by Ruth Ingram
Moving the rubble from an old city house and taking what is salvageable to the new plot out of town. Kashgar 2012 
Melange of the new alongside the old, mostly reduced to rubble. Kashgar 2012 Kashgar 2011. Children playing amid the beginnings of reconstruction from the rubble of the new. The ancient tree would have seen some of this already happen during the cultural revolution. Kashgar 2011. Apartment blocks built on the site of the old city. Kashgar 2011. Children playing amid the beginnings of reconstruction from the rubble of the new. The ancient tree would have seen some of this already happen during the cultural revolution. Kashgar 2011. Worshippers at Friday prayers, overflowing onto the steps of Id Kah. In the days when there no checkpoints, no CCP flags flying , no police checks and some degree of religious freedom. Kashgar 2011. Worshippers streaming out of Id Kah mosque after Friday prayers, when prayers were still permitted. Kashgar 2012. Woman peering out of her reconstructed home. Now made from cement and brick. Kashgar 2012. The old making way for the new. Kashgar 2012. This woman is still allowed to wear the characteristic Kashgar veil, as she eats her home made ice cream. Kashgar 2016. Former “ancient” narrow alleyway, transformed under reconstruction into a landscape worthy of mediterranean Europe, complete with decorative plaster ornamented frontages. Kashgar 2016. Entire streets were demolished to make wide boulevards and Southern European Mediterranean-style frontages. Kashgar has been “made safe” for the influx of Han Chinese tourists now flooding into the area in their hundreds of thousands. Kashgar 2016. An elderly man descends the reconstructed steps of his alleyway. Kashgar 2016. Kashgar’s old city walls, reconstructed in cement and stucco work. Kashgar 2016.The former Chinese regent’s palace, fallen into complete disrepair, now restored to its former glory. Kashgar 2016. Monstrous, grandiose architecture, replacing the former mud-walled dwellings. Kashgar 2016. Revamped 100 year old tea house. Formerly a darkened, slightly tatty dive for men to drink tea and solve the problems of the world, away from their women folk. Now a wonderfully restored tourist trap for groups of Han Chinese tourists, to drink over-priced exotic tea, listen to music put on for their benefit, and take photos of local life. Kashgar 2016. The beginnings of the draconian surveillance and clampdowns in earnest. Compulsory 8am Monday morning meeting and flag raising in Kashgar’s old city. All latecomers were hauled away and detained for re-education. Kashgar 2016. Compulsory early morning lecture for women. Not a headscarf in sight. The new rules are no head coverings, but for some older women, the national skull cap is permitted. Kashgar 2018. The “home guard” receive their instructions Kashgar 2018. Han Chinese tourist enjoys the “ethnic” scene as the Uyghur home guard passes by on the other side. Uyghurs are being conscripted to supervise each other and patrol their areas. Kashgar 2018. Friday prayers are silent. Note the checkpoint to enter for any worshipper brave enough and willing to risk being taken away for re-education. Kashgar 2018. Parish mosque converted into a sewing workshop. Kashgar 2018. Business behind bars in the new surveillance state. Kashgar 2018. “Owner gone away” a euphemism for being taken away for re-education. Kashgar 2018. Neon lit, reconstructed “ancient” Kashgar. Kashgar 2018. Older Uyghur woman walking along the widened boulevard of reconstructed Kashgar. Now ironically having to wear a Uygur national skull cap, more usually the head attire of younger girls and women, instead of her headscarf, which these days is taken as a symbol of adherence to “extreme” Islam. Kashgar 2017. “Convenient police station” seen from the balcony of the ancient tea house, now revamped for tourists. 
Men’s skull caps continue to be made and dried amid the rubble of reconstruction.
Ruth Ingram is a researcher who has written extensively for the Central Asia-Caucasus publication, Institute of War and Peace Reporting, the Guardian Weekly newspaper, The Diplomat, and other publications.
