Log in
Join travelers community
Your Profile
Logout
I spent most of the day traveling. First, I took a three and a half hour flight from Beijing to Urumqi. That's about the same distance as flying from New York to California.
China 2001 - Part Three: Kashgar
Dougburnett2003-11-24 10:03:29
Displayed times (last time: )
I asked each of them their names. (I'm afraid I didn't get to my journal soon enough and have forgotten their names, so I will identify them by their occupations.) I also asked what kind of work they did. The first fellow said, "We are businessmen."
It turned out they were salesmen: the first one, the one I had met near the main mosque, sold rugs. He said he was 19 years old. One of the others, the same age, said he sold men's clothing in the bazaar. The last fellow, who was 18 years old, sold sweets in a shop in the downtown area.
Thinking back to myself at 19, I asked what turned out to be a pretty stupid question. "So, do you guy's have girlfriends?" "No," the rug salesman firmly replied, "They take too much time and money."
Still thinking in Westerner terms, I plowed in deeper: "If you don't have a girlfriend, how will you find a wife?" My question drew blank stares. Then a little light bulb went off over my head. I quickly retreated: "So, tell me how you will get married."
Now this was question they understood. The clothing salesman said that when they were about 22 years old they would get married. Their family would choose a wife for them and they would have a big wedding. From that point view I guess they were right: a girlfriend was a distraction.
They told me they were Uighurs (they pronounced it WE GARS), the predominate minority in Xinjiang province. They said that they speak their own language (which uses the Arabic alphabet).
All the time we were working on the four large bottles of beer. In particular, the clothing salesman was going at it pretty steady, always filling our glasses and emptying his quite quickly. Abruptly he stood up and announced, "Sorry, I have to go to the WC." In a flash he was gone.
I continued talking to the others for a while and finally realized
...
See photographs from:
China Gallery
