Written by: Gu Yu and Ma Kai
Posted on: November 07, 2018 | 
| 中文
When not busy, Zhang Saxia will sort out and pick photos taken in the old city to make postcards
Under the scorching summer sunlight, the old town of Kashgar, Xinjiang, is crowded with tourists. Zhang Saxia, a girl from Sichuan, never imagined that her carefree life of running a shop in the old town would become so busy, with endless tourists coming to enjoy themselves at her shop every day.
Zhang is one of the many young people from other parts of China, who have come to Kashgar this year to start their own start business. “There are more and more clothing shops, drinks shops, outdoor gear shops here, just to mention a few. And more and more young people come here to open shops,” she said. Many of her friends are those who opened their shops in the old town, and they are not only optimistic about the local tourist resources, but also very fond of the life there.
Last summer, Zhang visited Kashgar for the first time and fell in love with it. The antique residential buildings, the warm and hospitable local people, the ancient earthenware and bronzeware, the fascinating winding alleys, everything attracted her. After she went back to Chengdu, she quit her job as an English training teacher and returned to Kashgar. She said, "People say that one falls in love with a city because of someone else in it, but I don't want to leave the old town of Kashgar simply because of itself."
In the first few months after coming back to Kashgar, Zhang stayed in the old town all the time, wandering about the streets and experiencing the local life. "This inspired me to start a shop, so that I would be a real local." In mid-May this year, Zhang's beverage shop opened to tourists, and soon became a must-see place for many local young people who come to the old town. The young shop owner also turned her original photography of old Kashgar into postcards, for tourists to mail home.
As one of the earliest "makers" in the old town, Chen Liang, head of Kashgar Old Town Youth Hostel, is a frequent visitor to Zhang's shop and a good friend of hers. He witnessed the arrival of many other new "makers" just like Zhang. "Since last year, there has been an obvious increase of people coming to the old town to start their own businesses. Gradually, we have become friends, and now we often meet to share our experiences here from time to time." Chen said, “It is the tourist boom in the old town that has attracted new "makers" to start businesses here.”
"Now that there are more tourists, the image of old Kashgar also spreads to all parts of the country along with my postcards," she said. Zhang was relieved but also a little worried to see that there was a shortage of her postcards as tourist season arrived in the second half of the year, so she had to go through most of the town at 9 every morning to obtain new supply, and did not close the shop until 11 at night. "More tourists means that I will have less time to take photos of the old town, and my postcards are running out of supply!" she exclaimed.
Translated by Xu Donglin
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