Kashgar is an ancient oasis town on the western tip of China. The area is home to Uyghurs, a Turkic speaking, Muslim community. It is in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The region is by no means autonomous and is quickly filling up with Han (China’s dominant ethnicity). Through a combination of modernization, repression, and flooding the area with Han immigrants, the Uyghur people and culture are slowly being snuffed out.
I am a huge Silk Road buff. And Kashgar is Silk Road Central. My plan is to visit the Sunday Bazaar– the largest in Central Asia– and to travel the Chinese section of the Karakoram Highway. The highway crosses the Pamir Mountains and connects Pakistan with China. Bin Laden’s hideout, in Abbottabad, is along the Karakoram. A few miles to the west of the highway are the borders with Tajikistan and Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor. Continue reading