Upur•Rahman values his production at 30,000 to 50,000 units a year. His enterprise doesn't export. Whatever exporting there is, it is taken care of by private businessmen or companies.

Upur•Rahman [Foreign Languages Press]

The making of a completely hand-made knife requires 20 processes: from bringing the steel to a white heat and the striking of raw material into the shape of a knife. I saw the workers in action. The craft requires strength, meticulousness, and physically restrictive positions. However, the shop is well-ventilated, and the decoration processes are often done in the open air. Chiselled handles, engraved brand names on the blade, inlaid semi-precious stones or glass, and small shell plates – hand cut one by one – are what constitute the beauty of the knives and determine their price. After seeing the requirements of the whole process, the prices seem very reasonable to people.

The Kashgar region is rich with family shops, including those making Uyghur musical instruments such as ravop, my favourite. For the quality of the sound, the apricot tree, which flourishes in Xinjiang, or mulberry wood is used. Ornamentation consists of inlaid bone or synthetic materials. The work is completely hand-made and artisans work in assembly line fashion, each one being responsible for one operation.

Elsewhere, Koziqiyabixi Village, a name meaning "pottery village on top of the mountain," has 450 households or about 6,000 persons. The buildings, which bridge over the street, are one of the local features. Cobblestones are of two kinds: if hexagonal, they indicate a way out; rectangular, a dead-end. Only one color dominates the whole: the color of both earth and wood. Beams support the earthen walls. The government has built a new area with comfortable, reasonably priced apartments, but it is not always easy to move a population that has been rooted in a place for 600 years, even if it is to better their lives. Some houses, which are still solid, have been built by several generations, each one adding a storey as needed. The potters who inherited the craft centuries ago can be counted among the local and not yet industrialized resources. Sooner or later, tourism will reach these craft villages, which are now a sleeping gold mine.

(Source: Foreign Languages Press)