The People of Kashgar, China in Xinjiang Province

Next week I’ll pass through one of my favorite places. Xinjiang Province in far western China is home to numerous people groups. Wikipedia helps me out here with a rundown of the groups: Muslim Turkic groups including the Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tatars and the Kazakhs, and a few Indo-European Iranic groups, such as the Tajiks and the Sarikolis/Wakhis (often mis-identified as Tajiks). Other PRC minority ethnic groups include Hui Chinese, the Mongols, the Russians, the Xibes, and the Manchus.

Translation: It’s an amazing dichotomy of people groups, cultures, and languages. Photographing such diversity is heaven, especially when I was here two years ago in the spring. There’s something about this time of year that made people naturally smile and let down their guard in front of a camera. Ok, not all of these were taken in Xianjing, but all were within 100 miles of there.