Ok

Ok

I was there last month.. very pretty city indeed

I am looking forward a filming of your video in my hometown, Hutubi Country (Changji Hu Autonomous Region)in Xinjiang.

Please look up 2003 Bam earthquake in Iran. About 26,000 people died and 30,000 people wounded. The buildings in Kashgar were built in the similar way and materials as in Bam. It was one of the reason why they knocked down those old buildings and rebuild new ones for better earthquake proof. As of January 12th, 2019, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake hit Kashgar. I assume people would have fared worse if they had stayed in the old buildings. We all like historical buildings and have sentimental attachment to them, but sometimes, we have to change for better lives.

Thanks for the comment!

True, its too easy for pampered people to say oh we wish we could save the old buildings. Try live in a place without modern plumbing, have you ever emptied bottle of piss every morning, have you ever tried dumping shit for real?

Aslam alikum Can you are live in kashgar independently or not My question about religion in china Khuda hafiz

well said. When the westerns are enjoying living in new big houses, why should they expect the local people in Kashgar to live in the small crappy places all the time?

Beautiful Kashgar waooo

Cant agree more

Old cities can be renovated without demolishing them completely. I'm pretty sure many houses there were good enough to withstand earthquakes like the new ones.

What you said makes no sense, Historic cities beat new cities any day, their more walkable, more urban, have more going, and lot more beautiful architecture, if you want to bulldoze that in favor of wide ugly roads glass blocks you're an imbecile

对游客来说，最怕的就是目的地没了所谓的原汁原味，对于当地人来说，现代化的改造才能让他们每天生活的更好。 国内的问题是缺少更仔细的规划。不过政府的初心的是好的

It is one thing to be nostalgic, but it’s another matter if you don’t improve living conditions of the locals. People scream “cultural genocide”. But what they do not know is, the living conditions the locals have to live with. It’s easier to say, retain what they have, but really, who is living their live out there? Pretty sure the locals would love to upgrade their homes for more comfortable and higher standard of living.

👏👏👏

I agree with your final statement. As for the media, there are plenty of places where Uyghur are living in their mud homes here in Xinjiang and I don't hear anybody complaining about it, nor were they saying bad things about the Kashgar government before they tore down the Old City. So where are you basing this argument from, other than your own bias against the "media"?

It's not only about Kashgar and Uyghurs it's about the whole western China, you can see "poverty in western China" has been a big topic in recent years, and medias blame the government for ignoring poor people's living conditions in western China. It's a fact that mud houses are more traditional-looking, but concrete houses also have their advantages, they can stay stable during earthquakes and are more stable on electricity and water supply, it's an improvement to people's living conditions. As for people who have lived in mud houses for hundreds of years, it's definately not easy to adapt the to the life living in new houses, just like in my place where typhoons come every summer but there are still many people who are not willing to leave their old stone houses and put themselves in a hard condition, which is dangerous and inconvenient(of course they don't think it's dangerous and inconvenient)

haha i heard so much .they think han chinese take everything of xinjiang.so they are poor.even han chinese every complaining .once a old guy told me the road light is dark because the goverment move the money to their home.you are not local you do not know nothing.and maybe they do not know how is the modern house and modern life.they just dont know.

You made a good point about western media's treatment of China. Either way, the Chinese government will never win. They can come in and take a few photos and start to call out how the Communist regime is violating human rights by leaving people in poor living conditions. Or, once rebuilt, they will come in and say "look how the CCP have demolished their culture". The same treatment happened to Tibet too. After CCP came in in the 50s, they started to build hospitals and roads, whereas the CIA is funding terrorist attack in Tibet, caring little about the living conditions of Tibetans. All the western media did was to portray Tibet as this pristine land where people live in peace, whereas the CCP is just an oppressive regime taking away local culture. Little did they know the theocratic rule of Tibet was a hell on earth. The bottom line is for a culture to sustain, economic security is fundamentally crucial. With good local infrastructure and higher living standard, people can live and thrive, as well as their culture.

