The World's Best Xinjiang Diary Ever: Golden Week Travels 3

We left the blackhole of boredom that is Aksu at 5am the next day. The train on to Kashgar was certainly not much fun. Liam and I managed to get some seats though, and Catherine and Frankie found some elsewhere. I dozed off, and when I woke up everyone had disappeared. I found them later on talking to an old Chinese couple. The man was happily forcing baijiu (Chinese rice wine, 50% - potent but not too vile-tasting) onto a stricken Liam. It was 8am. People in this country have little concept of when and where is an acceptable time to drink. I fell back to sleep with someone's coat over me and when I woke up again it was merely to sit for hours watching our interminable trajectory through the desert. We got to Kashgar at last at 11am. Ignoring all the taxi drivers who were just desperate to get us into their taxis, we got the bus to town and then we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do. The only clue we had was John's Cafe, which came highly recommended from friends and t'internet, and Seman Hotel which was near it, but we didn't know where these were, nor whether a taxi driver would recognize the names. Then I spotted the giant Chairman Mao statue overlooking People's Square and Park, and Liam and I went to look because the statue is one of the biggest in China - I think the second biggest. Strangely, it was always the west of China which was most enthusiastic about Mao 'worship', and as a general rule, the further west you go, the bigger the memorials. Meanwhile, Frankie and Catherine had located the hotel. Liam and I started walking in the direction Frankie dictated, and passed loads of really interesting streets as well as a huge square full of market stalls and Uyghur people in traditional dress, as well as a few of the only Western tourists we've ever seen in Xinjiang. It was at this square that we realised walking was getting us nowhere, and we got in a taxi. We booked into the hotel, as it was actually pretty cheap for the quality we were getting. Just round the back was the Western haven of John's Cafe. Catherine was not feeling tip-top so the rest of us went and had some Uyghur lunch across the road. When we came back Catherine was still not up for going out, so we went on our own to West Lake Park. This park did indeed have a lake, but nothing else of interest, so we moved on to People's Square, picking up some heavenly whippy-style Uyghur ice cream (potentially, but not definitely, better than normal-style. I cannot decide.). We went into People's Square, and found a mini-theme park akin to the one in Korla. We should've stayed there, but stupidly we entered the zoo.
Now, outside the zoo were pictures of loads of happy-looking exotic animals, but we thought to ourselves, there's not a chance these animals would actually BE here. Wrong, wrong, wrong. They were indeed there, in dirty cages about 3.5 metres by 3.5. They had dogs, bears, and various other animals at the beginning of the park. As you walk round it gets worse. They had a tiger in a 5x5 cage and a male lion. The tiger looked practically dead - at the least, it had given up on life, and considering it's vile living conditions, who could blame it. And this was an ENDANGERED species we were seeing. Utterly revolting. The lion was in an equally pitiful state; it had no water and when it 'roared' it was more like a croak as its throat was too dry to make any kind of formidable sound. Few of the animals had been provided water; those that did have water had very little, which was stale and scummy; and none had any visible food. The animals were pacing backwards and forwards through boredom. There were wolves trying to run, but obviously without space, and were thus just throwing themselves at the walls of their cages. Magnificent birds of prey could not even stretch out their wings. The bones on every animal stood out starkly. To the soundtrack of the poor lion we got ourselves out of the zoo as quickly as we could. I was fighting back tears and Frankie was in fact crying. We were all shocked to the very core. Just writing about it is making me feel a little sick. I can't understand how the Chinese are happy to see this happening. The staff at the gate to the zoo were contentedly taking 5 kuai off every visitor. 5 kuai is simply ridiculous. Charge ten, for godssake, and give your animals some flipping water! Added to that, I saw some throwing stones in an effort to make the animals do something, and posing for photos with the animals. I wish I could have done something right then and there but I am helpless in the face of the Chinese attitude towards animal welfare. I am bothered also by the fact that there was a similar zoo (judging from the outside, we didn't go in, thinking it couldn't possibly be an actual zoo but was instead a petting zoo or suchlike) in the Children's Park at Korla, a tiny little bingtuan town. Am I then to assume that every town in China has a tiger in it? How dare the Chinese treat their animals like this, when Western conservation efforts are desperately trying to save tigers worldwide??? I like most aspects of China, but this is one that will always make the bile rise. I have since seen petshops where the dogs are so tightly caged that they can't move, and a woman hitting her caged dog with a stick. I walked past her but once I was well past, I wished I had said something. So from then I decided that if I see animal cruelty in this country, I will say something. (I should mention that not all the Chinese are horrible to their animals - trust me, there's some very pampered pooches over here, and they love their pandas somethin' special!)
Once out of the excuse for a zoo, all three of us completely dumbfounded and barely able to speak, we wandered back homewards through Kashgar, yet again passing this big square with all the Uyghurs and pretty buildings, but oblivious as to where we actually were. We bought some Uyghur caps and big winter hats, choosing to ignore how stupid we looked in them, and then returned to Catherine, who was feeling well enough to go out for dinner. We had dinner at the resturant round the corner from our hotel. Catherine was insistent that the waitress had taken a bite of her na'an... there was indeed a mysterious missing part of her bread and the waitress was chewing... but I put that down to the female Uyghur obsession with chewing gum. They are always chewing!