. M said that because horses and donkeys were needed for a while yet to work the fields through the harvest, that there wouldn’t be a lot of those animals for sale until fall. Same with the camels. And not surprisingly, absolutely no pigs! (I don’t think I’d seen a pig either live or on a plate, since Jiayuguan).
This is a “Man’s Market” with few women except us foreign tourists in the animal sales area, which is quite large. A guide like M was very helpful in identifying the Players: buyers, sellers, hangers-on, and the very important Middlemen who broker deals between buyer and seller (for a commission of course). Also very interesting was the horse tryout area, where horses pulling carts would be put through their paces at full gallop. M said most of the horses we were seeing—which were kind of small—were for racing not for work. He was also able to give me some benchmark pricing for the various animals—I saw a huge and magnificent steer for sale that could have been mine for USD 15,000 or so. But most animals were in the $200-300 range (average adult sheep or goat) or $1000-2000 range (ordinary cow). We got to this market about 11:30 am to noon (BJ time) and it seemed in full swing.. Apparently attendees come from about a 50 km radius around Kashgar to this weekly event. At the periphery, market also has ancillary goods such as bridles, cow bells, etc.
Tip: Wear closed-in shoes to this market, and not a good pair.
While the ride from airport to city had given me only a glimpse of central Asian flavor amongst the Chinese-style new roads and buildings, this Market was different and very un-Chinese. Except for a smattering of Han tour guides outside the market’s entrance and a few tourists here and there, all the attendees were from other ethnic groups, particularly Uighur of course. It was the first time listening to a cacophony of Uighur conversations rather than Mandarin ones, and the refreshment stalls offered local Uighur-style snacks not Chinese. My guide and I spent about 45 minutes at the Animal Market, then it was time to head back to town for the Bazaar. Contrary to popular belief, the “Sunday” Bazaar is actually a daily market, it just supposedly attracts more patrons on Sunday. However, while there were plenty of people around, it didn’t seem nearly the wall-to-wall chaos that I had seen in pictures and expected, maybe because it was around lunchtime and a bit hot.
Tip: If you have no interest in the Animal Market, then there is no need to “force schedule” a trip to Kashgar around a Sunday for this Bazaar, as it’s open every day.
The Kashgar Bazaar is large and has typical sections for fabric, household goods, souvenirs, watches and lighters, medicinal herbs, etc. I thought it was interesting for the Central Asian flavor of goods, signage, and patronage—it definitely doesn’t feel like anyplace else in Chinese territory that I have seen. There are plenty of interesting goods that you don’t see much outside this region, such as enamelware from Pakistan, Uighur knives, brass and copper wares, hookahs!, spices, various local herbal teas and brewing potions, gems and jewelry, Central Asian musical instruments (not like Chinese), rugs from Hotan, textiles from the surrounding countries, etc. Some factory made, but an awful lot of hand-made if you look carefully.
Tip #1 for the Shoppers: I thought this city was the single best place on the Silk Road to stock up on lots of unusual goodies, souvenirs, etc.
Tip #2 for the Shoppers: A good strategy is to look around this Bazaar first, also the street in the Old Town with traditional crafts, and get business cards. Then make a decision and go back to buy after you get a feel for range of merchandise and pricing points. I held off buying anything for the moment except for a headscarf from a nice lady who showed me how to tie it, as I’d need it for a mosque visit a bit later in the afternoon.
Kashgar Old City
After the Bazaar visit and a quick lunch snack at a sidewalk vendor/restaurant, my guide M led me over a small river and suspension bridge to the Old City. The Old City is a literal maze of earthen and brick structures interspersed with narrow alleyways and passages, largely residential and with a character unique to itself. Even as late as 10 years ago, a large proportion of the Uighur population lived here, but that has irrevocably changed. Tragically, since 2008 the Chinese have been in the process of demolishing the place, ostensibly for safety and sanitation reasons--which are true, the place was a pit. However, most locals and knowledgeable foreign observers point out two other more important drivers of the Chinese government: 1) need to eliminate the perceived hiding places and conspiracy dens of Uighur separatists; 2) free up the valuable, centrally-located land for (Han) developers. I tend to agree with the locals and knowledgeable foreigners, as if it were merely safety/sanitation, the residents could have been moved out of the worst areas but the place still preserved as a visitor’s attraction, non-residential artisan workshops, etc.. Most importantly, the local Uighurs were never consulted nor involved with the resolution of the Old City—it was done by government edict under threat of force.
