Page 22 - 15 Day China Sample

DAY 12 KASHGAR Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch Enjoy a full-day of exploring. This is the day of the world famous Kashgar Sunday market. Spend this morning at the bustling livestock market with your guide - one of the most photogenic places on the trip. The colorful Sunday Market sees the town come alive as merchants from near and far bring in their wares. For merchants, the herders and nomads head to the sprawling bazaars to trade sheep and goats. It is a photographer’s dream with the endless stream of fascinating faces and varied activities taking place. This afternoon explore the 16th century Apakhoja Tombs and the impressive Idkah Mosque, built in the 15th century. Visit the old town to enjoy tea with a local Uyghur family. The Uyghurs are one of China’s 56 distinct ethnic groups, descended from Turkic peoples that inhabited Mongolia. Enjoy a whimsical ride on a donkey cart, and stroll the city’s alleyways. The quintessential exotic outpost, Kashgar was, and still is, the last frontier. Almost frozen in time since its trading heyday ceased five centuries ago, the old section of Kashgar remains much as Marco Polo found it—an intoxicating, marvelous confluence of Indian, Persian, Arabian and Chinese cultures layered one on top of the other. The Chinese traders had a tough deal. Heading west from Xian, they had to leave the protection of the Great Wall and contend with the Taklakaman desert in Northwest China - just over a quarter of a million square kilometres of some of the most inhospitable nothingness on Earth. Of course, they skirted around its edges it rather than battle with the sand dunes in the middle, hence the Northern Silk Road via Turpan and the Southern Silk road via Lop Nor and Khotan. The two roads were reunited at Kashgar, whereupon the Chinese caravans would head up into the Pamirs to exchange their wares which would either head south into Afghanistan and India via the Kunjerab pass or north to Tashkent and Samarkand. Overnight: Qinibagh Royal Hotel - Deluxe Room