'Drifters' bring new vitality to ancient Xinjiang city

Li Jianhui, from Beijing, opened a 10-room hostel in the ancient city of Kashgar last year.Kashgar is home to one of the largest surviving group of earthen buildings in the world. The ancient city of Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang, is home to one of the largest surviving group of earthen buildings in the world. His understanding of the ancient city is embedded in his own artworks: Uygur patterns printed on the canvas, drawings of traditional dwellings on the paper made of morus bark, postcards with images of local musicians playing the rawap and the tambourine, as well as clay figurines of middle-aged Uygur men. In 2019, he and many painting enthusiasts founded the "Urban Sketchers of Kashgar," a non-governmental organization aiming to portray the changing appearance of the ancient city.