The Silk Road lives on in Kashgar

The western Chinese city of Kashgar is the living remnant of Silk Road culture; visitors can see and feel the echoes of camel caravans bearing spices, tea, and other curiosities from faraway lands to dusty bazaars where merchants hawk their goods under red canopies.

Kashgar is the midpoint of the 2,000-year-old Silk Road. Home to the largest Sunday bazaar in the world, the city's mercantile culture has not waned with time.

Nestled between the treacherous mountains of Pakistan and the vast Taklamakan Desert, traders on the ancient trade route looked to Kashgar as a crucial outfitting stop on their long journey as well as an opportunity to unload some goods for profit. The influx of products and traders from Turkey, Russia, Persia, eastern China, and other Central Asian territories created a colorful, unique trading atmosphere and perhaps the world's first shopping town. This melting pot of cultures is Kashgar's most unique and defining characteristic.

The city itself is a dichotomy; a mixture of new China and the traditional culture of the native Uyghur people. The outskirts appear like any mid-sized Chinese city, save for signs printed in both Uyghur and Mandarin Chinese; cars share the road with bicycles and motorbikes that zip past serene, manicured parks, shops, and newly-constructed high-rise apartment buildings. The East Lake is surrounded by walking paths that resemble eastern China's gardens, but the view overlooks the oldest and most distinct part of Kashgar's Old Town.

The core of the city, however, is purely Uyghur in appearance and culture. Winding alleyways flanked by wood and mud-brick houses all lead to the Idkah Mosque in the center of town. The surrounding streets are crowded with shops selling cloth, pottery, hardware, and even dental services. Women in vibrant headscarves browse the shops, motorbikes swerve around pedestrians, and the Islamic Call to Prayer rings out over the street chatter. Building facades carved with intricate wooden patterns in yellows, oranges, and pale blues bring the sunrise to the Old Town's streets.