Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Day 21/Part 1

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 21:

We didn’t really understood how the morning 9 hours had been passed as we were simply mesmerized by the scenery and landscape surrounding us. Let’s see the snaps and enjoy the wonderful journey.
We came back to reality when the attendant gave us back the tickets and informed us that Lhasa was just 10 mins away. We quickly got ready and then finally got down the train and surprised to see the Lhasa station, some documentary film was being shot but still it was a very nice looking terminal building and we were suddenly caught by 2 persons who didn’t say anything but started escorting us. We didn’t understand, they took our bags and straightaway took us out of the station terminal. I spoken to my guide over phone and he said he would be waiting for me outside station. Guessing these guides as touts, I tried to convince them that my guide was waiting and I didn’t need any help but as usual they didn’t understand anything but kept walking with our luggage. Being little apprehensive I followed them and then suddenly spotted my guide with the a sign board, written my name on it, it was a big relief for me. The 2 persons took me to my guide and guide gave them a copy of our permit after signing that and then I realized it was the police without uniform and they don’t let any foreigners go unescorted. We got introduced to our guide Tashi who was another gem of a person and we were taken to hotel Shambala Palace, the traditional Tibetan Hotel where we were supposed to stay 3 nights. We were tired, just saw first glimpse of Potala Palace from our room itself. We had an early dinner and first time we started finding Indian and Nepalese food in menu card from here. We gone to bed as next day would be our local sightseeing in Potala Palace and visiting Sera Monastery.

The Magic Continues:

Nomadic Tents:

The Amazing Rivers:

Unique use of Bike – Running away the Tibetan Yak:

Small Village:

Amazing Vista:

The river flowing through grassland:

Mountain Scenery Continues:

A Village with 2/3 house:

River Bed:

The more I see, the more I surprise:

Yaks grazing:

Small Village:

Again a River:

Previous: Day 20/Part 3

Next: Day 21/Part 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Day 20/Part 3

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Scenery Changes every minute:

Clouds are adding dimensions:

The Rail gate though not like our level crossing, shows a glimpse of unpaved road of rural Tibet:

To protect fragile ecosystem, powers are mostly generated from non-conventional sources and a lot of wind mills and solar energy system you would see

The panoramic Qinghai Tibet Highway cutting across the Tibet Plateau:

Tibetan Village:

Qinghai – Tibet Railway:

The station : look at the setting and the height:

The Train:

Just outside the station:

The platform:

The Trains going through Plateau:

Small Village and pastureland:

Vast landscape:

Yaks Grazing:

Nomadic life at its best:

Lakes and rivers are abundant:

The Lake:

Run down Tibetan house:

Naggula Range:

Previous: Day 20/Part 2

Next: Day 21/Part 1

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Day 20/Part 2

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 20 Continued…

The harsh geo-climatic condition posed immense challenge to build this engineering marvel but the most challenging of them were

1. Doing such a mammoth work in such a great height with very low oxygen level, thus protecting health of the worker

2. Proetction of fragile eco-system of the region when building the railway track

3. Building 550km of rail road through permafrost (perennially frozen ground) region.

Low Oxygen Level:

85% of the track goes over 4000 meter where Oxygen level is 50% to 60% of sea level and many places annual average temperature is close to freezing point. To ensure the health of the workers and engineers, 115 medical facilities with around 600 medical professionals were deployed in project. 17 Oxygen producing plants were installed and a clinic in every 10km was setup allowing sick workers to access medical treatment rapidly and effectively. Chinese Claims that during 5 years of construction of this 2000km track not a single worker lost his life.

Fragile Eco System:

Qinghai Tibet Plateau is having a very fragile ecosystem and home to many rare animals and source of most of the rivers in China. China invested almost 2 Billion CNY to protect the eco system as a part of the whole project cost.
All waster waters were processed in sewage treatment plant and solid waste was recycled before discharging.
Routes were realigned to minimize the impact on animals like Tibetan Antelope, Wild Ass etc. even though that increased the project cost substantially.
25 passageways built for animals based on their migration habit and fences were installed on both sides of railway track to prevent wild animals wandering into track.
In order to avoid disturbance the Tibetan antelope mating season in June-July, the builders stopped work for a period, withdrew equipment from construction site, and also removed the colored flags, which would alert frighten the Tibetan Antelope.
Construction sites were selected and designed to ensure that vegetation was not destroyed. To prevent damage to permafrost, wetlands and grasslands, 675 bridges with a total length of about 160km were built between Golmud and Lhasa which was almost one seventh of the total distance of this section.
Since the operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway in 2006, all the stations use environment friendly energy sources such as electricity, solar energy, wind energy for heating. All garbages are collected, processed and recycled in all the stations and all the rail cars.

