Advertisement
Published: July 27th 2008
setars
traditional Uyghur instruments Since arriving in Kashgar, I've probably seen about 10 Chinese people. The majority that live here are
Uyghur (pronounced like wee-ga) people, which is an ethnic Turkic minority. So it's very strange seeing these people that look Turkic speaking Chinese! In addition, the people here use Arabic script for reading and writing so all signs here are in Chinese and Arabic, which again is very bizarre! I never thought that I would see those two languages side by side.
One thing I've been trying to grapple with is the time here. Basically, the local time here is not recognised by China, so for places such as banks and the like, you need to go by Beijing time, which is 2 hours ahead of local time here. But everyone here goes by local time for everything else. So when you talk to someone about the time, it's often followed by a confirmation of "is that local time or Beijing time"? Don't think I've experienced this anywhere else before!
Unfortunately there is a bit of animosity between the Chinese and the Uyghur people because of what's happened in the past. It's quite complicated and I've heard many different things
so I can't really determine where they both stand. All I can see is that the Chinese don't mix with the Uyghur people, and vice versa which is really unfortunate. Our tour guide is Uyghur, and he has bad mouthed the Chinese quite a lot and also mentioned that Uyghur people do not eat in Chinese restaurants because Chinese people are dirty!!! Luckily I took no personal offense to this! He has also had arguments with our driver who is Chinese, and when we asked what the problem was, he started talking about how the Chinese discriminate against Uyghur people etc...
So with all the hostility aside, we have visited the proverbial Sunday market - which is made up of two markets: a livestock market where you test ride donkeys and stick your hand into the body parts of sheeps and the like; and another market which houses everything under the sun. It seems that the whole Xinjiang province descends on Kashgar every Sunday as every man and his donkey or sheep were there! I took more interest in the fascinating faces at the market rather than the animals as they weren't being treated very well. Unfortunately the main
market was a bit of a let down, it has become very tourist orientated so I decided to go hang out with some locals at a noodle stall instead and watched them hand make their noodles. I obviously didn't leave without trying a bowl, and I definitely was not disappointed. The "laghman" here is the best that I've tasted on this trip, even though each country makes it slightly differently. I've also had my share of other traditional Uyghur food which is quite interesting. It's a mix of Chinese and Turkic cuisine, so I'm getting the best of both worlds!
Walking through the old town, I felt like I was transported back in time. Mud brick houses built down winding alley ways, traders hustling and bustling about the streets, men riding on donkeys in their traditional dress. Unfortunately it's not going to stay like this for long as the Chinese are apparently trying to knock down a lot of the old town in order to pave way for new modern buildings. Not good news! I can see why the Uyghur people and the Chinese are in conflict, as the Uyghurs just want to live their life in their traditional
ways and the Chinese are wanting to control the land. Maybe this region would have been better off not being a part of China...
Tomorrow we're leaving to head back to Kyrgyzstan again, via another remote pass that again has only been opened to foreigners in recent years. I'm sure I will have another story to tell about that soon! Once we get across the border, we'll be spending the next week camping with nomads in yurts and staying in guesthouses, and hopefully swimming in the beautiful lakes of Kyrgyzstan!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.131s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 10; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0715s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
