Kashgar Sunday Market & Old City Guide | Xinjiang, China

Kashgar lies in the western extremity of the Tarim Basin, 1,289 kilometers southwest of Ürümqi, at an elevation of approximately 1,289 meters. The city sits at the convergence point where the northern and southern branches of the historical Silk Road reunited before crossing westward into the mountain passes. This geographic position at the base of the Pamir Mountains made Kashgar a compulsory stop for caravans moving between the Taklamakan Desert routes and the high passes leading toward Central Asia. The oasis relies on seasonal meltwater from glaciers in the surrounding ranges, channeled through underground irrigation systems called karez that have been maintained for centuries. The climate is classified as cold desert, with January mean temperatures near minus six degrees Celsius and July means around twenty-five degrees Celsius, producing extreme diurnal temperature swings that can exceed twenty degrees.

The Sunday Market, known locally as the Yekshenbe Bazaar, occupies a permanent site on the eastern edge of the contemporary city, relocated from its historical location in the old town center in the early 1990s. The market operates every Sunday year-round, though the designation "Sunday" follows the Gregorian calendar rather than any traditional Islamic or Uyghur timekeeping system. At its peak attendance during summer months, the bazaar draws between fifty thousand and seventy thousand participants, combining local residents, regional traders from surrounding counties, and visitors. The livestock section alone has documented capacity for over ten thousand animals on a single market day, with sheep, cattle, donkeys, horses, and camels brought from as far as three hundred kilometers away. Traders begin arriving before dawn, with the first transactions often completed by six in the morning. The animal market operates in a separate fenced area approximately one kilometer from the main bazaar to manage dust and logistics.

The commodity sections are organized by material type, with dedicated zones for metalwork, textiles, carpets, agricultural tools, ceramics, and foodstuffs. The knife vendors cluster in one district, offering traditional Uyghur knives with curved blades ranging from eight centimeters for fruit paring to forty-centimeter blades for butchering. These knives feature handles made from bone, horn, or wood inlaid with brass or nickel-silver patterns. The textile section displays atlas silk, a form of ikat weaving where threads are resist-dyed before weaving to create blurred geometric patterns. This technique produces fabric with patterns visible on both sides, traditionally woven in widths of approximately fifty centimeters on manual looms. The most complex patterns require binding and dyeing the warp threads in up to seven separate color baths before weaving begins. Contemporary atlas production in Kashgar occurs primarily in workshops in Yengisar County, thirty-five kilometers south of the city center.

The carpet section sells both new and antique pile rugs, most produced by Uyghur and Kyrgyz weavers in the surrounding Kashgar Prefecture. Typical dimensions run between 150 by 200 centimeters for room-sized pieces up to 200 by 300 centimeters for larger examples. Traditional dyes included madder root for red tones, indigo for blues, and walnut husks for browns, though synthetic dyes have dominated production since the mid-twentieth century. Knot density in locally produced carpets generally ranges from sixty thousand to one hundred twenty thousand knots per square meter, significantly lower than Persian urban traditions but adequate for the intended domestic use. Wool comes from fat-tailed sheep raised on high pastures in the Pamir and Tianshan ranges, sheared in late spring. The food market operates in covered sections with separate areas for dried fruit, spices, fresh produce, and prepared foods. Raisins from the Turpan Depression appear in green, golden, and dark varieties, dried in dedicated ventilated adobe structures that allow air circulation while blocking direct sunlight. Hami melons arrive during the late summer harvest, transported in cushioned carts to prevent bruising of the thin rinds.

The Old City of Kashgar refers to the traditional residential quarter that survived in substantially intact form until large-scale demolition and reconstruction began in 2009. The district covered approximately two square kilometers immediately surrounding the Id Kah Mosque and stretched northeast toward the former city walls. Construction in this quarter followed a pattern consistent across Central Asian oasis cities, with residential compounds built from adobe brick, organized along narrow lanes that provided shade and wind protection. Typical houses were single-story or two-story structures arranged around interior courtyards, with walls facing the lane presenting blank or minimally fenestrated facades. Courtyards measured between twenty and forty square meters, often containing a raised platform called a supa used for dining and sleeping during warm months. Room heights averaged 2.8 to 3.2 meters, with flat roofs constructed from poplar beams overlaid with woven reed mats, then sealed with layers of clay mixed with straw.

The demolition program, officially termed the Kashgar Dangerous House Renovation Project, was announced in 2009 with stated objectives of reducing earthquake vulnerability and improving sanitation infrastructure. Official statements indicated that approximately seventy percent of the old city structures would be demolished and rebuilt, with the remaining thirty percent preserved or renovated. The project displaced an estimated sixty-five thousand residents over a five-year period. Replacement structures were built using reinforced concrete frames with exterior treatments intended to replicate traditional architectural elements, including carved wooden balconies, decorative brickwork, and courtyard plans. Windows were enlarged and standardized, and indoor plumbing was installed in all rebuilt units. The spatial layout of lanes was widened in most sections from the original 1.5 to 2.5 meter widths to accommodate vehicle access, fundamentally altering the pedestrian scale of the district.