@@FarWestChina Like u who comes from a developed part of the world they or we also deserves to move forward and have better housing facilities and other basic modern amenities in our life. At the end, we all are humans! Don't think yourself someone special above us. If not then I'm afraid my friend you have to rewind back to the days of Adam and Eve and start living your life like them. As you know charity begins at home. Good luck!

Thanks for your comment! I've been aware of the reasons they gave for rebuilding the Old City, although I don't quite believe them all. It seems a bit odd that the government made a 2009 decision five years after a 2003 incident, don't you think? There were many other reasons that the Old City came down, but safety (for a city that had stood for centuries) was not a big one of them.

Thanks for replying back. No I don't think it is odd at all that the government did it five years after the 2003. After all the city has been around for hundreds of years and there is no immediate urgency that an earthquake is imminent. It is just something that needs to be done. They probably starts earlier than 2009 with all the planning, studies and consultation with the locals. What do you think the other reasons were?

The 2003 Bam earthquake was in Iran but it shares the same type of mud brick buildings like the one in Kashgar.

The real reasons had to do with security. The demolition of the town had pretty much nothing to do with safety (although that was the reason that was given to the international audience) - the town had never had a major incident in over a thousand years of existence. Now, all of the sudden - BAM! - it's UNSAFE! Yea, right. There were security incidents in 2008 and 2009 and the way that the Old Town was originally set up made it nearly impossible to police. I'm not saying it was a bad decision, I'm just saying that's the real reason the decision was made.

Many people died in the 2008 earthquake because it is much stronger. The 2008 Sichuan earthquake measured at 8.0M while the Bam earthquake measured at 6.6M. Note that this is in logarithmic scale. A 8M earthquake is 10 times stronger than a 7M earthquake. If the city Bam was constructed with modern structures instead of mud bricks building, the casualties should be much less. People should be extremely judgmental when reading reports by Westerners about ethnic relations from other non Western cultures. Not that these reporters are necessarily intentionally deceitful, but because Westerners have certain perspectives in seeing things due to their historic cultural background on ethnic relations, they will often come to conclusion that does not reflect reality and they couldn't help it. Unlike China Europe has been beset by ethnic tension and conflict for millennium. If the power differential between the two groups is huge, it became ethnic oppression. If the power differential between two groups is commensurable, it became war. This has been the default mode of Europe (Europe has been at peace with itself by and large post WWII is actually an anomaly) and so it is only natural that Westerners assume this is the common behavior among all human beings across cultures. China would not have existed if Chinese operate at the same mindset as that of their European counterparts. The Han group is actually many different ethnic groups/tribes that coalesce organically throughout several thousands years of nation building precisely because the Han culture has a very weak sense of ethno-nationalism. This is why there is 1.3 billion of them. You can still see remnants of group difference today by their many mutually intelligible vernacular. In modern political jargon China is the ultimate 'melting pot'. The Han people is equivalent to the European people while Han from different regions is equivalent to people from different European countries. So how is the situation of the Uyghurs people in China? Here is a podcast that talks about this issue. mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2013/10/bia_20131016.mp3

Actually he does not need to go anywhere. There are so many poor people in his own country for him to see. Not mention the increasing number of homeless who live in tents or just wonder around the city. He and his country men do Not care about these poor people at all.

@@user-hc8ru1lv9o hahaha that was perfect response :)

@@LCDH-jw5hi So true. People should work closely with government. More development not politic

Link please, I don't know how to type that

Yes. Taiwan goverment is better than China Comunist Party

So true. Glad you had such a good time, Andrew!

Well said 😬👌🏼

Drama queen.

Not exactly. Berlin is still very historical. Many of the buildings were badly damaged, but they were still standing. Not completely demolished. They were rebuilt using the original materials as well.

Westerners want everyone else to live in traditional huts for their viewing pleasure.

@@sfbluestar I know it's easy to stereotype "Westerners" and it helps you to redirect the conversation away from the grim reality, but it needs to be said again: what makes this sad isn't the destruction of "traditional huts", it's the fact that the people who lived in those huts never had a say in what happened to them and where they moved.

