Kashgar, revisited and recreated

Kashgar’s recreated old city

Breakfast was served at the hostel at 0930, which is 0730 on the unofficial local time.  I headed out for a haircut and a walk back on the lively Azirete Rd where I got some fruit.

A little after midday, I walked to the Kashgar’s old city, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Along the way, I heard from Scott who had slept in and he was also on the way there.  We met up at the city gate around 1300.

Nothing could prepare me for the surprises and observations that the old city had for me:

• Apart from a few restored buildings, the old city was a completely recreated, including a city wall and tower that I don’t’ recall from back in 1998 when it was a small dusty town.
• Nearly all the shopkeepers in the old city were minorities rather than Han Chinese. They’re running businesses to profit off the Han and many minority tourists that have come to enjoy their recreated culture.  Good on them!
• For a big city of Muslims, I could count on one hand, the number of men with beards. Those that sported beards were very elderly.
• Similarly, there wasn’t a single woman wearing hair-covering let alone covering their face and few in ankle-length clothes. Back in 1998 there were a few women in brown burqas (like the ones in Afghanistan which are blue).  Instead, there are Han Chinese women who cover themselves from head-to-toe, including their faces to expose only their eyes, to avoid getting a tan.

We grabbed a lunch of laghman around 1400, opposite the square from the iconic Id Kah mosque then went to a café nearby for our first coffee in a while.  It was price, probably 1.5x the New Zealand price!

I wanted to take a look at the hotel I stayed in back in 1998 when it was the only high-rise (relatively).  It wasn’t far away by foot and we found it due to its capsule-shaped windows.  It’s now called the Qinibagh Hotel and dwarfed by a new tower next door and many others in the city.

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Looking for the bazaar

Based on an old Lonely Planet guidebook, Google Maps and a couple of Chinese map apps, Scott and I went in search of the bazaar which operates daily.  I wanted to confirm its location so that I could go on Sunday when it is at full frenzy.

The first site was near the hotel and it was a vacant lot awaiting rebuilding.

A second site was just built-up apartments that weren’t altogether that new.  We didn’t bother with a third site which showed up on Google’s satellite photos as demolished.

Edit: A taxi driver a couple of days later confirmed that the first site was the correct one and is close to river as per my old photos.

So Kashgar’s old bazaar has been demolished.  It is probably not relevant in today’s world but may return as a shopping mall.  But the animal market, a big part of what the Sunday market was, lives on out of town and I look forward to visiting that in two days.

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Warring nations

We returned to the old city around 1700 for another walk-around.  We found a recreated tower for a nice view of the area.  In the distance, we could see the cooling tower of what’s probably a nuclear power plant.

The skyline of Kasgar couldn’t be any more different from 1998.  One doesn’t truly understand the pace of development that’s humanly possible until one visits China.  The desire to modernise and progress is relentless.

Some minority kids, around 9 years old, started chatting to us.  When they heard Scott was from the USA, he asked what countries the USA was currently at war with!  And then he proceeded to ask what countries the USA had been at war with previously!

For the second one, I was able to help answer by saying “There are too many to count!”

The recreated old tower.

More of Kashgar’s old city

We crossed the busy Jiefang Nan Lu to Id Kah mosque and found a lot more of the recreated old city on that side.

This side was more arty with the decorations that adorned the facades of the buildings, eg. wagon wheels, flowers, treasure chests but I wasn’t so sure about the car tyres.

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Around 1930, we took a car back to the hotel for a short rest before heading out by foot for dinner around 2100.  Scott introduced me to a Xinjiang dish called Da Pang Ji (big plate chicken).  It was hacked chicken cooked in a savoury and spicy (not hot) sauce.  We did very well finishing most of it and likewise with the long beans deep-fried with spices and peanuts.

My thoughts on the new Kashgar

While I was initially disappointed and probably shocked at the recreated Disneyesque old city, it is probably better than not having it.  It could have been rebuilt as boring functional modern buildings.

Aesthetics don’t often play a part in the everyday construction here and worse things could have happened.

At least the old city reflects the culture of the minority and it’s giving them a chance to profit off their culture from Han Chinese and minority tourists.

Things seem better here than my visit to Tibet in 2002 when Han Chinese seemed to run most of the businesses.

Incidentally, my hostel, the Good Morning is run by Han Chinese despite being in a minority area and decorated in a local style.