The hook
The westernmost city of China and one of the oldest oasis towns on the Silk Road, closer to Kabul and Bishkek than to Beijing, a Uyghur, Central Asian place of mosques, bazaars, and a still-famous Sunday market, seen honestly.
01Why it's worth it
For two thousand years Kashgar was where the northern and southern Silk Road routes met at the foot of the Pamirs, a Turkic, Muslim, Central Asian city that feels a world away from eastern China. Its draws are the Id Kah Mosque, the labyrinth of the old town, and above all the Sunday markets, the vast livestock bazaar on the edge of town among them, one of the great trading spectacles of Asia. It is also a place that has to be described honestly. Kashgar lies in Xinjiang, where the Uyghur population has been subject to mass surveillance and detention; much of the historic old town has been demolished and rebuilt as a managed, ticketed version of itself, and travellers report constant police checkpoints, ID scans, and photographs of their passports throughout the region. None of that is incidental to a visit, it is the context of one, and it's worth reading widely and thinking about before you go.
02How to experience it
Time your visit to a Sunday for the markets, walk the old town and the Id Kah square, and, if the roads are open, take the Karakoram Highway up toward Lake Karakul and the Pamirs for extraordinary mountain-desert scenery. Expect and comply with frequent security checks, keep your documents handy, and go in with eyes open about where you are and what has happened here.
From the locals
Travellers who've made the trip give two honest signals at once. "I visited Kashgar, Xinjiang… it is fine," one wrote of getting around, while another is blunt about the backdrop: "once in Xinjiang the police will take down your information and photos of your passport wherever you [go]."