A Small Matter

  “During this time, I have witnessed many of the so-called great national events; but, in my heart, they left little impression…but there was one small matter which did mean something to me.” – Lu Xun, A Call to Arms, “A Small Matter” The mother was short, but she wore strappy, light blue wedges to …

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What Remains of Kashgar

The hilltop neighborhood stands like a mud lamp standing erect over Kashgar, looking out over the city. This hilltop neighborhood is the last remaining architecture preserved of this ancient city which Marco Polo once wandered through, seven centuries before. View from above Kashgar sits on a flat plane, punctuated by this small hill. The neighborhood …

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Time Change Extremes

Way back when we were in Urumqi, I did a post on the awkward problem of timezones in China. Despite being the size of the U.S., including Alaska, China has only a single official timezone: Beijing Time. Beijing is in the east of the country. If you were to compare China’s geography to America’s, Beijing …

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Kashgar’s Sunday Market

When we first arrived, Kashgar’s famed Sunday Market seemed cavernous but dead. It was nine-thirty in the morning, Beijing time, which meant that it was seven-thirty, Xinjiang time. Markets are normally bustling by seven thirty. In fact, if you get to many markets any later than that, you have missed the best time. But the …

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Warning: Graphic Sheep Death

I have mentioned that Kashgar is a Muslim city that is known for trading. I wanted to detail this encounter we had. Walking down a lane in Kashgar’s old city, Galen and I came upon a handful of men with a sheep on a rope leash. We watched as one of the men picked up …

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