Kashgar: A Festival

John: "Compared to Jerusalem, Kashgar is a festival." Actually Kashgar is downright Disneyesque. Almost all of the old town has been demolished for redevelopment for which the Chinese government had been much criticised for. This has been the modus operandi. In 1911 Beijing had an inner and outer wall totaling 37 miles. By 1960 there was zero. Judging by other cities in Central Asia, there probably are not too many well preserved gems. A small part of the Kashgar "Ancient City" was preserved and restored. Right next to it there was another section left in ruin as an archeological park (below). It is evident it would have been prohibitively expensive to modernize the whole old town with modern plumbing, fiber optics, and such. 



Today the redeveloped old town is filled with funny (as in bizarre) looking architecture that is supposed to represent the mix of East, West, and the Indian subcontinent where Kashgar is at the very crossroads of. Local residents still populate the old town, as we happened upon children streaming out of the neighborhood elementary school by the hundreds during lunch break.





A large part of the old town is now tourist venues of every kind. Everyone was having a good time. Initially I felt uneasy. Unlike the other parts of Central Asia where locals are particularly hospitable, in Kashgar none of the locals, young or old, would engage. We hesitated to chat with anyone (we certainly didn't want to get anyone in trouble), unless we needed to ask for directions, in which case people were perfectly kind and friendly.

The streets were full of tasty specialties from every corner of China and Central Asia - like Pigeon Rose Soup with Jujube (first below) which we did NOT try -as well as huge selections of souvenirs. The old town bustled with people by day and twinkled with lights by night. John: Now I know how Marco Polo felt when he reached China. And John was ecstatic to come across more than one Jianbing Guozi stall (the so-called Chinese burrito). See the video (second below).





















We changed hotels after the first night to one (blue columns on the left) that fronted a "tourism street" in the westerm heart of the old city.


More shots of the Tourism Street near us.












If a traveler/tourist arrives in Kashgar by car, they may park just outside the western gate of the old city, with views of the city walls and the "still under developmett" eastern distrct across the river.






This traveler would also, across from People's Square, come upon a statue of Chairman Mao.


The Bands and Beer Street above the city wall was just getting going when we walked by.






Fresh Pomegranate Juice is present in almost every marnet in Central Asia. We finally tried some - tasty.




We also tried kvass which according to wikipedia is "a fermented cereal-based low-alcoholic beverage of cloudy appearance and sweet-sour taste." Tasty!


An Assortment of E-bike Shares including the ubiquitous blue "Hello Bike" which comes with a helmet.




Typical Kashgar city center corner: Neighborhood Mosque (center), Surveillance Cameras (left), and Public Toilet (right)


City Walls at night.