Hiking, Shopping & Eating Our Way Through Kashgar

We took a morning flight from Urumqi to Kashgar and arranged for our tour guide to meet us at the airport. As we walked through the exit we didn't see any sign with our name, but then noticed a sign that just said George (my middle name), but thought twice as the guy was wearing Oakley sunglasses and didn't look like a local. After not seeing anyone else, we went up to the guy and sure enough he was for us. We were even more surprised with his perfect English. After getting the luggage loaded up in the van, we were off to Shipton's Arch.

Once we arrived at the Shipton's Arch parking lot, the guide informed us that we had a 1.5 hour hike...through rocks...each way. We made our way through the valleys enjoying the wind eroded steep hills. We were told that the few stairs were only recently added and the trek was much harder in the past with only rickety ladders.

The next day we made a day trip to Taklamakan Desert where we enjoyed a camel ride. We rode up to a nice sand dune and then gave the camels a rest while we enjoyed the views. The camels walk very slow and you can really enjoy the desert views.

On our way back to Kashgar I asked if we could stop at one of the numerous roadside bakeries for some of the delicious local flat bread. Unlike other Arabic flat bread we have had, this bread is sprinkled with freshly diced oregano and onions, and then stamped which gives it a very unique look. We enjoyed some bread fresh out of the oven and it was AMAZING! So amazing, I'm still talking about it...




Our next stop was a rural Saturday market where most of the people from the small villages buy their goods for the week. The guide walked us from stall to stall explaining all the foods - we tried lamb dumplings, lamb samosas, and fresh grilled fish. The food was so fresh -  we even saw people making fresh noodles and stretching it by hand.

The region grows lots of fruits and vegetables, so we also tried some fresh figs and freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.

The guy making dumpling in these huge steamers would yell at the very top of his lugs letting everyone know the dumplings were ready - which was a bit concerning considering we had no idea what he was yelling about. After enjoying our lamb dumpling, I went over to him and thanked him. He told me I was welcome any time with his hand over his heart. Most of the people were just as curious of us as we were of them but all we interacted with in the market, and really throughout our stay in Kashgar were very friendly. 

Our tourguide was great and so was his English. He speaks Uygar, Mandarin, English and can additionally read Arabic...wow!

Back in Kashgar we walked through the Grand Bazaar and headed to Kashgar's Old City. The Old City is in the process of being renovated. However, the government in Beijing is trying to incentivize the predominantly Muslim residents to relocate by giving them free apartments elsewhere.  If you take the offer, they quickly demolish your old house.

The neighborhood consists of narrow alleys that we would have most certainly have gotten lost in if we didn't have a guide. Since every building is the same color, the only way to differentiate each is by the front doors which are colorfully painted.

One of the other issues we ran into is Xinjang was the time. China is in the same timezone as Beijing but the locals in a silent act of defiance use Xinjang time which is 2 hours later than Beijing time. This became confusing when trying to arrange pick up times or flight times.. we would always reconfirm.. "this is Beijing time correct?" In their cars and watches, all clocks  would be set to Xinjang time..

The muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha  was the following day and every family purchased a healthy ram (male sheep) older than 6 months old to sacrifice. The guide explained that 1/3 of the sheep would be given away to the poor, 1/3 would be for guests that would stop by and 1/3 would be for the family. After awhile we really started to feel sorry for all the sheep we saw tied up around the city knowing they would not make it past the next  morning.



For our last stop we asked the guide to check out a carpet shop. It quickly became overwhelming with the thump of each rug being rolled out at our feet. Many, many thumps later and we settled on a winner. It was a great way to end our interesting trip.