Ravioli in Kashgar

Timbuktu´s sister. A fabled place we all heard about, fewer of us can pinpoint it in a map and counted have visited it. In the cloudless, cold days of its winter, the traveller can still see Marco Polo designing his recipe for ravioli in a local restaurant.

More than any other place I visited, Kashgar irradiated a strong alien feeling. The few Han Chinese there seem to be foreigners themselves. That wasn’t the result of its remote location – Urumqi was more isolated and yet was modern. It wasn’t just the wonderful blend of Central Asian faces and sounds; these were typical of many places. Kashgar managed to keep the feeling of a market town along a main continental trade route. While there, few signs would help the traveller to locate himself in time; the weekend market surrounding him could be in the 5th century BC or the ninth one AC, except for the fancy metallic pomegranates squeezers which definitely belong to the wasteful 20th century. The possibility of it being part of a distant future cannot be discarded as well; many scenes in the Star Wars movies could have been filmed in Kashgar. The only time measure making any sense here is the arrival and departure of travellers caravans – trains or camels do not matter. The Silk Road – connecting Xian with the Mediterranean Sea - is beyond time boundaries.

The simplicity of the town’s mud-bricks walls do not seem to be a testimony of poverty or ignorance of better technologies, but the result of a conscious – albeit mysterious – decision. A testimony of attitude and strength of character; "We have more important issues," the denizens are silently telling the wide-eyed travellers. The town is deeply aware of its own value. Small details which could attract tourists – like it having provided the inspiration for the Italian ravioli – are not properly advertised. "We are above that," they continue their silent monologue, "and where is Italy anyway?"

Besides some small concessions to the modern state dream – the huge Mao statue on the central plaza being the biggest one and carrying a significant amount of irony since nowadays it is one of the last in China – Kashgar seems to be one of those independent cities with no pretensions to enslave or take advantage of other people and honestly living of the trade brought by the ancient routes reaching it. It reminds us fair trade practices preceded the WTO and would probably survive it.

This independent attitude is in no way supremacist or elitist, travellers are kindly received. They are free to engage in the local trade while no attempts are done to indoctrinate them in local customs; many societies defining themselves as democratic and free could learn here a few things.

Modern technology did not replace here the old ones; both live in peace, complimenting each other. After all, each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. A donkey would probably start moving faster than a motorcycle in a cold winter day; its food may be more available than gasoline. "Running madly after the last gadget – or yet another improvement in the quarter results - is unwise," the person operating the pomegranates squeezer was telling me in a language I couldn’t understand.

Travelling

The excellent trains, K889 and K888 - to and from Urumqi, the autonomous region’s capital - are the best connections of the town with the world.

If travelling eastwards to Golmud, buses are available from the local terminal; due to the desert climate of the area only spring and autumn trips through this route would be sensible.

Buses are available to northern Pakistan through the Karakoram Highway in the summer, from mid-April to mid-October. An invitation letter for travelling to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and the other former soviet republics in the area is needed, but any local tourism agency can arrange it as well as the trip.

The best way of touring the small city is by foot, unless heading for the train terminal or the weekends' market; in such a case, shared taxis are trustworthy and inexpensive.

Highlights

The town is an attraction on its own, especially the old parts behind the now almost destructed walls. Wandering around and looking at the mud-bricks homes rising from the desert, the Uighur music bands by the main avenue, and the mediaeval artisans in work is more than a reward for the long trip.

The huge statue of Mao, an oddity in modern China, is quite a sight by the central plaza. The varied ethnical make up of the place, with its Uighur, Tajiks, Kirghiz and Uzbekh peoples, provide a rest from the overwhelming Han majority elsewhere in China.

The market should not be missed and if possible, it should be visited in the weekend. Central Asian food is a constant feast and is completely safe; a daily culinary adventure is promised here.

An overnight trip to the Taklamakan Desert and to the Karakul Lake by the Muztagh Ata Mountain is recommended; organized tours are available from the town.

Tips

Bring twice as much memory cards or films’ packs for your camera as you think you will need; every sight in the town will offer incredible photographing opportunities.

If arriving in the winter, be prepared for the quite cold climate; bring warm clothes. Making laundry is somewhat problematic since the drying process is relatively slow – do not wait for the last day.

Updated travelling information is available at the Caravan Café.