Travel Xinjiang: Far West China I really like your video actually I live in china and i always wanted to visit xinjiang but I don’t know who to trust if it’s safe or not or if it would be a problem for me as I’m Muslim from an arabic country , I heard a lot of control mostly in kashgar

@@FarWestChina You mean like Imminent Domain laws are bad? Yes the China govt way can be draconian, but it's also a fact that in China many many many many people's dwelling situation needs improvement. They'd be lucky if govt even devotes the budget to rebuild their dwelling. Can't expect too much personal attention; that's just reality with such large population. If not for the draconian way of getting things done, China today will be more like India (which is a crappy place).

@@FarWestChina How do you know that the people who lived in those huts didnt have a say in what were to happen and where they were to move? They even participated in the deisign of their own new dwelling, and its not a stereotype of "westerners" cuz this "pointing fingers at others" kind of habit happens way to often among westerners.

@@Paladiini not according to the locals , nor this American who made the video.

@@Paladiini If you want an "old town house structure" try to go to Philippines and stay on their "nipa hut" ( the very old traditional hut) . For sure in 1 night of stay, mosquito are so happy . No water, no electricity.

@@Paladiini your claim is akin to saying a boy is totally happy when he literally crying. Also, you brain is also like a prison. Incapable of reaching out alternative information, consume only boring daily meal.

@@sz5263 You sure you understand the local girl in this vedio? As far as I can tell, there are some misunderstanding between the guy and the local girl due to language barriers and some proud feelings maybe. The girl doesn't understand fully of what this guy is saying, and she also tried to reply with simple English which I don't think fully expressed what she meant. (no affense). I see the girl is warmly-hearted to show the guy her house so she expressed her love to the house. But she didn't say she PREFERS the old house than the new one, and She also impled that her family owns another modernized house. I don't deny that the girl is proud of her old house, and likes her old house a lot. But to say the locals don't appreciate the renovations is a bit of arbituray.

Hey, thanks so much Dan! I've been enjoying a lot of your videos out there in Canada :)

Thank you! I'm glad that the passion shows - and I appreciate that you've stopped by to watch and comment, Jen. You've got some great stuff on your channel!

+Jason Bechtel My pleasure, Jason! Thanks for sharing your experience. I definitely agree with you that the new Old City is inviting and refreshing. As somebody who saw the original Old City, I'm too keenly aware of how the current iteration of the city reflects nothing of the historical reality. That said, I believe that the people are what make a city, not the buildings, so I'm not too heartbroken.

I am curious, Jason, what would have made you fearful of walls coming down on you? From a historical standpoint, despite the earthquakes, no major incident had happened in Kashgar before. Is that thought entirely based on the government saying it was unsafe?

honestly, it's a very remote, minuscule fear. i hadn't heard anything about it from the gov't. just the knowledge that things like that happen (e.g. in Nepal not too long ago).

The walls have been standing like that for two thousands years. Moreover, the houses were mud-brick and court-yarded and environmentally friendly.

Iran's ancient city Bam had similar mud houses and stood for 2000 years, then in 2003 an earthquake struck and killed 26k residents with 30k more injured. If a city lies in fault area, a quake will eventually happen en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Bam_earthquake

Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Glad you enjoyed it ;)

I somehow can not find reliable sources about your statement here "because in the earthquake of 1902, nearly 90% of the old city houses were collapsed and more than 500 people died". Could you please give me links or info of your sources? Thanks.

Sad to hear that!

Yes...the girl is saying maintain distance from me.

@@amitjaiswal366 That's a good COVID-19 social distancing order song.

Thank you, Mel and Jona! Glad you guys were able to stop by and drop a comment.

Great! Glad you were able to find it useful, Arif 😀

My pleasure, Jesse! Thanks for watching and commenting...I hope that your trip to Xinjiang goes well this summer and if it will be any help to you, make sure to grab a copy of my Xinjiang travel guide here: www.xjtravelguide.com

Thanks as always for your support, Marc! I hope you're doing well.