Permafrost Region:

Around 550km the railway track had to pass through the places with permafrost which features soft and wet soil in summer and hard and stretching soil in winter, ensuring the roadbed stability is the biggest challenge to the engineers.
Chinese adopted few techniques like avoiding permafrost as much as possible by building bridge instead of railroad. It’s expensive but has lesser impact on the area. The 12 km long Qingshuihe Bridge is longest bridge ever built on permafrost region.
The most impostant solution to permafrost were stone embankments – a layer of loosely piled chunks of granite about the size of baseballs. that allow enough space between rocks for air to circulate freely and stabilizing the roadbed temperature.
In some places, the engineers buried ventilation pipes in the ground that allow cold air to circulate underneath the roadbed and monitoring systems were installed to see the temperature change along the railroad.

The Tuotuo River sources from main peaks of Tanggula Range, which is source of China’s longest river Yangtze:

Amazing Grass land and Pastureland:

Old Tibetan Village:

How many shades God used here:

Fencing to protect wild life to come to the railway track:

Low land with lake far away:

Reflection:

The Lake is nearing now:

Amazing railway station, just beside a glacial lake Am I dreaming!!

Day 20 Continued…

Major Milestones achieved so far:

June 2001, construction of Qinghai – Tibet railway officially started at Golmud.
Octobet 2005, rail links Lhasa to Golmud but track testing, signaling work was yet to be done.
July 2006, just 5 years after start Qinghai – Tibet Railway put in operation.
Number of passengers were 6.5 million in 2006 was doubled to 12 million by 2012
September 2010, first extension of Qinghai Tibet railway started and we saw it’s almost completed till Shigatse and in 2014, train till Shigatse will be operational.

Future Roadmap:

Shigatse will be further connected to Kathmandu via friendship highway to give Nepal it’s first rail network.
China already taken up plan to connect Lhasa Nyngchi as second extension.
Further to that the Sichuan Lhasa railroad would be built by connecting Chengdu to Nyngchi.
Next plan is to connect Yunan – Tibet railway from Kunming Dali, Lijang, Zhondian connect it with Sichuan – Lhasa line.
Last but not the least is the ambitious Chinese plan to connect Xinjiang – Tibet by railroad.
Once they execute the whole plan, we will see the rail road from Ladakh to Arunachal in the other side Himalaya where as we may still have walking trails for our army to man the remote post walking for days. I remember I spoke to Indian Army in Kibithu couple of years back in Eastern Arunachal where they said they need 21 days to go and come back patrolling the remote tri junction border of India with China and Myanmar by foot.

Cuona Lake – Lying 4800 meter above sea level this is one the highest fresh water lake in world and it’s closest to Qinghai Tibet Railway, amazing is the view from Train Much bigger than our Pangong / Tsomoriri :

Change of Colors:

Again some color Change:

Color change happens in every minute:

Lake and sheep grazing:

Reflection

Vast Grassland:

Previous: Day 19 and 20/Part 1

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Day 19 and 20/Part 1

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 19:

We woke up early in the morning and realized catching a 9.30 flight actually means catching a 7.30 flight in Xinjiang (as whole China runs in Beijing time officially) and in autumn, in that latitude 7.30 morning local time means it still dark. We left 7.00 in morning which means again 5.00 as per local time and it was quite cold even in first week of October in Urumqi. We reached airport from hotel in 40 mins as traffic was thinner and this time we knew Chinese system, so quickly checked in our luggage and then at security I realized something gone wrong when the security desk personnel pointed me towards back and only thing I understood was he was mentioning the check in counter. Meanwhile my wife and kid had gone into security area, but I had nothing to do but to go back to check in counter, they looked at the computer and uttered only one meaningful word to me that was ‘luggage’, now I took 10 mins to understand that in China they gave boarding pass without scanning the check in luggage and luggage got scanned later and there was a designated luggage scanning center where you have to be present if there is something in your check in luggage which is objectionable as per Chinese rules. I ran to luggage scan center, they couldn’t speak English, so they took me to scanning monitor and pointed out something in my bag, I realized they were showing the camera battery which is not allowed in check in luggage. I quickly asked him in sign language to get me the bag, I took battery out, gone to security and she again pointed me towards check in counter, what a frustration!! I went back there understood they would stamp the boarding pass again and after that when I reached security desk again, I realized I have lost my passport, then the next 20 mins were the most tensed moment in my entire trip, family was inside the security, I couldn’t communicate with them, neither I could tell any airport staff that my passport is lost as no one as usual understand any English, even the key word like “Passport”. I was keep running to security –> Check in –> Luggage Scan center in different orders and finally got it under someone else bag in luggage scan center. I think somehow in hurry I put the passport when getting the batteries out and then it gone out of my mind completely. Lessons learnt was you need lot of time if you want to catch a domestic flight in China, profusely sweating I reached inside security where my family was anxiously waiting and next 10 mins I just sat and thought what happened to me for last 30 mins, surprisingly the Terminal 3 of Urumqi Airport has no smoking room, I badly need to smoke at that time to calm down my nerves. Anyway the flight departed on time. I booked my hotel in Xining through ctrip, it was a four star hotel and supposed to be only hotel in Xining where people understand some English. I arranged for a car to pick me up from Airport and drop me to Railway station next day and it was a Chinese woman who came to pick me up. Xining Airport is 45 km from city, so we spent 45 mins total with her without a single conversation, another frustrating moment of trip, just the language couldn’t help me to talk with someone who was driving me for 45 mins, helping me with luggage. Xining is a very nice looking town with lots of touch of Buddhism and I started finding Lamas with traditional attires there, felt like coming home. The Hotel Sanwant stay was quite good and it’s a highly recommended hotel in Xining though it’s costly, double room with breakfast was almost 500 CNY in off season. Now tomorrow would be another big day for us as we would board Qinghai Tibet Train, the world’s highest rail road travelling on average height of 5000 meters for 1000km between Golmud and Lhasa.