Look carefully at the motorbikes; long ago, Kashgar was a main caravan's stop along the Silk Road and camels stopped here to drink water, their owners sipped tea and exchanged spices and silk. The camels are gone, but the carpets, which were used to cover their backs for the benefit of their owners, are still here, nowadays covering modern motorcycles.

Kashgar

The very idea is hard to grasp nowadays: a route spanning the biggest continent. Travelling from Urumqi to Kashgar not in a train, but on a camel. Urumqi may be the centre of the earth – farthest from the oceans – but Kashgar is its soul.

Since immemorial times the Silk Road has been a perilous but essential trade rout. Spices and silk advanced in one direction while gold moved in the other. Our asphalted roads create a false mental image; the Silk Road resembles very little a road, it is more like a shallow river spread across a wide valley and featuring several streams.

Even today most travelers would find themselves unable to cross several of the political barriers along it, while certain parts are extremely dangerous. The trade route is not in use anymore; instead, a cultural one was created. Few routes on earth offer such a rich and interesting cultural diversity. The eastern part of the Silk Road is within China and offers many unforgettable sights

The route may be nowadays inactive, but it is there; the markets that fuelled it for eons are active and selling the same precious merchandises. However, the traditional transport of the route – the camel – live today in a Xinjiang reserve near Urumqi; modern Marco Polos must content themselves with modern trains while traveling along the Chinese Silk Road.

The Name

The name Silk Road (Seidenstraße) was coined in 1877 by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen.

The Route

The Silk Road is a series of ancient trade routes connecting Xian in China with cities along the Mediterranean. Depending on the route taken, it extends about 8000 km.

West of Xian the Silk Road is divided into north and south routes bypassing the Tibetan Plateau.

The northern one travels through *Gansu and splits into three routes, two of them passing north and south of the Taklamakan Desert (within modern day Xinjiang and Kyrgyzstan) to rejoin at Kashgar; the third goes north of the Tien Shan Mountains through Turfan, Talgar and Almaty (modern Kazakhstan). The three join at Kokand in the Fergana Valley, and continue west across the Karakum Desert towards Merv. Further west the Amu Darya River, Bukhara and Samarkand are reached in the way to the Aral Sea, through Astrakhan to the Crimean peninsula. From there it crosses the Black Sea, the Marmara Sea, the Balkans, and reaches Venice. Another route crosses the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, the Black Sea in Georgia, and reaches Constantinople.

The southern route is more straightforward; it crosses the Sichuan Basin, reaches northern India along the Brahmaputra and Ganges river plains, moves through northern Iran, runs through northern Pakistan and over the Hindu Kush Mountains to rejoin the northern route briefly near Merv; then it reaches Mesopotamia, and finally Anatolia, from where ships took the merchandise to Italy. It is connected to several ports which enabled sea travel.

The Maritime Bypass

Several ports served the route. The first port was on the mouth of the Red River near Hanoi, other ports were in Brunei, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Iran. In the Middle East it crosses Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, and then reaches Europe: Italy, Portugal and Sweden.

History

Trade on the Silk Road was a major economic factor in the development of several civilizations: China, Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, India and Rome benefited from it.

The most ancient recorded trade is of domesticated animals from Asia to the Sahara and it apparently took place more than five-thousand years ago. Roughly at the same time, the gemstone lapis lazuli was traded from Badakshan in northeastern Afghanistan to Egypt and India.

In the 5th century BC the Persian Royal Road was constructed by Darius I of Persia atop older routes and helped speeding up the caravans’ way. It ran from the city of Susa on the lower Tigris to the port of Smyrna (modern Izmir) on the Aegean Sea, some 2857km.

In the 8th century BC, gold was imported into China from Central Asia in exchange for jade carved animals; the last imitated the Scythian-style of animals locked in combat.

Around 130 BC, the Han Dynasty set embassies with Central Asia, the Chinese Emperor Wu Di became interested in developing trade with the civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia. Shortly after, the formal trade route was initiated around 114 BC by the Han Dynasty, and since then, excruciatingly detailed lists of the trade exist. According to these, nomads, merchants, pilgrims, monks and soldiers shared the road.

The Chinese wanted the powerful Dayuan horses which were of importance in fighting the nomadic Xiongnu and other items; consequently numerous embassies were set including as far as Seleucid Syria.

