A year away: July 9-13 - Kashgar, Xinjiang, China

Kashgar is perhaps the least Chinese place in all of China. It is at times chaotic, it's hot as hell in the summer, dry, dusty and like so many cities in China seems to be stuck in a constant phase of rebuilding and renewing. There is much more lamb on the menu than pork and you have to seek out Chinese food rather than being bathed in it. The old town ares for which Kashgar is famed are rapidly being razed in the name of progress. Old arts like copper smithing and tin smithing are still practiced in the streets naan bread, lamb kebab and sliced melon of all descriptions are on sale at every turn. I spent 4 days in Kashgar, one of them a rest an recovery day during which I slept most of the time. On the first evening I wandered a little around the area near the hostel and spent some time watching a coppersmith working some scrap copper into a big pot - pretty amazing craft. The first full day I checked out some of the remaining sections of old town and took lots of photos of the curious kids that live there. On the second day (Sunday) I went to find the famous livestock market with a cool German girl from the hostel and visited some other parts of the old town with her later in the day. On the third day I slept and on the fourth I flew to Urumqi. Below are some photos of some of the highlights of Kashgar.

The destruction of the old parts of town is pretty serious in places

Old makes way for new - the edge of a new park beside the old town

Xinjiang food - some kind of sausage made out of animal parts, I think

Figs, berries, melons all abound here

This guy was having a good day

Judging by the number of skins, these 2 had an even better day!

Dried snakes, yummy.

The famous livestock market. I could have bought a cow and calf for about $1000 but it was a little to big to fit in my backpack

Kids and people of Kashgar. I think the last guy had a pretty crappy job - searing sheeps legs.

The art of coppersmithing and hand tin-plating is alive and well in Xinjiang using recycled copper roofing sheet for the most part as the raw material.