Thank you, Richard! I'm glad to know that you enjoy the videos and that you've had a chance to visit Kashgar. I hope you're able to return soon ;)

Thanks so much, Robert! Glad you enjoy it ;)

Translation of the above post: " The earthquake of 1902 is still a nightmare for the old city residents. 90% of the houses collapsed, more than 500 residents were killed or injured, and the Etihad Mosque, which is famous both at home and abroad, was not spared. The temple tower in front of the temple was severely damaged, and the wall cracked open... "Besides me and your aunt, the whole family There are no people in the blink of an eye." Abu Dhabi Sili Siri still remembers the disaster that his father told him."

Thanks, Ghalip! I hope all is well out there in Sydney. I look forward to seeing you again when you return.

Thanks for sharing. I understand where you're coming from and I believe that the average tourist - particularly the Chinese tourists - won't be able to tell. As I said in the video, what makes Kashgar special is not old buildings, it's people; and as you mentioned, the people are still very real. That said, since you are a traveler who has no context or understanding of what was "real", how did you expect to know it when you saw it? You failed to find the fake one because that's all you knew. I walk around the new "old city" and all I see is fake. The people are great - I agree. It's important to note: your failure to find the "fake one" was not because it wasn't there, it's because you are unaware of what the "real one" was supposed to look like. This is exactly how China plans to eradicate the Uyghur culture, by rebuilding it with "Chinese characteristics" and hoping that the international community can't tell the difference.

@@FarWestChina I like that you actually went to XingJiang to see for yourself what's happening there. But while I like to experience and see cultures, architectures in their most traditional form as much as you do, you should at least do some research before you form any kind of opinion especially what the Chinese gov is doing or what they have done in that region. Your opinions sounded 'under-researched'.

@@alexeilyubimov7760 Josh lived and worked in Xinjiang for a number of years, he didn't just pass through. He is definitely not under-researched. He also rarely spoke out on political issues, but he did in this instance and his POV sounds very convincing, given that he speaks and writes mandarin and was on the ground to witness many changes first hand.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I just want to say that we live in present, and the present is the history of the future. What we call old is actually modern for people who lived in the past. So, I don't agree with Josh's comment about what's "real" and what's "fake". Josh seems only want the time to freeze at 2006 when he first traveled there. He would see any change, any modernization as "China's evil plan to eradicate the Uyghur culture." If we follow this logic, then himself, a non-local foreigner, living there gradually influencing the local apperance is another form of culture eradication. Kashgar has been older than 2006. Kashar has been 100 years old, 200 years old, and 3000 years old, and can be in the future 100000 years old. And 2000 years ago, this Kashgar is filled with Buddism cultures, then would you call today's muslim Kashgar "Fake"? Time is limitless, but Geograghic space is! Now, we can only cherish the bit of every stage of the historical cultural still preserved in a shared geological space, but we can't force any point of time to FREEZE. Also, I don't agree with his opinion about Chinese characteristics polluting Kashgar. Kashgar for thousands of years has been a place with. multiple cultures intermingled to form its unique culture (including multiple Chinese cultures now all melted into Han culture). Now keep in mind, culture has fluidity, it is not rigid, forever unchanged. I can assure you that there is this group of people once existed on the silk road that is not persian, not Chinese, not turkic, but they are a group that's really good at trading and doing bussiness. But their trace has lost in the long river of history. There is not enough records left except the old literature has recoded their existence. In short, I just want to say that as a person live in this moment of time, we can only cherish whatever has survived the histroy and is still present. It is certainly unfair to judge certain period of time as "real" or "fake"! after all, WE ARE PART OF THE HISTORY.