Military forces and states became a constant threat on the Silk Road; traders were usually extortionated for getting pass rights or just the right to survive, the most notorious ones were the Khazar Federation and the Mongol Empire. The last was the largest human empire ever, and relied heavily on cities around the Silk Road. Countering the brute force, the road helped the expansion of several religions, including the Nestorian Christians, the Manichaeans, Buddhism, and Islam. Arts and technological developments moved along the road regularly on both directions.

The crumbling of the Western Roman Empire and the expansion of Islam in Central Asia disrupting the trade during the second half of the first millennium. The Mongols restored it and witnessed two arch-travelers using it. The Mongol diplomat Rabban Bar Sauma visited the courts of Europe in 1287-1288, while the Venetian explorer Marco Polo did the opposite way to China.

The breakup of the Mongol Empire brought the end to the Silk Road. No continental power replaced it and the Black Death destroyed much of Europe, thus such a trading route became superfluous for the centuries to come. Around the year 1400, the silk trade stopped. Much later, by the end of the 17th century, the Russians established the Great Siberian Road, a land trade route between Europe and China which resembled in spirit the Silk Road.

"What am I doing here?" is a question I often find asking myself. False claims brought me to places like Bolivia, Santa Fe and Zurich; time and again I found myself standing in an overstated plaza asking myself: "What am I doing here?"

Reaching an older Kmart

A few minutes after having left my comfortable train cabin I found myself – backpack and sleeping bag still on me – amidst Kashgar’s Market. Unpretentious and unadvertised, this obviously was the real thing, the stuff travels are made of. The place was cosmopolitan, my palpable foreign face and ridiculous clothes didn’t attract even one second look. The place was lushly spacious and people purposely and efficiently carried out their business. I have seen a similar attitude at Harrods in London and Lafayette in Paris, but neither of them was built out with mud bricks.

The 20th century tried to impose a false god – the God of Efficiency and Neat Lines – on most of its inhabitants. True values and traditions were thrown away in many places – including China – without a second thought.

In our collective memory, China is an overpopulated state. That is correct on the eastern coasts, but once in the central or western parts the picture is different. Little cities and towns are isolated from each other by long distances and inhospitable landscapes. Kashgar - a stop by the Silk Road - is by all means such a place; amidst the desert its market is a cultural oasis. The very name Silk Road arouses pleasant waves in our memories: pictures of long camel’s caravans crossing central Asian deserts, carpets, silk and spices attached to their backs, pomegranates, cashew nuts and oversweet tea in their owners’ hands.

Few markets in the world share a place in our collective memory, fewer can claim to be older; not many people will be able to pinpoint it in a map and even less would claim they never heard about it. Placed midway between the town and the train station, the market occupies a big area of wide unpaved roads and basic mud-bricks’ constructions, the high trees along the roads provide very little shade but in the cold winter that is a blessing.

Kashgar’s market hides under its humble appearance a tradition of millennia, unshaken by ever changing empires and cultures. They sprinkled red paprika on yellow rice when Alexander toured the southern part of the continent and when Genghis galloped through its northern plateaus; it is the perfect place to put our daily concerns into the right historical perspective. In the sense that "holy" is something separated from our regular existence, this market is a holy place and we should approach it with the care it deserves.

It looks very little as China, the Uighur language does not sound like Chinese and the people are obviously more central Asian than anything else: Turk hats over slightly slanted eyes.

This exact mixture is the de-localizing factor; if you were not conscious of your arrival method, you would not be able to identify the place. Instead of that being a linguistic barrier, the centuries old traders’ traditions allow them to overcome any such fences and to communicate effectively with the rare round-eyed visitors; they are exceptionally friendly and welcoming to the transient Alexander Khans.

Give it a special day; rest well before arriving. Do not disturb its routines. Respect the local customs; bargain but do not offend. Record any single sight: you will cherish them in the years to come.

Squeezing Pomegranates

The traveler’s eternal question dropped out of my mind; there were more important things surrounding me. At the beginning of the 21st one I was delighted to find a monstrous pomegranates squeezer which obviously ignored any attempt at minimalist efficiency. It was almost as large as its operator, and it featured many more times the amount of metal needed for its efficient operation. The final touch was fantastic: it was adorned with conical metal spikes taken out of a punk-fashion magazine. Expecting it to double as an electric guitar or a sophisticated torture device, I approached it and was almost surprise to get just a cup of extra-fresh – albeit a bit too acidic for my taste – of ruby red pomegranate juice.

