One of the world’s oldest cities, Kashgar serves as both the spiritual and political capital of traditional Uighur culture.  Since 1949, the modern People’s Republic of China has exerted strong control over the region, and Kashgar has been particularly hard hit.  Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, a province covering 1/6th of China’s territory holds a majority [...]

The converse of China’s rapid construction and development is a huge, patchwork demolition economy. In order to make room for the high-rises and hypermarkets, the country’s narrow residential alleyways (hutongs) and other fixtures of Old China need to be razed and repurposed. The old buildings are marked, and then come the heavy machines and scavengers [...]