Kashgar Highlights

While strolling through the Erdaoqiao Market in downtown Urumqi, a painting of Kashgar caught my eye. It depicted rows of old khaki houses along a street, and two women dressed in white and walking towards a lane. I thought of the Kashgar described in One Thousand and One Nights , and decided to discover it for myself.

I emerged from Kashgar Railway Station in what appeared to be one of a thousand similar cities, with the usual tall buildings, swanky restaurants and buzzing bars. It was not exactly what I had imagined, but my room in the Qiniwake (The Garden of China) Hotel soon compensated any initial disappointment. The hotel housed the British Consulate in the 19th century, while nearby is the former Russian Consulate, perched beside the Seman Hotel.

Soon after I checked in, I visited the Id Kah Mosque . This is one of the largest mosques in China, with a courtyard and gardens large enough to accommodate 20,000 worshipers. Entering the cavernous courtyard, a cool, relaxing odor wafted across from two pools. The mosque was mostly empty: prayer time had not yet begun.

I left the mosque and wandered through the town. I discovered a totally different world from that depicted in the painting. Hordes of people dressed in traditional Uygur clothing swarmed around the yellow-earth buildings and special jewelry workshops on the 100-year-old Ustangboyi Street.

In these small workshops were skillful craftsmen fashioning Xinjiang-style jewelry, hats, blankets, keys and copper pots. The local dwellings dotted around the town looked shabby from the outside, but they have stood for over 1,000 years, even surviving an earthquake that measured 7 on the Richter scale.

I also went to visit some of Kashgar's many bazaars, including the noisy and bustling livestock bazaar. There was only one thing more exciting – and noisy – than that bazaar: the Uygur's Nagla drum. The bazaars teamed with people selling all kinds of weird and wonderful foods, like egg ice cream. I also saw vendors hawking the Rewapu, a traditional Uygur musical instrument, and the Yengisar knife.

The latter is made in a town called Yengisar, 70 kilometers away from Xinjiang. I took the opportunity to visit its knife factory before I left the area. There I met a 70-year-old retired knife maker named Maolesiteke. As one of the founders of the factory, Maolesiteke had been making these knives since the age of 7, and he knows the difference between a fake one and the genuine article. He informed me, 'The real Yengisar knives usually have a bluish tint, as they are made of a mixture of steel and iron, while the fake ones are made from steel only.' Bear that in mind if you travel to this fascinating place.
Name:Kashgar Kashgar
City:Kashgar
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