![\"\"](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2009\/05\/28\/world\/28kashgar3_600a.JPG\")
<\/p>\n\nPreservationists say the demolition of the Old City section of Kashgar,
\ntop, is a blow to China\u2019s Islamic and Uighur culture. But work has
\nalready begun, center, to raze about 85 percent of the area.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
function getSharePasskey() { return ‘ex=1401249600&en=d090abfd36c2a3d5&ei=5124’;}<\/p>\n
function getShareURL() {
\n\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/05\/28\/world\/asia\/28kashgar.html’);
\n}
\nfunction getShareHeadline() {
\n\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It’);
\n}
\nfunction getShareDescription() {<\/p>\n
\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘Saying it fears earthquake damage, the government plans to demolish and rebuild 85 percent of Kashgar’s Old City.’);
\n}
\nfunction getShareKeywords() {
\n\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘Buildings (Structures),Earthquakes,Historic Buildings and Sites,Uighurs (Chinese Ethnic Group),Kashgar (China),China’);
\n}
\nfunction getShareSection() {
\n\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘world’);
\n}
\nfunction getShareSectionDisplay() {<\/p>\n
\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘International \/ Asia Pacific’);
\n}
\nfunction getShareSubSection() {
\n\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘asia’);
\n}
\nfunction getShareByline() {
\n\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘By MICHAEL WINES’);
\n}
\nfunction getSharePubdate() {
\n\treturn encodeURIComponent(‘May 28, 2009’);
\n}<\/p>\n
- \n
- Sign in to Recommend<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
- comments<\/a> (163)<\/span><\/li>\n
- \n
Sign In to E-Mail<\/a>\n<\/li>\n
- \nPrint<\/a>\n<\/li>\n
- \n Single Page<\/a>\n <\/li>\n
- Reprints<\/a><\/li>\n
- Share<\/a>Close<\/a>\n
- \n
- Linkedin<\/a><\/li>\n
- Digg<\/a><\/li>\n
- Facebook<\/a><\/li>\n
- Mixx<\/a><\/li>\n
- MySpace<\/a><\/li>\n
- Yahoo! Buzz<\/a><\/li>\n
- Permalink<\/a><\/li>\n
- <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
writePost();
\nif (acm.cc) acm.cc.write();<\/p>\n
\n![\"Article](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/ads\/fox\/article-sponsor.gif\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/adx\/images\/ADS\/19\/61\/ad.196154\/500days_nytimes_120x60_v03.gif\")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBy MICHAEL WINES<\/a><\/div>\nPublished: May 27, 2009 <\/div>\n<\/p>\n
KASHGAR, China<\/a> \u2014 A thousand years ago, the northern and southern branches of the Silk Road<\/a>
\nconverged at this oasis town near the western edge of the Taklamakan
\nDesert. Traders from Delhi and Samarkand, wearied by frigid treks
\nthrough the world\u2019s most daunting mountain ranges, unloaded their pack
\nhorses here and sold saffron and lutes along the city\u2019s cramped
\nstreets. Chinese traders, their camels laden with silk and porcelain,
\ndid the same.<\/p>\n\nSkip to next paragraph<\/a><\/p>\n\nMultimedia<\/h4>\n
\n
\n![\"A](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2009\/05\/28\/world\/asia\/20090528-kashgar-audioss\/28kashgar.190.126.jpg\")
Audio Slide Show<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
A City, and People, at a Crossroads<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\nEnlarge This Image<\/a><\/div>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2009\/05\/28\/world\/28kashgar.190.jpg\")
\n<\/a><\/p>\nShiho Fukada for The New York Times<\/div>\n\nPreservationists say the demolition of the Old City section of Kashgar is a blow to China\u2019s Islamic and Uighur culture.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nReaders’ Comments<\/h3>\n
\nReaders shared their thoughts on this article.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
- \n
- Read All Comments (163) \u00bb<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
if (acm.rc) acm.rc.write();<\/p>\n
The
\ntraders are now joined by tourists exploring the donkey-cart alleys and
\nmud-and-straw buildings once window-shopped, then sacked, by Tamerlane
\nand Genghis Khan.<\/p>\nNow, Kashgar is about to be sacked again.<\/p>\n
Nine
\nhundred families already have been moved from Kashgar\u2019s Old City, \u201cthe
\nbest-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found
\nanywhere in central Asia,\u201d as the architect and historian George
\nMichell wrote in the 2008 book \u201cKashgar: Oasis City on China\u2019s Old Silk Road<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\nOver
\nthe next few years, city officials say, they will demolish at least 85
\npercent of this warren of picturesque, if run-down homes and shops.
