Posted Monday, May 15, 2006; 20:00 HKT
The cities of Istanbul, Damascus and Xi'an all lie along the great historical conduit of trade and culture known as the Silk Road. In their air-conditioned malls you can buy all the silk throws, clothes and cushion covers you could ever desire, and still be back at the hotel in time for lunch and a glass of sauvignon blanc. But why would you want to do that, when you can engage in bouts of vicious bargaining amid the dust, dirt and donkeys of a trading town on the fringes of an arid wasteland? Close to China's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Kashgar is strategically located between the soaring Pamir Mountains to the west and the forbidding Taklimakan Desert to the east. Over the centuries, this Silk Road way station has been conquered by Chinese generals, Tibetan warlords, Turkic khans and Mongol horsemen—but the lord of mercantilism is the only one to which it has ever paid genuine fealty. Every week, traders from across Central Asia converge on Kashgar's Yekshenba (Sunday) Bazaar to deal in merchandise straight out of the pages of Marco Polo: carpets, knee-high camel-skin boots, golden headdresses and barbecued goat heads. Naturally, there's also plenty of silk to be found, particularly in giant bolts patterned with the geometric designs of the city's majority ethnic group, the Turkic-speaking Uighurs. Bargain as if your life depended on it, and then recharge at a food stall with a bowl of chickpea stew or laghman—hand-pulled noodles topped with a mutton and vegetable ragù.

Today, Kashgar is officially part of modern China and, sadly, many of its ancient mud-brick houses are being torn down as part of China's "Develop the West" campaign. Though 4,000 km west of the capital, Kashgar is also supposed to hew to Beijing time, but its residents have adjusted their lives to an unofficial rhythm two hours behind that of the cities of the east. As you wander through the overflowing stalls with your bolts of silk tucked safely underarm, you'll wonder if they really mean two hours, or two centuries.

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