Travel to Kashgar (Xinjiang)
- Budget hotels en accommodation in Kashgar : Seman hotel : 15 Yuan per person in dormitory room. Dormitory seem to have quite a broad meaning in China and be a room with 8 mattresses on the floor or a nice room with two beds if you ask nicely! 60 Yuan for a double room with WC; the WC's and showers in the hall are very basic and dirty. Try to avoid getting a room on the second floor of the hotel since otherwise you will be kept awake by the karaoke bar. - Public transport in Kashgar : taxis in Kashgar have no meter but seem to always cost 5 Yuan, you can of course try with less.
- On the 1st october, the national celebration day in China nothing especial happened during the day, I didn't stay until the evening so in case there was a huge party I missed it. Nobody seamed to know if something would happen for example on the Mao square, during this period many Chinese are on holiday, perhaps that's why.
- In the beginning of october the climate in China is still nice and warm, 27°C during the day and 15°C during the night. A lot warmer than in Kirgistan where I just came from via the Torugart pass.
- Sunday market in Kashgar (Kashi) : really worth the visit,an extremely beautiful and colourful market! The Uygur culture and traditional clothing seems to be a lot more kept and alive than with their brothers and sisters in Central-Asia. The market lasts the whole day so if you arrive there at 10:00 in the morning you are surely not too late. It seemed that the best moment to be there was around midday when everyone sits down to have something to eat in the street stalls that sell laghman and other Uygur dishes for 1 Yuan per plate. I find that the Uygur traditional dishes are really a lot less tasty than Chinese food, and I was quite tired of pieces of sheep fat in rice (Plov) after having eaten enough of it in Centraal-Asia.
- Internet cafes in Kashgar : if you stay in the Seman hotel you can on the bottom floor and on the other side of the square surf on the internet for 10 yuan per hour. A much better internet cafe is on the back side of the blue China Telecom building in the Renmin Xilu 169, where the computers are very fast (tot 50KB/s) for 8 Yuan per hour. In the street that leads to the old town there is another internet cafe that charges 5 Yuan per hour.
- Other markets and places of interest in Kashgar : the Uyghur night market begins every evening when darkness falls in the square next to the mosque, cozy and atmosphere, in the side street there are many stalls with Uygur food. There is also a Chinese market, in the side street Renmin Xilu not far from the Bank of China. The market has several stalls with very delicious food around midday. Prices around 5 Yuan.
- John Cafe and Restaurant : if you want to meet up with other pack packers (there is normally quite a few in Kashgar) this is the place to go. The food is actually very tasty and not very expensive (15 Yuan per dish). Just to sit down for a beer and a chat is also not a bad idea. The food in Oasis cafe restaurant and another Chinese restaurant on Renmin square I found less good.
- Kashgar Renmin Park : this park is situated behind the Mao sculpture in the centre of Kashgar. It costs 2 Yuan to enter. After the sunday market in the afternoon (and maybe other days too) several groups of Uygur people sit here drinking beer and vodka listening to a musicians playing the lute. It is a very relaxed and bluesy atmosphere with the people singing and dancing along to the music. But it's better to arrive before 17:00 since then people start getting so drunk that they can't play or sing any more.
