Kashgar's Livestock Market 喀什的家畜市場

喀什的家畜市場每周日有市集，大約在早上十點以後市場就滿場。從色滿賓館打出租車約12人民幣。

I did not consider Livestock Market as a "must see" when Lonely Planet mentioned it. It was someone highly recommended in the LP forum Thorn Tree that caught my attention. This Sunday market is just outside of the City of Kashgar. Arrived at 8:30 in the morning, the place was virtually empty. I asked the taxi driver to reconfirm this IS the place. After all, this market is a big thing, village people around would all come for their business.


Just outside the gate, several big piles of animal feeds. There are two kinds of them, the solid content after oil seed was pressed, and the shell of grain. That meant the sheep was not grass fed. How disappointed. But then, I don't remember seeing much of grassland around Kashgar anyway. Truck loads of sheep starting to arrive, there was some chaos of sheep running around, got chased back to be tied down nicely to form a line.

Cows with calves would be sold together. Just came out of the winter, with limited food supply, they looked so thin.

People formed small group, checking, discussing, reach deal with vigor handshakes, money changing hands. This is a tradition be done hundreds of years here in Uyghur country.

Lunch is available at the edge of the market.

May be a last goodbye between buddies? Livestock market is a heart breaking place to me. Even I realized it would be though before coming, it was still hard to see them. Buying and eating packaged meat is one thing, seeing this is totally another kind of experience. But this is the reality.

Shave before selling off the sheep.

By now, the market was so full, I can hardly walk around. Still, more trucks and donkey carts pull in.

This seems like is the fashion style of the sheep. This breed has two chunks of meat (or fat?) on each side of the butt, now they look like cheerleader's pompom, plus two smaller ones on each side of the body. Plus the leg warmer. Excellent work.

While I hardly saw one or two foreigners for the last few days in the city, a whole bunch of them showed up for this market day, some with translator or guide. This market is a big thing to add to my life experience. All the people and animal were so real and full of life. I would think about this next time when I eat meat...

And now I agree when people said, if you haven't visited Kashi, then you haven't visited the real Xinjiang.

Note: Taking taxi from Serman Hotel to Livestock market is about 12 Yuan.