Farewell to The Silk Road, China

Asia » China
June 21st 2005

Published: August 5th 2005

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R Eldar

The lion kings

Yarkand old town.

Hi again,
I decided to take another trip out of Kashgar, this time on the southern silk road. Didn't go all the way east with it, just wanted to taste a little more of the desert.
Took a bus to Yarkand, another oasis that houses an old city that used to be very important. There is not much to see here, except the old part of the city, some more Muslim tombs and mausoleums, some more market areas, and some more friendly local Uigur people.
Tried to reach the desert just out of the city and have a camel trip, but apparently there is no travel agency here that would arrange such a thing (which is funny, because when you take such a trip from Kashgar they take you to the desert right out of Yarkand...).
Instead, the next morning, while heading back to Kashgar, got off the bus in a town called Yangisar. This place is famous for its knives, which were hand crafted for centuries, and today are also being manufactured in factories. (When I say famous - I don't really mean that if you haven't heard of it there is something wrong with you, so don't worry).
It

Just pick one...

Yarkand market.

was Sunday, and it was around lunch time, and there was nobody making knives at the time, which was quite disappointing. After talking to some people in the factory and looking very sad, they agreed to give a little show of how it is done. It was amazing - one person made a blade out of some metal piece he had, then another guy started hammering on it, and in less than 15 minutes it had a very nice design on the side. They explained that later they polish it, and melt some copper inside to make the design shine in golden colors. Then they opened another room and inside were a few more people working on handles of some other knives. It was amazing to see how they make the whole thing by hand, working on each knife individually. Since they did all that to make my visit pleasant - I even bought a knife from them, with a nice design on the blade.
After walking around in the town for a while, including a visit to a very pictorial cemetery there, took the onward bus back to Kashgar.
I still didn't feel well, and I decided that I

Mausoleum

Yarkand old town.

have to rest a little bit and stop running around from one place to another on the terrible roads with the horrible buses. So the next day I stayed in the room to rest, while my camera made a trip to another market in the little village called Opal. I heard it's a very nice place as well, and I added some pictures from there.
And that's it. That was all I did in Xinjiang province. On the 21st I took a flight to Beijing (I just refused to be on a train for more than 60 hours), back to real China.
Catch you then,
R.

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