​@@FarWestChina Thanks for your comments. I like most of your videos. However, I want to share some thoughts about your view that "Chinese people are eradicating the Uyghur culture." I want to say that we are living in the present, and the present is the history of the future. What we call "old" is actually "modern" for people who lived in the past. So, I disagree with your comment about "real" and "fake." You seem only to want the time to freeze at 2006, when you first traveled there. Hence, you would see any change, any modernization as "China's evil plan to eradicate the Uyghur culture." If we follow this logic, then you, a non-local foreigner, living there gradually influencing the local appearance is another form of cultural eradication. Kashgar has been older than 2006. Kashgar has been 100 years old, 200 years old, and 3000 years old, and can be in the future 100000 years old. For example, 2000 years ago, this Kashgar was filled with Buddism cultures. Then would you call today's Muslim Kashgar "Fake"? Time is limitless, but geographic space is! Now, we can only cherish the bit of every stage of its historical culture still preserved in a shared geological space, but we can't force any point in time to FREEZE. Also, I can't entirely agree with your opinion about Chinese characteristics polluting Kashgar. You view Chinese as a pure foreign culture to Kashgar culture. (I also felt a subtle tone that you seem to consider the Chinese being inferior to Uyghur culture. Your preference is your freedom. Is that because Uyghurs are more western looked?) For thousands of years, Kashgar has been a place with multiple cultures intermingled to form its unique culture (including multiple different Chinese cultures, which now all melted together under the name of Han culture). Now keep in mind that culture has fluidity. It is not rigid, not forever unchanged. I can assure you that this group of people once existed on the silk road. They were not Persian, not Chinese, and not Turkic, but they were very good at trading and doing business. But their trace has been lost in the long river of history. There are not enough records left except the old Chinese literature has recorded their existence. In short, I want to say that as people living at this moment of time, we can only cherish whatever has survived the history and is still present. Therefore, it is unfair to judge certain cultural sites as "real" or "fake"! After all, WE ARE PART OF THE HISTORY.

not sure why you are saying hi. It's not like any one from Kashgar can actually read your comment. the ccp is evil.

@@user-pd6bd7ir4z are you uyungur?

Hey bigfoot786, thanks for the comment! Have you had a chance to check out the FarWestChina travel guide? It's 400+ pages of super-helpful travel information that dwarfs the Lonely Planet. Find it here on Amazon (amzn.to/2sAerhp) or as a PDF download (gum.co/xinjiang-travel-guide).

I already have it Josh :)

Great comment. I agree - it's not a simple black and white issue. There was a lot about the "old" old city that was charming and special, but at some point a city has to grow and develop.

My pleasure! Thanks for stopping by, Parichay :)

Eastern Turkistan

@@rinatabenov5814 Xinjiang of China

It is related to Nepal. Khas= Gorkha=Nepal.

@@SM-ku3uo east turkistan not china

Great! Thanks for the comment.

If similar to Pakistan then also similar to north India.

I hope you enjoyed it! :)

Thanks, Deirdre! I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope you have a chance to come back and see how things have changed/improved (hopefully).

The vocational education centres (concentration camps in western media) and associated economic measures effectively cut the source of extremists. So younger Uyghurs are required to obtain skills and learn Mandarin. Once it is done they are suggested to open their own business or stay with the vocational education centres, in case some are really incompetent to run business themselves, for simple manufacturing jobs. Besides these actually unproductive but heavily government subsidised manufacturing jobs (CCP is buying them out here), mostly they run food businesses like serving food in the night markets, or selling dry fruit and nut businesses in the day markets. Among them some smartest ones even relocated to inland China to extend their businesses like, as I read somewhere before, one wholesaling nuts big in Wuhan with a supply chain starting from Xinjiang. As this develops further, with money the Uyghurs now mostly come back to their traditional lives, like dancing in colourful dresses and drinking alcohols. That's an ongoing dereligionisation process.

Wow, those are probably some of the most racist, insensitive and ignorant thoughts I’ve read in a while.

@@ozsharpener Except that the CCP clearly does not want a brain drain into the cities, nor does it want a traditional Uyghur lifestyle. Which is why the Belt and Road goes through the Western Regions to encourage growth there. They want a modern society. The traditional stuff is all for show for Western audiences who decry the loss of a unique culture, which does not contribute to the betterment of humanity. In the CCP it is seen as holding back society, things like Traditional Chinese Medicine or foot binding are seen in the same vein. Only problem with TCM is that it has a significant following and lobbies, which makes it hard to eliminate. Not saying the CCP has no problems, it has plenty and reform is significantly harder than in the West due to censorship, but we are seeing progress in LGBT rights for example.

@@FarWestChina I am interested in honest engagement. Would you mind breaking down my post and detail why it is racist, ignorant, and insensitive?