Day 20:

The High Altitude Qinghai – Tibet railway starts from Xining actually and the most scenic part of the route crossing Kunlun range and the Tibet Plateau starts after Golmud and continue till Lhasa. So it’s advisable to cross the Golmud – Lhasa (Almost 1000km) as much as possible during day light so you can enjoy the nature at it best. Now to do that, you need to catch train from Xining as late as possible. Presently there are 5 trains runs regularly between Xining and Lhasa though most of them originates from Eastern Part of Mainland China but all route finally meets at Xining and from Xining onwards it takes the same route. This year time table was as follows:

I have arranged the train as per their departure time sequence from Xining except for K9811 which is a seasonal train.

Few Thumb rules of getting Tibet Train Tickets:

1. Its always advisable you take help of a good agent to get these tickets rather than trying to buy your own as most likely you won’t get it in high season.

2. Try to get tickets in train which departs Xining later so you get best part of the route in day light.

3. Getting tickets easier from origin station of train than in between station. So if you take the train from Xining, your chance is highest with K9801 or K9811. Chances are very difficult for trains started from far yet popular cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai.

4. It’s always easier to get tickets of train in reverse directions originating from Lhasa.

5. There are 3 classes, Soft Sleeper (4 berth like AC-2 tier), Hard Sleeper (6 Berths like AC-3 tier) and Hard Seat (Equivalent to AC Chair Car) and ticket price is costliest in Soft Sleeper and cheapest in hard seat.

6. Price varies between Berths, lower berth is costliest and upper is cheapest.

Boarding a train is kind of boarding a flight except the fact that you can carry all your luggage with you but most important is you need to wait in your designated boarding area after identifying the correct waiting room as the approach to platform is possible from that specific waiting room and travelers are allowed to platform only after train arrives and you hardly have 5/10 mins to go to platform and board the train.

Boarding Area (Waiting Area 3) for our Train 223:

It’s also advisable to get 4 copies of your Tibet Permit as you have to give one copy to enter the station with a Lhasa bound train ticket and other copy is collected at the waiting room check in gate to platform and another copy is collected by ticket checker at platform before you board the train. You need one copy with you as that will be asked for when you get down from Train in Lhasa and will be required until you are handed over to your guide by police. Once you get into the train, your tickets are taken away by Ticket collector and instead you would be handed over by plastic cards which you would carry till the remaining journey. You would get your original tickets back just 10 mins before arrival to your final station. This is good as you would get a reminder (even if you sleep) that your destination is approaching but I think another reason is to monitor your movement, you simply can’t get down in between any station you wish as you don’t have your original ticket with you and you would be caught in platform itself.

Xining City:

The Qinghai Lake beside the track is amazing, Qinghai lake is China’s largest lake:

Day 20 Continued…

Qinghai – Tibet Railway is certainly a modern day engineering wonder from China which must be experienced at least once in lifetime. The highlights of Tibet Railways are fascinating apart from the majestic scenery it offers.

Few of the highlights are:

1. The world’s highest railway, 960km of the railroad lies above 4000 meters where as highest point touches more than 5000 meters and there by at least 200 mtr higher than previous highest railway of world, the Peruvian railway in Andes.

2. This is world’s longest plateau railroad, total length from Xining – Lhasa is 1996 km where as highest part of Golmud Lhasa section cuts across Kunlun and Tanggula mountain ranges for a length of 1150km.

