Kashgar, few city names have such an evocative power to transport us instantly to the time of the legendary Silk Roads, to watch the caravans, having crossed the immense desert steppes of Central Asia, unload their treasures of exotic spices and precious shimmering fabrics. While a colourful crowd of Uighur, Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Chinese bargains in a hubbub of all sabirs, around glasses of steaming tea. But the identity of Kashgar, which has crossed the centuries almost unchanged, is now disappearing under the excavators and the yoke of the Chinese administration which intends to make it return to the rank of the multitude of those soulless and dull, Chinese provincial cities with forgettable names.