Kashgar August 2007

Kashgar - the far west of China. Some thoughts are at the bottom of the page. It was a wonderful trip.

Taxi for Mao....

Just so there's no doubt who's in charge.

Would you buy electriacl goods from this man?

Loads of places had phones outside for people to use.

No idea what it was/is, but it tasted great

All the latest technology available....

Findikli - Aytun's home village

Finally to Kashgar - about as far west as you can go in China and a long way from Suzhou. We flew from Urumqi to Kashgar - about 1oo minutes. It's a whole other world there - you're certianly far removed from Han China and the Han Chinese. The people look different and the time zone madness is heightened there. Sunglasses at 9.30pm?? The town is bisected by Renmin Lu - to the north you're in the old town. All rambling streets, bazaars, a mosque. To the south is concrete block apartments. There's an absurdly large Mao statue - he's hailing a taxi - just to remind the locals that however far from Beijing they are, there can be doubt as to who's in charge.

In terms of language Aytun and I were pleased to find that our Turkish was useful. Not to the extent of full on conversations, but many words were the same. We could bargain using Turkish numbers and ask for 'soguk su' - cold water! We also used the phrase 'hayvan bazaar' - animal market - to get to the animal bazaar.

The Sunday market was our main reason for going - The Central Asian International Market, no less. The traditional market was interesting enough, but we both felt that we'd seen similar in Turkey. The animal market was fascinating, but sadly I was unable to buy a camel. I did get a shave though.