... sculptures. You are left wondering whether craftsmanship still exists today.
The fair has also hosted an increasing Chinese presence. I strolled in this section of the exhibition among the plain booths ...
... in Chinese characters and in the domesticated Western variant. By all accounts, it is not a tourist destination, but since scarcity creates value, the few hours I devoted to it made me wish I had had more ...
... I would see some of Yining until the evening.
I first went to the market, that, oddly, had a sign in both Chinese and Russian. There was nothing interesting apart from a pungent smell of plastic that ...
... grassland visitors’ centre, another hideous creation of the Chinese tourist industry, which I all too pleased to gave a wide berth to.
I had an unpleasant argument with the greedy driver because he asked ...
Hotan is a big town in the south of Xinjiang. Like in other oasis towns, its past is completely buried under a bustling modern life running according to patterns dictated by Chinese institutions and companies. ...
... the crumbling houses in the old town, where the new buildings announce its imminent transformation into another anonymous Chinese town. Centuries of history will be replaced by modern buildings. The administrators’ ...