Kashgar’s Urban Planning Museum was tough to get into, but it was worth it. Hidden behind the staid language of historians and economists and a skyscraper-speckled diorama was a story of the death of Kashgar. China has a slew of these Urban Planning Museums. Normally, each museum has a section acknowledging that city’s inevitably glorious …
We were traveling in Xinjiang during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month which is usually marked by fasting from sunrise to sunset by the devout. However, students and government bureaucrats were not allowed to follow their religious traditions, some of them being forced to eat during Ramadan. Not surprisingly, many Uighurs resented this treatment. The …
In China’s east, newspapers are ubiquitous. Living in Nanjing in 2009, I was spoiled for choices. In the ten minute walk to school, I would pass two or three news stands, each of them overflowing with newspapers from everywhere, including five to ten local papers like the Yangtse Evening Post, Beijing official broadsides like the …
On our way from Turpan to Kashgar, we passed through a county where violence recently broke out again, in mid October. Violence there has become so regular that it is not being widely reported, and I did not hear about it until now. At least 22 People are Reported Killed in Attack at a Market in …
Strangely, this sign says that old people can use the restroom for free, if they are carrying identification proving that they are old. Never seen this before.
Yesterday I did a post on our visit to the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum. A few months ago, the New York Times did a story on the same Mausoleum. Their story did not completely jive with what we saw, though, I would still recommend reading it there. The author of the Times story suggested that bus …
Continue reading ‘The Gray Lady at the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum’ »
In Chinese, it is called the Fragrant Concubine’s Tomb. In Uighur, it is called the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum. The difference says a lot about the problems in Xinjiang. Afaq Khoja was a political and religious leader based in Kashgar in the 1600’s. His teachings started a brand of Islam, and his family remained influential in …
Here are some photos Galen took while we were in a ferris wheel that oddly has been constructed above the old city of Kashgar, along with a small amusement park. Interestingly, the ferris wheel was largely empty. Apparently, only a few people use it each day, even though it is open from 12 pm to …
Like in Urumqi and Turpan, Kashgar is blanketed in the omnipresent sound of police sirens. This is not so much because of the prevalence of crime. Instead, it is because ethnic tension has been racheted up. The police want to have boots on the ground, to discourage any large-scale violence. But I have been …
I talked about the Dutars a couple of days ago. We got to see them ‘in action’ at this tourist friendly restaurant, the Uighur players sitting around a plate of some sort of traditionalish breaded noodles.