Modern Travels on the Ancient Silk Road

The Silk Road trading route extended westward from Luoyang (east of Xi'an) in present day Henan Province, China, through the Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province. Near Dunhuang it split. One route went south of the Taklimakan Desert, while another went to the north of the desert (the route I took). They rejoined at Kashgar (in Xinjiang Province, China), the most westerly part of China. Routes from here went over the mountains to Kyrgyzstan or via Afghanistan and Iran to Ctesiphon, near present day Baghdad in Iraq, the notional end of the Silk Road. Here, other trading routes came from the Middle East. At Turpan in northern Xinjiang Province, China another part of the Silk Road went via Urumqi into northern Kyrgyzstan. Trading routes met near Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and went north or south of the Caspian Sea. The route to the south was part of the Silk Road. The route to the north (the route I took) went via Khiva and Nukus.

This Gallery contains images along the Silk Road in China (Parts 1, 2 and 3), Kyrgyzstan (Part 4) and Uzbekistan (Part 5).

Part 1: Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China

Part 2: Gansu Province, China

Part 3: Xinjiang Province, China

Most of the remaining photos in Xinjiang Province (below) were taken in the Old Town in Kashgar in 2016 and 2019. Between 2009 and 2015 most of the Old Town of Kashgar was demolished. Much of it was rebuilt with wider streets and buildings better able to withstand earthquakes. If you want to see old Kaskgar before its destruction, look at John Gollings' images in Kashgar Oasis City on China's Old Silk Road, Frances Lincoln Ltd Publishers, 2008. In 2016 there was busy local life in the rebuilt old areas and access was almost unrestricted. There were children playing in the laneways and food vendors and activity everywhere. I saw few, if any, tourists from elsewhere in mainland China. By 2019 this had all changed: there had been a security 'crackdown' and the police presence was unbelievable. There were police on foot, in armoured personnel carriers and in cars patrolling the main roads. Within the old area police in electric buggies, on scooters, on bicycles and on foot were frequently encountered (every five or ten minutes). Armed and shield-carrying riot police roamed in groups of three. To get into the old areas, everyone had to go through x-ray security checkpoints that didn't exist three years before. There were far more security cameras. In parallel with this intense security regime, many businesses were now shuttered and closed. There were no groups of children playing in laneways. But the streets weren't empty: instead of the previous busy-ness of locals, it was full of Han Chinese tourists on foot or in electric buggies, with guides showing them what I knew to be no longer there. The irony was obvious and depressing. Pot plants lined every street, cute 'gateways' had been installed and in anticipation of National Day celebrations there were little Chinese flags everywhere. The old town had been turned into a soulless, sanitised, half-empty ethnic minority theme park, completely safe for Chinese tourists. Mind you, I found it completely safe and friendly three years before, but I'm not Han Chinese. In 2016 there was one remaining original mud brick section of the Old Town intact. By 2019 it was empty and closed off, apparently due to earthquake damage in 2017. As there are two or three earthquakes a year in this area and the old town has survived for centuries, I am unable to establish if that is the real reason for its evacuation and closure. It is being reconstructed. Time will tell if the result is authentic or just more in the theme park style. Old Kashgar is now dead. I am glad I had the chance to see it and meet its friendly inhabitants in 2016.

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Part 4: Kyrgyzstan

Part 5: Uzbekistan

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