\nMany of its 13,000 families, Muslims from a Turkic ethnic group called
\nthe Uighurs<\/a> (pronounced WEE-gurs), will be moved.<\/p>\nIn
\nits place will rise a new Old City, a mix of midrise apartments,
\nplazas, alleys widened into avenues and reproductions of ancient
\nIslamic architecture \u201cto preserve the Uighur culture,\u201d Kashgar\u2019s vice
\nmayor, Xu Jianrong, said in a phone interview. <\/p>\nDemolition is
\ndeemed an urgent necessity because an earthquake could strike at any
\ntime, collapsing centuries-old buildings and killing thousands. \u201cThe
\nentire Kashgar area is in a special area in danger of earthquakes,\u201d Mr.
\nXu said. \u201cI ask you: What country\u2019s government would not protect its
\ncitizens from the dangers of natural disaster?\u201d<\/p>\nCritics fret about a different disaster. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a cultural and historical perspective, this plan of theirs is stupid,\u201d said Wu Lili, the managing director of the Beijing Cultural Protection Center<\/a>, a nongovernmental group devoted to historic preservation. \u201cFrom the perspective of the locals, it\u2019s cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Urban reconstruction during China\u2019s long boom has razed many old city centers, including most of the ancient alleyways and courtyard homes of the capital<\/a>, Beijing. <\/p>\n
Kashgar,
\nthough, is not a typical Chinese city. Chinese security officials
\nconsider it a breeding ground for a small but resilient movement of
\nUighur separatists who Beijing claims have ties to international
\njihadis. So redevelopment of this ancient center of Islamic culture
\ncomes with a tinge of forced conformity.<\/p>\nChinese officials have
\noffered somewhat befuddling explanations for their plans. Mr. Xu calls
\nKashgar \u201ca prime example of rich cultural history and at the same time
\na major tourism city in China.\u201d Yet the demolition plan would reduce to
\nrubble Kashgar\u2019s principal tourist attraction<\/a>, a magnet for many of the million-plus people who visit each year. <\/p>\nChina supports an international plan<\/a> to designate major Silk Road landmarks as United Nations<\/a> World Heritage sites \u2014 a powerful draw for tourists, and a powerful incentive for governments to preserve historical areas. <\/p>\n
But
\nKashgar is missing from China\u2019s list of proposed sites. One foreign
\nofficial who refused to be identified for fear of damaging relations
\nwith Beijing said the Old City project had unusually strong backing
\nhigh in the government.<\/p>\nThe project, said to cost $440 million,
\nbegan abruptly this year, soon after China\u2019s central government said it
\nwould spend $584 billion on public works to combat the global financial
\ncrisis. <\/p>\nIt would complete a piecemeal dismantling of old
\nKashgar that began decades ago. The city wall, a 25-foot-thick earthen
\nberm nearly 35 feet high, has largely been torn down. In the 1980s, the
\ncity paved the surrounding moat to create a ring highway. Then it
\nopened a main street through the old town center.<\/p>\nStill, much of
\nthe Old City remains as it was and has always been. From atop 40
\nvest-pocket mosques, muezzins still cast calls to prayer down the
\nnarrow lanes: no loudspeakers here. Hundreds of artisans still hammer
\ncopper pots, carve wood, hone scimitars and hawk everything from
\nfresh-baked flatbread to dried toads to Islamic prayer hats.<\/p>\nAnd
\ntens of thousands of Uighurs still live here behind hand-carved poplar
\ndoors, many in tumbledown rentals, others in two-story homes that vault
\nover the alleys and open on courtyards filled with roses and cloth
\nbanners.<\/p>\nThe city says the Uighur residents have been consulted
\nat every step of planning. Residents mostly say they are summoned to
\nmeetings at which eviction timetables and compensation sums are
\nannounced.<\/p>\nAlthough the city offers the displaced residents the
\nopportunity to build new homes on the sites of their old ones, some
\nalso complain that the proposed compensation does not pay for the cost
\nof rebuilding.<\/p>\n\u201cMy family built this house 500 years ago,\u201d said a
\nbeefy 56-year-old man with a white crew cut, who called himself Hajji,
\nas his wife served tea inside their two-story Old City house. \u201cIt was
\nmade of mud. It\u2019s been improved over the years, but there has been no
\nchange to the rooms.\u201d<\/p>\nIn Uighur style, the home has few
\nfurnishings. Tapestries hang from the walls, and carpets cover the
\nfloors and raised areas used for sleeping and entertaining. The winter
\nroom has a pot-bellied coal stove; the garage has been converted into a
\nshop from which the family sells sweets and trinkets. Nine rooms
\ndownstairs, and seven up, the home has sprawled over the centuries into
\na mansion by Kashgar standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It Shiho Fukada for The New York Times Preservationists say the demolition of the Old City section of Kashgar, top, is a blow to China\u2019s Islamic and Uighur culture. But work has already begun, center, to raze about 85 percent of the area. function getSharePasskey() {…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Digg<\/a><\/li>\n
- comments<\/a> (163)<\/span><\/li>\n