We flew yesterday with China Southern Airlines from Urumqi to Kashgar, the most westerly city in China. Kashgar lies on the fabled Silk Route, one of the ancient world's greatest merchant routes and melting pots, and used for centuries by travelling merchants from China, India and Europe. Livestock, silk, jade, and a host of other products were hauled in caravan trains along this desert road that stretches for thousands of kilometres. Close by are borders with Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Xinjiang province is home to China's several million Turkic Uighur people, and Kashgar and the other towns and cities on the Silk Route are the Uighur heartland. The physical appearance of the Uighur people, and their language and music, seem to have more in common with Central Asia and the Middle East than with the remainder of China. In fact, travelling around Kashgar is like travelling in a different country.
Kashgar is an increasingly modern city populated by a growing number of Han Chinese people, but the old Uighur core remains and is still an exotic and atmospheric place to stroll around. We walked to the beautifully restored Id Kah mosque and wandered through the nearby winding alleys of old Kashgar where people still live in adobe houses and donkey carts remain mainstream.
