Xinjiang, China: Kashgar - Day One

First morning in Kashgar we were awakened by the house phone. The front desk wanted to see our passports so they could register us. I was none too amused - will you people have some mercy on us? We barely had six hours of sleep. I later found out when we arrived at 2-3am, the night shift didn't know how to register us, so she called the police to come register us. While the hotel staff are all friendly, the place prioritizes police registration over guests' rest???!!!

When we showed up at the front desk with our passports, we were asked to stick around for a few minutes, as the police were coming to chat with us. After 10 minutes or so, a Uighur police officer showed up. He looked at our passports, and after the briefest exchange, he was done with us. It was rather anticlimactic. I decided to get some information from him. I started to complain about our driver from the previous night. The police officer kept asking us for the license plate number of the car, which was clearly noted at a checkpoint. The car was then photographed only a gazillion times. Now I'm wondering how much of the big data is used/processed, and how easy it is to access it. Incidentally the police officer spoke perfect Mandarin and very good English, one of the very few people we have ever met around the world that have mastered languages in three different primary language families.

It turned out that was not the last time we would see our police officer. The next day it was Friday. We decided to get a reading on freedom of religion (Islam). Friday noon prayer is like the Sunday service for Christians. The Id Kah Mosque is the largest mosque in China. It is normally open to visitors outside payer time, which is common enough. We parked ourselves near the gate and watched the last of the visitors being ushered out of the mosques, but there were no adherents entering en masse. There were a dozen or so official looking people roaming in front the gate. The two of us were puzzling hard over the situation when we were spotted by our police officer from the morning - "What are you two doing here?". Were we being subversive?! We learned from him that some tourist is missing a backpack. They were looking for it. What happened to all the men that came to pray?! They are already inside? How???!!! The whole thing seemed super fishy. Our conclusion - we did not witness religious freedom that day.

The yellow-tiled Id Kah Mosque with its 12 meter high gatehouse and dome, and on either side 20-meter brick towers, faces a large public square.




Once inside the gate house - John is 65-and-over so he gets in for free! - you walk through forested grounds to the prayer hall with the usual iwan outside.


The Prayer Hall.








Old Men on the Corner Across from the Mosque.


There is a line of souvenir shops adjacent to the mosque.


The Id Kah Mosque as seen through the entrance to the Tourism Street.