Blogs from Kashgar, Xinjiang, China, Asia

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Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar June 24th 2022

Karakul Lake A Pamir is a geological formation it is a flat plateau or U-shaped valley surrounded by mountains. It forms when a glacier or ice field melts leaving a rocky plain (thanks Wikipedia). The scenery we saw today was awe inspiring. We did have a lot of driving but we ended up at Lake Karakul. The Khargush Pamir is south of Lake Karakul. and we saw this along the way. We also stopped at a location where the different colours of the rocks could be seen. The pictures below show various scenes and events through ought the journey. Sights on the way, during the drive. The landscape is harsh and the mountains steep and rugged with often snow caps. The average annual rainfall is very low. First shots of Lake Karamul. There is a rest ... read more
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Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar June 23rd 2022

Kashgar (Kashi) Ancient City I think that I may have fallen in love with Kashgar. This is a city in the dry arid country in the far west of China. It is close to the borders of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. You could also throw Afghanistan and Pakistan into that "close to" list. It does not feel like China. It has architecture, sights , sounds, smells and food that remind me of Arabia, Turkey, Mediterranean Africa even Zanzibar. With Moorish architecture and mud brick buildings and the oppressive heat. On our first day we explored the Ancient City. This has a wonderful feel to it. I must say that it is now almost a caricature as it has been remodeled and decorated and upgraded for the tourist trade. It still retains enough authenticity however to not be ... read more
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Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar August 17th 2018

The last stage of the journey had all the hallmarks that define the Karakoram Highway – it required patience, involved the unexpected and had spectacular scenery. After leaving the hostel and walking to the bus station, we passed through the security scanner at the gate and saw Calvin. An Indonesian he has just finished doing a Masters degree in Beijing and is travelling around China for a couple of months before finding his next job or going home. We’d spend much of the evening before talking to him at the hostel and knew he was also planning to take the bus to Kashgar. We were pointed towards where 4 shared taxis were parked on an empty lot. We wanted the bus but weren’t concerned as it was parked just past us. Marie was left with the ... read more
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Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar August 16th 2018

Tashkurgan is totally different to Pakistan. Dominated by big concrete buildings, many behind barricades, and while only a small town it’s main road is a big 4 lane highway. There was barely anything on it as we walked down the side, we wondered where all the life was. The only other foreigner on the border bus was a Korean woman, also heading to K2 hostel (which is where all the travellers in Tashkurgan go), we had said we could head there together. There was no sign of any form of transport we could take and everything we had read said the town was walkable. The map we had didn’t extend as far as the immigration office so we asked a couple of young Pakistani guys on our bus, who are studying in China to become doctors ... read more
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Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar August 15th 2018

Crossing the Pakistan/China border is a long and interesting process. We arrived at the bus ticket office 9am sharp as instructed. After a 10 minute wait one of the bus guys walked us down to Pakistan’s customs/immigration. There we waited outside a small hall for 20 minutes before being invited in to take a seat. We watched for another 10 minutes as 2 guys exporting carpets unpacked them 1 by 1 and the customs guys poked a huge number of holes in them before they were placed individually on the floor and had a sniffer dog ran over them. Finally they were painstakingly allowed to repack them in their original bags. When we were invited to the counter our bags got a cursory glance and our passports checked. We were then told to leave our bags ... read more
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Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar March 3rd 2018

This rather odd system has retrieved missing Day 2 in Turpan, so I have now published it, a bit late. After and excellent night's sleep in the Sultan hotel, we had a very fine breakfast, intrigued to notice that the waitress had sat down at a neighbouring table, put her down down and fell fast asleep, dead to the world. Admittedly it was 9 am Beijing time, only 7 am locally, but one could only speculate about the vigour and possibilities of Kashgar's nightlife, to which he had been oblivious on our arrival. Moving on, we strolled through a neighbouring square, adorned by a life-sized three-dimensional brinze camel train, and past the rather sad nearby trio of an actual camel, yak and horse. Kashgar is evidently geared up for a tourist influx quite soon, but for ... read more
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Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar June 9th 2017

Ein typischer Tag, der mit Einreiseformalitäten verbracht wird. Das Frühstück war ganz chinesisch, aber immerhin gab s außer Reisbrei und Hefeteilchen auch noch andere Köstlichkeiten. aber einige von uns waren schon überrascht. Das Hotel, in dem wir wohnen ist ganz vornehm, voller Marmor und Gold, riesige Halle... Aber für die Tassen gab's beim Frühstück keine Untertassen, für den Saft keine Gläser usw. In meiner Dusche ist eine Anti-Rutsch Matte, die ich nicht mal anschauen will, geschweige denn benützen will. Sie ist schwarz von Schimmel. Ich weiß von vielen Hotels, dass sie in weit entfernten Gegenden europäische Manager einstellen. Das ist hier offensichtlich nicht der Fall und man merkt es. Aber natürlich ist das Hotel prima, wir kommen aus Kirgisien und Tajikistan - da hatten wir ganz andere Unterkünfte. Ja, und dann trafen wir uns um 11.00 ... read more
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Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar October 8th 2015

I was travelling in the far west corner of China and one of the most diverse provinces of the country along the Silk Road. I like those travels passing through the desert scenaries: it is enchanting and I love the admire the landscapes on a train I just find it fascinating and I adore to travel for days on it. I traveled through the Taklamakan desert in one of the rometest part of China. Kashgar or also Kashi as it is known by the "bendi ren" local people. Here the people are Uighur which is the main ethnic group of Xinjiang that has about 47 ethnic groups in total. This city with its people of very old traditions, cows, goats, camels, the stunning ancient city and bazaar made me fall in love with this place. Here ... read more
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Colours inside the Bazaar
Beautiful Market

Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar August 7th 2015

Since we left Turpan everything has been different. The people, the culture, the food, the language, and even - unofficially - the time. We had plenty of time to get to Kashgar so made a couple of stops along the way, one turned out to be a good idea, the other not. First up was Kuqa, the good one. We'd managed to book two soft sleepers on the train and amazingly had the whole four berth compartment to ourselves for the whole journey, but before we could discover that we had to make the 50km journey from the city of Turpan to the closest station which is in a hellhole called Daheyan. In my wildest dreams I can find no reason why anybody would live in such a place, not for the first nor the last ... read more
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Kashgar Night Market

Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar September 14th 2014

Tashikurgan provincial town, 230km south of Kashgar on the Karakorum highway - a focus of this trip, the town is still in China but only 14km from Tajikistan, a quick look round town and is has all changed again, 60% of locals from Tashikurgan, different hats & they might kiss your palm for a greeting, generally not really pleased to be Chinese. The whole area is steeped in history, back to Han Dynasty. Three mountain ranges meet here in town, Himalaya, Tien-Shan from North (bit annoying as thought I had been in Himalayas for 3 wks already - seams not), and Karakorum mountains to south. The route south passes within 30km of K2, although it requires 10 day trick to see K2. So where is K1?, well K1 is the Karakurum mountains of Pakistan - see ... read more
New travel hotel
Eagle symbol of Tasikistan people.
what is for supper?




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