Kashgar is located in Western China, and has been at a crossroad of civilizations for centuries. Once a thriving town along the Silk Road, it is changing quickly today, now that the Chinese government has initiated several plans to incorporate the area into the so called 'develop the West' program. The original population of Xinjiang, the Uyghur people, are under continuous pressure from growing Chinese influence, and see their traditional Muslim society being eroded rapidly.

Old quarters are being destroyed, and make way for new, but hastily built apartment blocks. Uyghurs are under increasing scrutiny by the local and central government, and also face unfair competition on the job market from the many Han Chinese that now live in cities like Kashgar.

At the same time, many Uyghurs manage to hold on to their traditional lifestyles, and some parts of town look the same as they did 100 years ago.

I traveled to Kashgar in 2005, and got the chance to visit the town again in 2010, this time bringing a video camera. This clip gives an insight of the structural visible changes that are happening to the city, but it also shows what daily life in Kashgar is like today.

This video contains only a part of the entire story, and I encourage you to read up on Kashgar's history and current situation.

For this video I used traditional Uyghur music and stock free audio to support the images.

Copyright of all footage: Hoffer Media

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