The Kashgar Livestock Market at its new location six kilometres southeast of Kashgar City trades all kinds of animals, including sheep, cattle, donkeys, goats and horses, plus camels and yak primarily in the autumn season.  The whole place is almost overwhelming with animal noises, smells, cooking stalls, haggling, vehicles of all descriptions coming and going: basically it's dusty, smelly and crowded but a great place for people watching!  By lunchtime just about every saleable sheep, camel, horse, cow and donkey has been squeezed through the gates of the market by the Uyghur farmers who make up almost all the buyers and sellers.

The Bazaar was just as boistrous but a little easier to cope with despite the crowds.  No traffic in the Bazaar but endless streams of vehicles at the Livestock Market as you will see below.

The former British Consulate was not very photogenic i'm afraid, it is now used as a restaurant and not a very grand one.  However, the verandahs where we imagined Aurel Stein sat and sipped his gin and tonic after a couple of weeks trekking through the desert early in the 20th Century were still there!

Kashgar Old Town [aka Kashgar Old City] is located in downtown Kashar on 1.6 square mile site.  Prior to 2009 Kashgar City Centre was a beautiful mess of narrow alleyways that snaked through a seemingly chaotic hotch potch of directions.  The old City Wall was torn down in the early 1920s and only a small portion of what is known as the Liaoning on the west side of Kashgar still has a wall to be seen.  in 2009 China announced it would be demolishing what was left of the old city and replacing it with a modern, more manageable and less earthquake vulnerable city centre.  This proposal generated a huge backlash both within the local community and internationally outside of China.  In the main experience in China has shown that once it embarks on a project it seems to move at lightening speed and is briskly implemented.  For whatever reason that was not the case with the Old City in Kashgar.  Today, a small number of bulldozers can be found still chipping away at the Old City, but the demolition is mostly over.  Local Uyghurs have moved back in and there are once again children playing in the streets.  Shops are open and the night market comes alive in the evenings.  We only spent a short time in the Old City and mostly it looked pretty grim.  It is no longer being torn down, but very little money is being spent on its upkeep, so it is slowly deteriorating.   It is to be hoped that the Chinese authorities will clock what a powerful tourist attraction the Old City could become with investment, but of course it is all tied up with the political situation and the Chinese appear reluctant to take high profile action that might be seen as encouraging Uyghur culture and possibly nationalism. 

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