As an architect by original training, I’ll try not to veer to the political and just stick to a professional tack and say I’m heartbroken that no better way was found to preserve most of the Old City. As of mid-2012, it’s about 2/3 gone. While the Chinese (Xinjiang provincial and local) government has rebuilt an ersatz “New Old City” nearby with the faux central Asian elements, etc., it isn’t quite the same. On the surface of it, the new buildings appear better constructed, better sanitation and plumbing, roads that allow for firefighting access in the event of an emergency. The locals that have been moved to these places seem to have mixed opinions: some like the lower density, the increased hygiene, and the ability to have their shops under their residences; others lament the loss of neighborhood spirit. The Chinese have tried to get the Uighurs to move to the edge of the city into standard Chinese high-rise apartments, but that has been resisted to a large extent. Uighurs aren’t high rise people!
For the visitor, this means that older descriptions of the Old City may no longer be valid. However, what is left is still worth seeing, for as long as it lasts. The Chinese say that most of what’s left will be preserved, but nobody really knows. My guide led me around various passages and pathways, and regaled me with interesting tidbits, such as pointing out the interesting pathway pattern that tells the walker whether the path is a throughway (hexagonal tiles, some yellow) or a dead end (rectangular). I saw pieces here and there of the oldest earthen housing. In some of the demolition sites in progress, I could see the remnants of beautifully decorated walls that the previous owners had done. We spent about an hour wandering the nooks and crannies of the Old City, seeing a pottery-making family along the way, but I was surprised at how little is left. I have seen rumors of there being a ticket booth and entry fee, but I didn’t see any evidence of this, M said no fee, so perhaps there isn’t anything anymore, or we just entered through one of the many porous approaches into the area.
Additional Wanderings
After another street snack, we continued our walk to the Id Khah Mosque, where I put on my headscarf and paid the entry fee of RMB 20. M informed me that previously, the big square/plaza outside used to be full of other ancillary buildings and stuff, but the Chinese had over the years cleared it all away. It’s a rather pretty mosque, painted yellow at the entrance and not gaudy or overdone. The grounds were very shady and quite large. We passed an open pavilion with men praying, then approached the main hall of the Mosque itself. It’s a fairly simple complex and main building. M said the entire Mosque grounds can handle 20,000 people at once, though this doesn’t often happen except at festival times. Interesting contrast observed: besides myself an obvious foreigner, I saw a small group of French tourists and their guide, the women were respectfully covered and none of the men were wearing shorts. Then in the other direction there were the Chinese tourists, loud and laughing, snapping pictures of the men’s collective prayer, and of course inappropriately dressed. Completely clueless and likely, also uncaring. I asked M why a dress code wasn’t enforced, and he said Chinese government would cause problems for the local Uighurs and Mosque leadership if they tried.
After the Mosque we walked to the “Handicraft Street” which had some really nice stuff. I was enthralled by the local musical instruments which a local artisan demonstrated for me. If I’d had the money on me, I would have bought the place out! Then had to worry about how to get them shipped back to US—or even Beijing—in one piece. Decided to defer shopping until my return to Kashgar after the Karakorum minitrip.
By now it was about 17:00 (BJ time) and still fairly hot. We went back to laundry shop to get my stuff, then I was dropped off at my hotel, briefed on tomorrow’s pickup time and plan, and thus ended the day’s official tour. After a little rest I went out to look around for a bit in this newer section of the city, but still very central. Also wanted to find a proper big meal and having eating Uighur snacks all day, decided to take a different tack and head for a Chinese restaurant for a beef + bean dish and some very nice doufu. A little pricey but tasty and the waitresses were very excited at me speaking Chinese to them. All the patrons in this restaurant were Han Chinese either residents or visitors. It was starting to become apparent that Kashgar is two cities, the Uighur and the Chinese, and they keep to themselves as much as possible, patronizing their own markets, shops, restaurants, etc. Found a nice big supermarket to provision up for the next day....and even had some COLD COKE ZEROES in the cooler. No Coke Zeroes in Gansu province, yet come all the way out to Kashgar the Backside of Nowhere, and find them. Of course, I bought two for in-hotel room savoring. Back at the room I had a chance to examine my laundry, and while very clean and fresh, all the pieces appeared to have been done the old fashioned way—beaten and scrubbed on rocks! Glad I didn’t bring anything new or good on this trip. Heh.
Even at 23:00 (BJ time), it was still light in the sky as I surveyed the city panorama from my hotel room window. It really is silly that Beijing doesn’t officially time zone the country like other large countries do. I reflected that it had been a very full day and extremely rewarding. Although my head was spinning a bit trying to reconcile the notion of being in China yet not being there. The visuals, smells, sounds, and atmosphere are just completely different way out here. ^