The Economist Gallery
Ends Sept 24
The way mainland cities such as Shanghai and Beijing are booming, they may soon be indistinguishable from other cosmopolitan cities.
But in a remote part of western China, Hong Kong-based photo-grapher Kris Vervaeke has found an area that's remained largely unchanged for centuries. Belgium-born Vervaeke's second exhibition, Lost in Transition, highlights life in a once important Silk Road trading hub.
The people are mainly Uyghurs (along with Tajik, Kyrgyz and Uzbek minorities) and mainly Muslim. In the town centre is the Id Kah mosque (built in 1442), around which merchants and locals haggle over camels, sheep, carpets and knives.
'Kashgar is so far away and totally different from the rest of China,' says Vervaeke. 'They've forgotten to develop this region. It's grown up much slower or not all.'