@@eugeneng7064 I have to say some of your observations are not accurate. However I don't want to have a debate on them, for example TCM and LGBTs. Regarding the Uyghurs, they were not quite good at fighting historically. They are not highly religious either as they do drink a lot and wear sexy outfits. You can see that from many recent Xinjiang videos on KZfaq. All the past extremism problems were mainly due to poverty. Their integration with the Hans is actually a lot easier than most people would have thought. For instance, in Mao's era, they were employed in state run, "unproductive" factories and farms. Many said they were becoming the so called semi-Hans down the track of such integration. I read an online article written by a Han guy who worked in a workshop of such a factory. As he recalls, some of his Uyghur male colleagues even took chances to have sex with their girlfriends during break times. So, they did quite enjoy such financial freedom back then. They went for extremism after Deng's capitalism reform started, just because all those unproductive facilities collapsed. That's why when the money was poured in again in past decade, Xinjiang's situation quickly stabilised and the integration resumed. They now even have more options, the "unproductive" factories (vocational education centres) are back and private run markets are also available. So keeping the old houses makes no sense to them. They are not stubborn people.

It's a great place to visit!

My pleasure, Austin! Thanks so much for watching - now you just need to come out and see it yourself ;)

Interesting argument, Josh, and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts in a constructive instead of combative way. I agree with you that development is inevitable and is happening not just all over China but all over the world. As you heard in the video, I'm not against the rebuilding of Kashgar's Old City. I have three points of contention here: 1) "It's for the safety of the people" - I'm tired of the lame excuses for why the city was rebuilt. On a scale of 1-100, maybe 5% of the reason was because of earthquake/safety. Another 5% was for the sake of development and economy. The other 90% was for better control/policing/monitoring. I mean, can we just be honest here? 2) The locals didn't have any say in the matter. They didn't get to choose to have their neighborhoods torn down nor did they get to choose or have say in how they would be rebuilt. It is no longer Uyghur architecture. It is Uyghur-inspired Chinese architecture, which is completely different. As I said in the video, it just makes me sad to see how it doesn't feel authentic at all - because it wasn't designed or built by Uyghur people. 3) "Kashgar will become a new hub of commerce on the New Silk Road!" At this point, that's not true. First, the government said they were going to make Kashgar on par with Shenzhen in terms of SEZs. Housing prices skyrocketed. Then a couple years later the government revised that statement to say "similar to Shenzhen but on a much smaller scale in terms of SEZ" (paraphrase mine). Prices fell. Why? Because they can't maintain such an unreasonable level of security while trying to promote international trade. All you have to do is drive outside the first Kashgar checkpoint to see the "little Guangzhou" trade district to see what I mean. It's been a ghost town for 5 years now. I'm not arguing against change. I'm lamenting the loss of authentic culture and the lame excuses that follow its destruction.

Travel Xinjiang: Far West China "90% for control/policing/ monitoring“? Hahaha. A government invested so much money to rebuild an old city is 90% for monitoring? Haha. First, Why didn't the government just install more and more cameras on the street to monitoring them. It costs much less than rebuild the whole city. Second, you think the government didn't control and monitor that area before rebuild the old city? Come on, dude, since you dislike Chinese government so much, I think you already know Chinese government has so many ways to control and monitor her people. Yes, the local people were already being controlled and monitored by the government even when they lived in the old houses. And the whole China are under controlling and monitoring by the government. Why are you foreigners so naive about this? Every government control and monitor their people include "The land of free", US. Or you never heard of Edward Snowden? And if you are the top leader of a country, you will do the same thing, too. Let's to be honest, Chinese government doesn't need this way to control and monitor their people, they already make it. And for the real reason to rebuild the city, 40% is for the people's safety. No more people should die in the next earthquake. 40% is for improving the local economy. The new city with wider roads and regularly arranged streets will bring more tourists. And the traffic will be improved, too, which is very important for the local economy. 20% is to improve the living standards of local people so locals will be more satisfied with the local government which will prevent the minority's chaos or terrorist actions.

