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- Jul 13, 2011
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Well, this past week I took a vacation to one of the most remote parts of the world, the Xinjiang province of Western China. It was my special present to myself since I hadnt had a real vacation in a while. Here's a little trip report with some pics.
Getting there took forever and cost more money than I wanted to spend, but it ended up being worth it. Note that almost no one in this part of China is Chinese. The region borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, so most people there are Uyghur, Tajik, or Kyrgyz. Now, being a knife nut, I didnt just visit the glaciers and deserts. I also went to buy knives. Some of the most famous knives in China are made in the small town of Yengisar in Xinjiang Province. It is off the beaten path, to say the least. You have to take a six-hour flight from Beijing to Urumqi, then a 24-hour train ride from Urumqi to Kashgar, and then a two-hour drive across the desert to Yengisar. Then you have to find a knife merchant who will take you to a knife-maker. All this was a pain in the ass to organize, but I think it was worth it. This was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, after all.
As is common in this part of the world, from Pakistan down to Nepal, knife makers make knives out of truck leaf springs here, and theyve been doing that very well for the better part of a century, passing down the knowledge from father to son. Each knife-making family in Yengisar has a forge and makes knives either for presentation or for daily use. The knives are important in the local culture; a Uyghur man keeps his knife for life because in this part of the world, you might just live and die by the knife. They use it to hunt, eat, work, and sometimes even fight. Its a very similar knife culture to the Gurkhas with their Kukris. No Uyghur man goes anywhere without his knife. I saw some that had been re-sharpened so many times over many decades that the blades were less than an inch wide. The knives are very high quality and not cheap by local standards. A good knife will cost around 300 Yuan (about 50 dollars), in a part of the world where people might not see that much in a month of hard work.
Anyway, I had the privilege to visit the forge of Erkan Yasenjiang and his family. In the below pictures, you can see Erkan, his son, and his daughter at work making presentation-grade knives with silver fittings. I bought a hunting knife from him. 525 is the mark of the Yasenjiang clan. On the other side of the blade, he wrote his name, Erkan, in Uyghur script. The handle is horn, and the blade is lightly blued. Enjoy.
Getting there took forever and cost more money than I wanted to spend, but it ended up being worth it. Note that almost no one in this part of China is Chinese. The region borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, so most people there are Uyghur, Tajik, or Kyrgyz. Now, being a knife nut, I didnt just visit the glaciers and deserts. I also went to buy knives. Some of the most famous knives in China are made in the small town of Yengisar in Xinjiang Province. It is off the beaten path, to say the least. You have to take a six-hour flight from Beijing to Urumqi, then a 24-hour train ride from Urumqi to Kashgar, and then a two-hour drive across the desert to Yengisar. Then you have to find a knife merchant who will take you to a knife-maker. All this was a pain in the ass to organize, but I think it was worth it. This was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, after all.
As is common in this part of the world, from Pakistan down to Nepal, knife makers make knives out of truck leaf springs here, and theyve been doing that very well for the better part of a century, passing down the knowledge from father to son. Each knife-making family in Yengisar has a forge and makes knives either for presentation or for daily use. The knives are important in the local culture; a Uyghur man keeps his knife for life because in this part of the world, you might just live and die by the knife. They use it to hunt, eat, work, and sometimes even fight. Its a very similar knife culture to the Gurkhas with their Kukris. No Uyghur man goes anywhere without his knife. I saw some that had been re-sharpened so many times over many decades that the blades were less than an inch wide. The knives are very high quality and not cheap by local standards. A good knife will cost around 300 Yuan (about 50 dollars), in a part of the world where people might not see that much in a month of hard work.
Anyway, I had the privilege to visit the forge of Erkan Yasenjiang and his family. In the below pictures, you can see Erkan, his son, and his daughter at work making presentation-grade knives with silver fittings. I bought a hunting knife from him. 525 is the mark of the Yasenjiang clan. On the other side of the blade, he wrote his name, Erkan, in Uyghur script. The handle is horn, and the blade is lightly blued. Enjoy.
