Sunday Market, Kashgar

Kashgar’s Sunday Market: Context Before Everything Else

Kashgar is at the eastern end of the ancient Silk Road, a former oasis city 4,000 kilometres from Beijing where Central Asian, South Asian, and East Asian trade routes historically converged. The Sunday Market – also called the Central Asian International Grand Bazaar – has operated here for at least 2,000 years and is one of the largest markets in Central Asia. It is also one of the most geopolitically complicated travel destinations in the world.

Xinjiang has been subject to intense surveillance, security restrictions, and mass internment policies targeting the Uyghur population since 2017. International human rights organisations including the UN have documented these policies extensively. Visiting Kashgar contributes to local economic activity that the Uyghur community depends on, but also operates within a surveillance infrastructure unlike any other major tourist destination. Your movements will be tracked, your devices may be inspected at checkpoints, and private interaction with Uyghur residents is structurally difficult in ways that are not accidental. This is a decision every prospective visitor needs to make for themselves, with full information.

The Market Itself

The Sunday Market runs all day Sunday and attracts both local buyers and tourists. The livestock section – historically the market’s most distinctive feature – is now located at a separate Livestock Market on the eastern edge of the city. Live bargaining for sheep, goats, donkeys, and cattle happens there from early morning and is more authentic than the main tourist bazaar.

The main bazaar on Aiziret Road sells carpets, dried fruit, nuts, spices, clothing, and crafts. Most vendors accommodate photography. The quality of craftsmanship in carpets and copperwork varies: some items are genuinely handmade, others are Chinese factory goods with Uyghur-style patterns. Prices start high for tourists; negotiating is standard.

Food

The best eating is from vendors on the street outside the main bazaar. Laghman – hand-pulled noodles with lamb and vegetables, CNY 20 to 30 a bowl – is the definitive Uyghur dish, pulled from dough to plate in front of you in about three minutes. Samsa, baked meat pastries from a clay oven, cost CNY 3 to 5 each. Polo, rice pilaf with lamb and carrots cooked in oil, is sold by the plate in the morning.

The Old City

Kashgar’s Old City (Laocheng) was substantially demolished and rebuilt after 2009. Much of the original mudbrick architecture was torn down and replaced with a sanitised reconstruction that resembles a film set more than a living historic quarter. The Id Kah Mosque in central Kashgar, one of the largest mosques in China, is largely intact and remains the religious and social centre of Uyghur life in the city.

Practical Notes

Fly into Kashgar Tuuman Airport from Urumqi (90 minutes) or Chengdu (3 hours). All visitors to Xinjiang must register with local police within 24 hours of arrival; hotels handle this automatically. Passport inspection checkpoints are common throughout the region; keep documents accessible.

The Qiniwak Hotel (Chini Bagh), the former British consulate built in 1890, has rooms from CNY 300 to 500 and a history worth reading before arrival – it was the staging ground for British intelligence operations during the Great Game, the 19th-century competition with Russia for influence in Central Asia. The market runs year-round but is most atmospheric in September and October after the Silk Road harvest season.