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This is not ChinaAug 16, 2007
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Early this afternoon, I arrived in Kashgar. Kashgar is China's most western city, and it is not really Chinese at all. Speaking Chinese doesn't get you very far, and the huge Mao statue that stands over the People's Square seems more like a practical joke than a genuine memorial. As I walked through the Old Town, I felt a world away from bowls of white rice and spicy tofu. Here, people eat mutton, bread, and more mutton.
And, I almost got pickpocketed. This has only happened to me one other time in all my travels, in Torino, Italy, and luckily, both times I felt or heard the zipper on my backpack being opened and caught the thief before he had a chance to take anything. I usually have a small lock on my backpack when I'm walking around, but tonight, I had just taken my money out to buy a slice of melon and hadn't yet bothered to relock the pocket. Even though I thankfully stopped the guy before he took anything, it was still scary. I would have been fine- my passport was elsewhere, I have a few secret stashes of cash on me in case of such an emergency- but it made me feel very small and helpless.