@@haiyangzhang9156 well it's only blabla... as far as i know china recently change his politic and try to conserve old cities and monument... which got destroyed after mao zedong.. evolution is ok but losing his culture is not the best option. I live in shanghai and i'm sorry to tell that but shanghai/shengzhen/guangdong blabla lost their identities. It just looks like american cities. And if america is the model of china, it's a pity for china. In 400 years you won't be able to say if you are living/travelling in china or in an occidental country, that's the point... and i'm not really sure that modern occidental cities are really an example to follow... for me, it looks ugly and you feel no history and no soul

I fully agree with Josh, Kashgar is so rich in History that it should remain much as it is. Further development will erode it once the ancient charm crossroad to China.

@@benyisg7633 , City is built for people that live there 365 days of the year. Not for tourists to look at.

I hope you get a chance someday!

Haha! They do all seem to look the same, don't they? Thanks so much...the family is doing well. How are you?

However, besides 1980s brick structures, there seems to be older structures made of rammed earth. I guess those rammed earth structures have a lot of cultural relic value. I'd like to see the building group to select complete ones among those rammed earth structures to preserve.

In the past they did...right now I'm not sure how easy it is to ship things. Security has made that a bit more difficult.

thank you for responding

Do China have straight bullet train to Kashgar ?

I never said they should, Eric. I said *they should choose*. Why should they move just because you want them to?

@@FarWestChina Yeah. They did choose to live in a better house and have a better life.

I'm hoping to make a trip out to Almaty in the next year or two! It's pretty easy to do from the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi now.

They really are! Thanks for stopping by to watch and comment, Danny :)

Have a safe trip there!

Come on, man. Think for yourself here instead of regurgitating the propaganda! How is a mud-brick house in danger of fire??

you are brainwashed by west media or you just west media.

come on, man! do you really think that mud-brick houses are immune to fire? doesnt every house need to store fuels to keep them warm?

mud-brick can be burnt after some other flameble material are on fire....

old electricity line are the most comment story for fire to start.

The Sunday Market exists, but it's not the same as it used to be, unfortunately.

Definitely! It's a unique type of architecture that's unique to Central Asia.

Great question. You know, the truth is that everybody in Xinjiang has been conditioned well not to share their true feelings on politically sensitive matters like that. Even if they opposed the new city, they wouldn't tell many people - much less a foreign traveler.

Well that does make sense. I am sure opposition to the government's policies were not exactly encouraged. It's a shame though because I strongly believe in preserving history any chance we can. Sometimes it's out of our hands.

@@FarWestChina do you know any polling done in xinjiang? I know polling done for the whole china shows the majority support the government but I haven't seen anything region specific

Thanks, Antony! Glad you enjoy it. The song is perhaps inspired by Hindi music, but it's actually a Uyghur song from a local singer here in Urumqi. I don't know the name of it off-hand.

@@FarWestChina almost every word is hindi how can you say that it is from kashgar

And yet, if you watched the video, the locals said they still wanted to live there. Please actually watch the video before you leave a comment.

@@FarWestChina , That was just one local in your sampling. One doesn't make statistics. Also, those who chose to stay put were staying put, weren't they? The same thing that irks me big time is some lower-middle-income Westerners bring their kids to vacation in Africa, and profusely lobby to have the natives stay primitive, so they can have a good time in the Safari on the cheap, and feel king mighty above the locals on a (Western) poor man's budget.

@@yaglehoole5662 Have you seen Chinese tourist abroad? They act like chauvinists.

Hey Sean, thanks so much! Glad to hear that you enjoy the format. Honestly, I don't know squat about Larung Gar. My general thoughts on the matter of development, though, is that it must happen. As someone who comes from a more individualistic society (as opposed to a communal society), I lament when locals don't get much say in the matter.

Thanks.

😂😂

I can't wait to hear how you enjoy your trip, Elisabeth!

Used to look like when?

Guess what? Even Chinese-built building fall down with magnitude 6 earthquakes. I don't think people are any safer.

the new building are designed for the magnitude 8.5,even it have no taste

the standard base on the 1902 magnitude 8 Artux earthquake, 35km away from Kashgar. someone said the dissymmetry of Id Kah Mosque is monument for the damage.