Flying Carpets

Arriving at such a place while dreaming of a shopping spree is an error; many of the most attractive items – like traditional hand made carpets – are difficult to carry around – unless they are of the flying type – and may cause troubles with the customs.

Sometimes innocent looking items – like tiny Thai Buddhas – demand a lot of red tape; finding the regulations beforehand may be difficult. Anyway, the feeling of the place – its main asset – cannot be taken away; at the best shades of it can be caught on electronic gadgets.

Yellow Rice

However, there is one thing we can take with us – physically for a while and in our memories forever – the food. Central Asia is the crossroads of the biggest continent; for eons people from everywhere crossed it in their way to anywhere and left their products, spices and recipes. Those did blend up with their peers and formed a new, fusion cuisine.

Eating in Kashgar’s Market creates a wonderful cognitive dissonance. To the detachment from the times coordinates the place imparts, a new detachment from the geo-culinary coordinates is created. Well known products and spices from the whole world blend in completely original and fabulously tasty ways.

The market operates as a typical Asian one. There are no stalls serving whole meals; each one specializes on a specific dish. The servings are small and rather inexpensive, allowing thus sampling several of them while walking along the market.

The variety is huge, trying out everything in a single visit would be impossible. The obvious first choices would be products from Central Asia. Nuts – especially cashew nuts, which technically aren’t nuts – pomegranates and kiwis are a must. Unlike in most of Asia, rice is here spiced up and appears in several colors and awesome tastes. Due to the religious mix the food is extremely clean and safe.

Lessons in Businesses

In hermit cultures language barriers can be serious. Even if speaking the local dialect of Spanish – heavily influenced by Aymara and Quechua – Bolivian sellers in the markets have a hostile attitude toward buyers – especially foreigners. In cosmopolitan Kashgar the attitude is more sophisticated. Extremes are avoided here, the aggressive touting so common in South East Asia – especially in South Vietnam – does not exist here as well. The merchants are used to deal with foreigners and communicate efficiently in signs and numbers scribbled on a piece of paper; rugs, scarves and carpets are all treated with the same efficiency. The only thing to remember is that bargaining – politely and with a smile – is imperative.

Kashgar is a town asking to be explored at the slow pace of its own long history. Artisans cannot be forced to perform their industrious tricks according to the traveler’s schedule; the fabulous weekend market would not to populate itself for the sake of the traveler’s arrival on Monday. The Uyghur orchestra at the town’s main junction would not appear earlier today to allow the traveler to catch his train.

Kashgar’s inhabitants still watch out daily at the horizon, searching for the faint cloud of dust raised by a slowly approaching camels’ caravan. After crossing a world to see its tranquil wonders, the least the traveler can do is give the town a couple of days more than the planned in order to let it placidly display its wonders; maybe around the next corner Marco Polo is still bargaining for a new carpet to soften his camel’s back.

Despite the Chinese Han migration into the city, the population is mainly Muslim, as hinted by the many Uyghur bazaars and teashops, the Turkic faces around and mainly by the Id Kah Mosque in the central square. It was built in 1442 and it has been restored many times, most recently after the Cultural Revolution.

The Uyghur bazaars are within the streets neighboring the central plaza, among the rubble of Kashgar's old city walls. The wall is best appreciated south of Seman Lu and west off Yunmulakxia Lu.

Nearby are the old consulates of the 19th century’s Great Game are: the British one was behind the Chini Bagh Hotel, while the Russian was in the courtyard behind the Seman Hotel. The Great Game is the British term for the non-violent struggle between the British and the Russian empires for supremacy in Central Asia. It took part between the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813 and the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907.

Northeast of Id Kah Square, a narrow street hosts the main Carpets’ Bazaar where the famous Kashgar Kilim can be found. Kilim are small hand-woven rugs with rich designs, which are used by Muslims as prayer rugs.

