Kashgar 3

Men in a tea house in Kashgar’s Old City. This historic town on the Old Silk Road is the cultural center of the Uyghurs – an Islamic Turkic ethnic minority in western China. In 2009, the government announced plans to demolish and rebuild 85 percent of Kashgar’s Old City citing it fears that the mud and straw buildings are prone to earthquake damage. About 13,000 residents of the Old City are to be relocated. However, critics and preservationists say the demolition is a form of genocide to China’s Islamic and Uyghur culture. The unrest between Uyghurs and authorities in Urumqi in July has only sped up the demolition. ©Jude Mak