Journal Entry
by Alison Zhou

On August 7th 2005, we were in Kashgar. It was a culturally busy day for me.

In the morning, Dolkun, our local guide took us to an animal market. I did not like it much. I saw sheep waiting to be sold were tied together by the neck. I felt the pain of animals from the cruel treatment by people. Besides, the market was smelly.

Later, we went to Sunday Bazaar. It was a market full of stuff. I tasted Xinjiang’s famous melon and figs. I bought two Uyghur hats. One had a simple design for male adults and the other design was colorful and sparkly for young girls. I also bought a baking tool for making swirl patterns of naan (Xinjiang flat bread). The tool was shaped like a ‘top’. The tool was made by tying a bunch of roughly 20-30 chicken feathers together. The bottom was the tips of all chicken features. Before the fresh dough of naan or the round flat bread being baked, the baker would use “the top” stamping on the surface of the dough to create swirl patterns. I love the “the top” because it was a unique tool made locally in Xinjiang.

I bought a little bag of fresh saffron. It smelled good.

In the afternoon, we visited Id Kah Mosque. We also visited a music shop with lots of unique music instruments. The owner was playing several instruments. The one I love the most was ‘Ghejeck’. Ghejeck was a four-string instrument. The whole instrument was wood carved with lots of beautiful inlaid design. In addition, there was a wooden potbelly-shaped air bag for sound echoing in the middle of Ghejeck. The sound of Ghejeck sounds like between the sound of Urhu, Chinese two-string instrument and the sound of violin. It was beautiful. I fell in love with ‘Ghejeck’

At dinner, we went a restaurant that was converted from a rich family home. The hand-cleansing procedure for everyone before entering the restaurant was interesting.  Also, the seating was based on age for respecting the elders.

My most pleasant experience was in the evening when I took a walk to Id Kah Mosque square. When I walked through a street to the square, I saw lots of people who were sitting in front of the house with the carpet on the ground. People sitting on the carpet were smoking, drinking tea, and eating kabob. They were friendly and love human interactions. In fact, they were so pleasant and I took several pictures of them.

On the back to the hotel, I found a music instrument shop in the street. The owner gave the price was much lower than the shop we went in the afternoon. So, I bought Ghejeck with a beautifully hand-made special designed case. Once I took back home, my daughters were able to figure out the sounds of each string and were playing some music with it.

I loved the top and Ghejeck that I bought. They were unique and culturally rich artifacts from Xinjiang.