A 70-year-old widow, at the table next to mine, explained the virtues of this delicious fast food washed down with clove tea. [Foreign Languages Press]

--At Yengisar, where the Uyghur make up more than 95 percent of the population, one can see very few cars but many carts harnessed to donkeys. This place hid a culinary specialty that I greatly appreciated: roast baozi. The little bags made of dough without yeast contain mutton meat and minced onions and are baked without fat. A 70-year-old widow, at the table next to mine, explained the virtues of this delicious fast food washed down with clove tea. …

--The name of Yengisar is well-known for another of its famous resources: the making of Uyghur knives. In the afternoon, I went to Upur•Rahman's shop and he showed me around. In Yengisar, there are presently seven steel-knife factories. Upur•Rahman's shop has 60 workers. It was established in 1956, and Upur•Rahman is the third generation at the head of the enterprise – since 1986. "Yengisar has been making knives for 500 years, but before, there were only little family shops," he explained. During war time, they made steel weapons such as swords and sabres. The independent workers grouped in enterprises only half a century ago.

"How is it that when I go to Uyghurs' houses, I never see the kind of knives you make here?" To my question, Upur•Rahman answered that the knives they use daily are also made in Yengisar but because they are not adorned, they cost less. Those I saw displayed in the counter are pieces of a collection that may be offered as a gift or kept as a souvenir, he added. How nice they were, sparkling in their cases, as well as the modest pocket-knives with their horn or silver handles! I could hardly make up my mind.