The journey from the border was a contrast in sights with desert, green land, trees all mixed together with the odd huge solar panel farm thrown in as well. Kashgar was a hot, dry city of 4 million people with a lot of building sites both in and around the city. I found the streets to be quiet mainly because all the scooters are electric and the taxis run on natural gas. It’s a reasonably clean city but people did have the habit of throwing rubbish in the streets. I spent two days here mainly walking round the streets, visiting the Sunday Market (open every day) the Old Town and part of the craft area. Not a very exciting city as far as I was concerned. The truck was taken to a test station to be check end registered as a Chinese vehicle (and I assume it had to be insured for China as well). The registration number is now POO498.
While walking around I came across Chinese scouts (male and female as girl guides are called scouts here) coming out of a meeting. There were hundreds of them and though I wanted to take a photograph of them I did not as I noticed that there were a number of policemen watching them and it is forbidden here to take photos of any police, military personnel or sensitive buildings. At another time a family arrived at a cafe on a scooter (four on a scooter is quite common) and father plugged in a power lead before going into the cafe. No special lead, just an extension lead as I would use at home. After six hours of walking around I decided to take a taxi back to the hotel (50p fare for a few kilometres) and with it being Friday afternoon just after prayers had finished at the main mosque the city was hopping with people doing their shopping and many sitting down to eat at the many street stalls. On the way to the hotel the driver kept stopping with people at the side of the road shouting to him, obviously saying where they wanted to go. He stopped for two women who then sat in the back of the taxi, left before we arrived at the hotel when some money was put in his pocket and I paid the full fare when I arrived a the hotel. I just laughed at this!
Just as we were ready to leave the hotel one of the staff came to me via the guide, Jason, to say that I had to pay £4 for a pillowcase I had slept on as it had blood on it. I said that I wanted to see the pillowcase first and when I did it was obvious it was old blood, and anyway, I had no cuts on my face or head. I refused to pay and it was left like that. It was early in the morning and I was a bit slow as afterwards I could not figure out how he knew what bed I slept in as Ian was in the room with me as well. Anyway it was a scam to get money as he probably thought I was a loopy old man who would just pay up to save the bother of holding up the truck. The daughter’s inheritance is not meant to pay for the like of that! Our driver said that it was a common thing to happen in China, not a good thing for a country to be known for.
While walking around I came across Chinese scouts (male and female as girl guides are called scouts here) coming out of a meeting. There were hundreds of them and though I wanted to take a photograph of them I did not as I noticed that there were a number of policemen watching them and it is forbidden here to take photos of any police, military personnel or sensitive buildings. At another time a family arrived at a cafe on a scooter (four on a scooter is quite common) and father plugged in a power lead before going into the cafe. No special lead, just an extension lead as I would use at home. After six hours of walking around I decided to take a taxi back to the hotel (50p fare for a few kilometres) and with it being Friday afternoon just after prayers had finished at the main mosque the city was hopping with people doing their shopping and many sitting down to eat at the many street stalls. On the way to the hotel the driver kept stopping with people at the side of the road shouting to him, obviously saying where they wanted to go. He stopped for two women who then sat in the back of the taxi, left before we arrived at the hotel when some money was put in his pocket and I paid the full fare when I arrived a the hotel. I just laughed at this!
Just as we were ready to leave the hotel one of the staff came to me via the guide, Jason, to say that I had to pay £4 for a pillowcase I had slept on as it had blood on it. I said that I wanted to see the pillowcase first and when I did it was obvious it was old blood, and anyway, I had no cuts on my face or head. I refused to pay and it was left like that. It was early in the morning and I was a bit slow as afterwards I could not figure out how he knew what bed I slept in as Ian was in the room with me as well. Anyway it was a scam to get money as he probably thought I was a loopy old man who would just pay up to save the bother of holding up the truck. The daughter’s inheritance is not meant to pay for the like of that! Our driver said that it was a common thing to happen in China, not a good thing for a country to be known for.
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| Mao Tse-tung |
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| Main Street early one morning |
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| City centre |
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| A park |
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| The Old Town |
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| The Old Town |
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| A street in the Old Town |
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| A street scene |
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| A blacksmith |
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| A blacksmith making a kitchen implement |
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| A wood turner |
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| The demon barber |
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| The Sunday Market |
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| The Sunday Market |
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| Beautiful colourful materials in a shop |
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| A bear skin in the Sunday Market |
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| Nuts and spices (red shade cloth made the colour) |
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| The Seman Hotel corridor |
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| The Seman Hotel room |
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