Kashgar Q&A

[Alaskaflyer]

Given the current political situation, does anyone have updated travel information to Kashgar and the Xingjiang Province? Note: I had established communication with a Kashgar tour operator for a trip next year and now am not recieving replies. This potential break in exchange has me wondering if it's just someone out of the office & in the field or something else. It's not easy to get good 'real time' info on this part of the world. Thanks.

[steven]

https://caravanistan.com/east-turkestan/

Your tour operator could be in a concentration camp. I have heard about 3 so far, but I assume there are more locked up.

[AreWeThereYet?]

You can definitely go there, I did this summer and others did too. And Kashgar's Old Town, whilst perhaps not as spectacular as Khiva or Bukhara, is still worth seeing.

However, it's undeniably a police state and a place where something terrible is happening. I've heard the words "cultural genocide" and, based on the little things I've seen (oppressive police presence, extreme surveillance, closure of mosques and Islamic cultural centres, actual fear from the non-Han population) I've got no problems in saying that it's taking place.

You can travel around without a tour guide; it's possible and feasible. Sure, it isn't easy especially if you don't speak the language, but plenty of people do it. And if somebody - i.e. the state - doesn't want you to go somewhere, they'll just block you and re-route you someplace else.

[Alaskaflyer]

Thanks for the link (I must have missed). It doesn't sound like a very good situation.

https://caravanistan.com/east-turkestan/

Your tour operator could be in a concentration camp. I have heard about 3 so far, but I assume there are more locked up.

.

[Alaskaflyer]

Steven; I am not sure that you would be able to answer, but are you familiar with a Waheed, Silkroads_Expeditions? Tony