The small road leading south of the Carpet Bazaar (east of Id Kah Square and parallel to Jiefang Lu) is where the merchants specializing on hats are located; prayer caps, skullcaps, furry hats and plain caps can be found there. Note that fur items – especially of endangered animals - would probably not pass customs inspections. Following south the traveler would enter the main bazaar in town where medieval artisans work in mud-brick houses and move their fabrications with tiny pony carts.

North of the central square is the Cloth Market, which hosts excellent Uyghur restaurants as well; in the southern part of the square is the Night Market, and to the west are Uyghur Teahouses – the traveler’s glucose count would be in danger there. Muslim food is extraordinarily clean and safe; here it is based mainly on mutton meat and rice dishes, all of which are delicately spiced. Unlike other Muslim bastions, tea and not coffee is the leading drink here; it is served very strong, hot and sweet, milk is left for those living south of the Himalayas.

Not all the sights in the area are easily available by foot; Kashgar is famous for several tombs, but the only one really within the town limits is the Tomb of Yusup Hazi Hajup (daily 8am–5pm; ¥10), a local poet from the eleventh century. It is about 1.5km south of Renmin Lu, just after Jiefang Nan Lu.

Beyond Kashgar

A couple of tombs are outside town; transportation is needed to reach them; the staff at any hotel would be able to help the traveler: ask for the Tomb of Sayyid Ali Asla Khan and the Tomb of Abakh Hoja. In the way to the first is the Silk Road Museum which would make a nice stop if time is available. Local travel agencies offer tours to the Moor Pagodas at the ancient city of Hanoi some 30km east of the city.

Certain trips do not make sense to most people. The traveller announces his next destination and looks at eyes dilating wide with surprise, before hearing the matching mouth asking with hardly disguised fear: "Where is that?" The following question is a not less expected and horrified "Why?"

"The horror, the horror!," Mr. Kurtz said, while facing the final stages of a similar situation.

No answer to the last question would satisfy a person who never travelled for the sake of travel, who never experienced being in a completely foreign place. For them, a foreign place means endless obstacles: distance, language, food, water, and budget. Their comfort zone includes an automatic immune system which blocks their ears and understanding. For them, humanity ends five blocks away from home and no argument would be good enough for justifying a trip to Kashgar. Where is that, anyway?

In sharp contrast, intrepid travellers ignore obstacles and cherish opportunities. Kashgar is there and it offers fascinating views, hence it is worth visiting.

I went there to see a motorcycle covered with an old carpet – as camels’ backs were in the past. I went there to eat ravioli, or to be more exact, the dish that inspired the creation of the Italian ravioli. These are strong and good enough reasons for a trip to a remote location nearby Urumqi - the centre of the earth.

Marco Polo would probably have agreed with me. On a round globe there are no corners to get stuck in and in a society of equals there are no reasons to waste time explaining this obvious axiom. Anyway, once in Kashgar, nobody would ask "Why?"

The Dish

The ravioli digression a couple of paragraphs back was a relevant one. Legend tells that Marco Polo himself designed the Italian ravioli after eating generous amounts of shuijiao in Kashgar while crossing the Silk Road to Xian.

This may be truth, but dishes immigrating into Italian recipes’ books were always submitted to revolutionary changes in their basic concepts, thus the shuijiao similitude to its European younger cousin is limited to the preparation method and filling.

More remarked is the connection with the jiaozi, the ubiquitous dumplings that make a big part of the Chinese diet; shuijiao is a type of jiaozi. Shuijiao means in Chinese "water-dumplings;" and as in many Asian dishes, the name hints at the preparation method. In this case, the dumplings are boiled in water – as ravioli are – in sharp difference to steamed dumplings (zhengjiao) and fried dumplings (jianjiao). Thus, despite the slightly different shape of the outer envelope, the Shuijiao are quite similar to ravioli.

The Restaurant

The Lao Shandong Shuijiao Restaurant is located along Kashgar’s main avenue, some two blocks from the Mao statue by the central plaza. Among more mundane Chinese dishes, the place is known for serving the famous Shuijiao.

The place is not remarkable only due to the tasty shuijiao, but also for being spacious, well lighted, relaxed and with a welcoming and polite staff. The staff asks the traveller how many shuijiao units would he like, the standard quantities being twenty and thirty; twenty will cost four Yuan and are more than enough for a traveller with a regular appetite.

As always in China, relaxing after the meal with an oversized pot of healthy green tea is recommended.