In Kashgar’s “old city”, closed doors and windows often deliver more visual delight to a passer-by than do open ones.
In part a showcase “cultural” site, “old” Kashgar now also includes elements that are decidely “Disneyesque” – touristic confections, rather than examples of meticulous preservation of precious heritage.
Some of old Kashgar is a combination of archeological dig and a (very) slow-moving restoration “effort”; in that section very little current effort was evident on 25 May 2024.
Another part of old Kashgar – the greater part, I think – is a place where people still live.
From a visitor’s perspective – or that of any local residents who would relish spontaneous interaction with visiting foreigners – “old” Kashgar is now a very much less “open” city than it was, only a few years ago.
(I know – via somebody who has long loved Kashgar – that many residents of the old city are very hospitable people. Formerly, they took great delight in meeting visitors and inviting them inside for tea and conversation)
The likes of us are no longer free to roam around the old city, wherever we please.
Alert visitors – newcomers and “old hands”, alike – are now likely to find their “Old Kashgar experience” a confusing mix of delight and disappointment, seasoned with obfuscation and obstruction.
Eventually, a multi-image post or two/three will show more of what we saw there.
Photo is ©️ Doug Spencer, taken in Kashgar’s “old city” on 25 May 2024. It shows a well-restored example of “real” old Kashgar – not something “Disneyesque”.