Kashgar

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Kashgar is a mix of different cultures, Uighur and Chinese. Sop signs are in Uighur and mandarin. There is also a mixture of old and new. The new includes modern shops and offices and large neon billboards. The old includes the streets near the square with the yellow (Idgah) mosque and the decaying wooden balconies of the nearby housesabove the shop fronts. The shops include hats, jewellery, knives and huge chests paintedgolds. The livestock market is a short drive from the hotel. There are separate areas for cattle, sheep and goats. The cattle have to take a big leap down from the pick up trucks, no easy ramps for these animals. The buyers test the sheepand goats by feeling their backs by hand. A local villager (who was trying to sell me a knife) told me that a calf cost about £300 and a large cow about £1,200.

The Sunday market in Kashgar is an overload on the senses. Atthe market I ordered a meal in Chinese! I asked for three (San) noodles (ba mien). I ordered successfully for myself, Tom and Cat. The first area I found in the market sold cloth of all kinds including batiq, Indian style, plain and patterned cotton and synthetics. The shop keepers have mini microphones and they talk to groups of mainly femaleshoppers selling their wares. I think they were probably saying their stuff was the cheapest or the best. After the materials I passed through clothes, shoes, spices, and the shops selling tourist items such as sheepskin hats. On one of the streets just outside the market customers were gathered outside a Chinese Medecine shop. Again there was a man with a microphone. I have no idea what he was saying, but he had a tortoise and a bucket with what looked like mini scorpions. I did not see anything in the market and I think it was probably the biggest market I have ever visited. After the market I had just enough energy for the Kashgar eye (big wheel), the big square with Mao statue and the Idgah mosque.

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