After crossing the infamous Torugart Pass (link), we arrived in Kashgar. Once we succeeded in passing the first inspection from the Chinese soldiers, we thought that the worst was over. We didn’t know that was only at the beginning.
Kashgar, also considered by the New York Times as “the most monitored place in the world”, has recently been the scene of a clash between the Chinese population and the Uighur ethnic minority (link). A few days before our arrival, there had been some fights in both Kashgar and Urumqui (the capital of Xinjiang) that involved hundreds of people.
We found ourselves in a hyper controlled environment. We were completely isolated from the rest of the world. Internet wasn’t working, as well as the phone or any other form or communication going outside China.
Our first concern was to inform our families and let them know that we were fine. It wasn’t easy. The owner of the Chinese agency who organized the trip helped us. He told us to write a note with a few key information. He would have then send a fax to his brother in Beijing who would then send the email to the address we had indicated on the note.
We chose to contact a dear friend who could speak English. He would have then passed the info to our families (who, we knew after, were already on the verge of alerting the police after several days not hearing from us).
Once we fixed the situation, we started exploring the city. In the streets, there were tanks with soldiers monitoring at every corner and everything seemed apparently peaceful.
Kashgar is the great center from which the roads leading to the west depart, and also the place where the two paths of the Silk Road that crossed Central Asia meet again. It is literally divided into two: the old central part – entirely populated by Muslim people – and the outer part, which is Chinese and modern.
The heart of the old city really seems to have remained unchanged over time, with its magic and authenticity. There are buildings built with mud bricks, tortuous and labyrinthine alleys leading to the workshops of tireless craftsmen who worked wood and copper with extreme care and attention.
And still, peddlers who were walking silently with their donkey carts while selling any kind of goods; women, who were wandering among the markets with their heads wrapped in brown scarves. Walls are blackened by the smoke of the ovens from which, almost uninterruptedly, delicious bread is baked. And also huge stockpiles of meat hanging at every corner and ready to be bought by the restaurateurs and turned into some delicious shashlik for dinner (skewered kebabs).
The minarets quietly dominate the scene, reminding the residents of Kashgar that, in addition to trade, Islam also influences their daily routine. Then, the muezzin’s call breaks the hustle and bustle of work, encouraging all devotees to hurry along the narrow alleys to be present at prayer.
