Kashgar: A New Shenzhen?

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newsweek.com has an article named "A New Shenzhen" by Isaac Stone Fish, photo by Q. Sakamaki/Redux.

The dusty silk-road oasis of Kashgar sits at the precipice of empire. The westernmost city in China borders the remotest parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan; nondirect flights from Beijing, which became available only in September, take more than six hours. Kashgar’s average income hovered at about $1,000 a year in 2008, low even for the poorer corners of China. Ethnic tension simmers. Muslim Uighurs, who make up the vast majority of Kashgar prefecture’s mostly rural population of 4 million, feel like they’re the underclass in their own heartland. Ethnically, culturally, and aesthetically, it’s one of the least Han cities in China. Geographically separated from the rest of China by the fierce Taklimakan Desert, “Kashgar’s not exactly at the center of things,” says Willy Lam, a China analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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