Back in China, but really not Chinese
Trip Start
May 01, 2007
1
50
209
Trip End
Jun 17, 2008
Kashgar,
China
Friday, August 24, 2007
Photo Requests, Kashgar Old Town
Walking around Kashgar made feel as if I was staring at a painting of a forgotten Islamic land at the edge of a desert and the base of the world's tallest mountains. Then suddenly the painting comes alive and I step into it. You find yourself in a world of mosques and tiled buildings. Women wear dresses covered in bright sequins and have all different forms of head coverings.
Around town, like much of Xinjiang province, you find the majority of people are not Han Chinese. Mostly you see Uighur people but there are people from all around as Kashgar lies at the crossroads of highways leading to Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
Kashgar
I also ran into a half dozen folks, even shared a room with a guy, heading one direction or another by bicycle. The Aussie I shared a room with was headed to Urumqi and had already come from Tibet by mountain bike. I stayed at the Seman Hotel, formerly the Russian consulate. The hotel itself made the trip worth the visit. Every hall, lobby and room had intricate and brightly painted carvings. Granted the common bathroom could use some work. I most enjoyed wandering the streets of the old town and checking out the unique, Islamic architecture.
Comments
xinjiang music
I hope you haven't been listening to your ipod while you're in xinjiang, except maybe when you are sleeping, because you'd be missing out on one of the most unique, melodic ethnic chinese music there is. I met a Kashgar girl by my old house in shenzhen, and she opened my eyes to central Asian music. I guess people in xinjiang generally listen to uyghur (obviously), uzbek, and maybe turkish too since they are of turkish decent. I've made a .zip file of 30 uyghur and uzbek songs, if you have time check it out maybe you've heard them while you are/were there. http://rapidshare.com/files/49187800/CentralAsianMusic.zip