The Id Kah Mosque anchors the western edge of what remains of the old city, occupying a site that has held a mosque since at least 1442, when the original structure was commissioned by Saqsiz Mirza, a leader of the Chagatai Khanate. The current structure reflects multiple rebuilding and expansion phases, with the main prayer hall dating to reconstruction in 1838. The mosque covers approximately 16,800 square meters including courtyards, with a prayer hall that can accommodate approximately three thousand worshippers. The entrance portal reaches eighteen meters in height, faced with yellow glazed brick in geometric patterns. The main courtyard contains an ablution pool and is lined with arcades supported on wooden columns, which are replaced on a rotating maintenance schedule as poplar wood degrades in approximately thirty to forty years under local conditions. The minaret-like towers flanking the entrance gate are decorative rather than functional, measuring approximately ten meters in height. Friday prayers during Ramadan can draw crowds exceeding ten thousand, filling the interior spaces, courtyards, and the plaza outside the mosque.

The Apak Hoja Tomb complex lies five kilometers northeast of the city center, constructed beginning in 1640 as a mausoleum for Yusuf Khoja, a religious teacher. The complex expanded over subsequent generations to house seventy-two burials from five generations of the same family. The main tomb building measures approximately seventeen meters square in plan and thirty-five meters in height to the top of the dome. The dome itself spans approximately seventeen meters in diameter, constructed using a double-shell technique with an inner structural dome and an outer decorative shell, both built from fired brick. The exterior is faced with glazed tiles in dark green and blue, arranged in geometric and floral patterns. The interior walls are unglazed brick with painted decoration that has largely faded. Bodies are interred in a lower crypt level accessed by stairs from the main hall. The most visited grave is traditionally identified as that of Iparhan, a consort who entered the Qing court in the 1760s and became known in Chinese sources as Xiang Fei, the Fragrant Concubine. Historical records confirm she died in Beijing in 1788, making the Kashgar tomb a cenotaph rather than an actual burial site, though this distinction is often not communicated to visitors.

The contemporary Kashgar economy depends substantially on cross-border trade facilitated by the Karakoram Highway, which connects the city to Islamabad through the Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 meters elevation, the highest paved international border crossing. The highway was completed in 1979 and opened to civilian traffic in 1986. Cargo traffic moving through this route includes textiles, electronics, and consumer goods traveling southward, while northbound freight consists primarily of dried fruit, carpets, and minerals. The Sunday Market serves both as a retail endpoint for goods arriving from these trade networks and as a collection point for agricultural and artisan products moving in the opposite direction. Wholesale dealers operating in semi-permanent stalls purchase bulk quantities of commodities like walnuts, dried apricots, and lamb pelts for consolidation and export. The market generates substantial municipal revenue through stall rental fees and transaction taxes, though exact figures are not published in accessible government documents.

Traditional crafts maintained in the old city include coppersmithing, where artisans shape vessels using techniques of raising and planishing, striking heated copper sheet over iron stakes to form bowls, ewers, and serving dishes. The copper is sourced as recycled scrap rather than mined ore, purchased from itinerant collectors. Completed vessels are often tinned on interior surfaces to prevent copper oxidation from acidic foods, a process that requires heating the vessel and applying molten tin with cloth applicators. Pottery workshops produce both glazed and unglazed earthenware, with kilns fired using coal rather than the traditional wood or dung fuels. The glazes are lead-based, producing bright yellows, greens, and browns at firing temperatures between 950 and 1,050 degrees Celsius. These workshops operate at small scale, typically employing three to eight workers, and sell primarily into the tourist market rather than producing utilitarian wares for local households, which have largely shifted to factory-made aluminum and plastic containers.

Woodworking shops specialize in architectural elements including carved columns, window frames, and balcony railings. The primary wood is poplar, grown in irrigation-fed plantations along the Kashgar River and its tributaries. Poplar reaches harvestable diameter of twenty to twenty-five centimeters in approximately twelve to fifteen years under local conditions. The wood is soft and works easily with hand tools but has poor durability when exposed to moisture, limiting its use to interior or sheltered applications. Carving motifs include arabesque patterns, geometric interlace, and stylized floral designs, executed with chisels and gouges on wood that has been seasoned for a minimum of six months after cutting. Finished elements are typically left unfinished or treated with linseed oil rather than painted. Demand for these elements increased during the old city reconstruction, as developers sought to apply traditional decorative features to otherwise modern buildings.

The Kashgar Prefecture, which administers the city and surrounding counties, reported a total population of approximately 4.5 million in the most recent accessible census data, with Uyghurs comprising roughly eighty-nine percent of that total. The city proper holds between five hundred thousand and seven hundred thousand residents depending on how urban boundaries are defined, as the administrative city includes substantial rural hinterland. Population density in the remaining traditional quarters before demolition exceeded three hundred persons per hectare, with multi-generational households occupying compounds of seventy to one hundred twenty square meters of built area. The rebuilt sections show lower densities, closer to two hundred persons per hectare, reflecting larger unit sizes and requirements for vehicle access lanes.