3. The world’s longest track on frozen earth. 550km of railroad built on permafrost region.

4. Tanggula situated at 5068 meter is highest railway station of World.

5. Fenghoushan Tunnel of Qinghai Tibet Railway built at over 4900 meter is the most elevated tunnel built on frozen earth.

6. Kunlun Mountain Tunnel is world’s longest plateau tunnel built on frozen earth having length of around 1.7km

7. Qinshui Railway bridge built on 4500 meter in Hoh Xil Nature Reserve is the longest plateau railway bridge covering around 12km.

8. World’s fastest train in frozen earth where it runs at 100km per hour speed on frozen earth and 120km per hour in rest of the track.

Tibetan Ibex:

Fencing to protect wild animals to move into the track:

The rivers in colorful plateau:

Shadow of the world’s highest train in highest plateau:

Amazing Tibet Plateau:

Golmud – Lhasa Road is going side by side:

Bridge cutting across Plateau:

Amazing Landscape:

Our height and note the graph on the watch for last 8 hours were in that height, it’s exactly the same, and so it’s a plateau:

Permafrost region near Kunlun Mountain Ranges:

Vast Plateau:

Blue river on colorful Plateau:

Passengers in this train mostly spend their time looking outside, it’s amazing journey:

Qinshui Railway bridge built on 4500 meter in Hoh Xil Nature Reserve is the longest plateau railway bridge covering around 12km.

Amazing vista all around:

This is harshest area along the track unmanned Hoh Xil , which is home to many wild animals and birds in China, though due to low oxygen level uninhabitable for human, it is haven for 230 species of wild animals including Tibetan Antelope, Wild Ass, Wild Yak,White lip deer, snow leopards, Tibetan snow pheasants etc.

Previous: Day 17 and 18

Next: Day 20/Part 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 17 and 18

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 17:

We took rest in the hotel in morning after a long hectic drive for last fortnight. We had a wonderful western breakfast at Chini Bagh hotel after a long time, relaxed and ultimately got confirmation for my Tibet Train Tickets from Xining through my Tibet Travel agent. We got 3 soft sleeper tickets in same compartment in the evening train as we asked for, which was not easy, more details on this when we would cover Tibet section. So at last on very last moment I became little confident about my Tibet trip. Kashgar airport is not very big but had a very tough security checking and they didn’t allow us even to carry Kid’s medicine in hand luggage, I had to return to check in counter 4 times to put something or other they were discovering from hand luggage which was not permissible to carry as per their security standard. Most irritating fact was they took 4 rounds of searches to make themselves satisfied and I had to go through security checks for 4 times. We crossed Taklamakan diagonally to North East and reach Urumqi just before evening. We said good bye to Hasan, another wonderful person we luckily have for our Southern Xinjiang trip and received by our old friend Ablajan again in Urumqi Airport for our short 2 days trip in Xinjiang before we would fly out to Xining.

Day 18:

The day we had planned for our day trip to Turpan. No Xinjiang trip is completed until you visit Turpan, the second lowest point in planet Earth after Dead Sea of Jordan. But before that we had two important things to do. First was to collect the Tibet train tickets, in China though train tickets can be bought in internet, you need to have original paper ticket with you before you can board train, no e-ticket is allowed to board the train. So with confirmation number and identity card you need to collect your paper tickets from any train station or city booking office of Chinese railways. But if you collect it from origin station of your journey, it is free where as from any other places if you collect the paper ticket, you will have to pay 5 CNY per ticket. I thought paying 5 CNY and getting ticket from Urumqi is easier with help of Ablajan than to collect it in Xining by speaking Chinese with counter guys. So after collecting the train tickets we visited the Urumqi Museum which is known as XUAR Museum and a must visit destination for anyone travelling to Xinjiang as it is the best place to get detailed overview of Xinjiang’s many millennia of human civilization. The most famous exhibits of the museum are famous Xinjiang Mummies. The mummy named as Loulan Beauty was excavated from Lop Nor region was of a 45 years old woman of Indo European origin with read hair, thin nose and covered with red brown rough wool blanket. According to Chinese archaeologists this mummy was dated back to 1800 BCE.

As we had to visit Turpan, we didn’t spend much time in museum, rather started for Turpan (in Uighur means land of fire ) which is hottest place in china, temperature in summer goes above 45 degree C and in winter goes down to minus 20 degree C and infamous for blustering winds that often whip the city. Rainfall is lowest among China, annual rainfall is just 20mm. It took around 2.5 hours to cover the distance from Urumqi to Turpan through the 6 lane expressway. Turpan was an important trade hub of silk route was mentioned in history as early as first century. Until fifth century CE the capital of the region was Jiaohe which was our first destination in Turpan. It is perched atop a narrow terrace like an island above 2 rivers (Jiaohe means confluence of rivers). The cliffs rise more than 30 meters above the river bed to form a formidable natural defense. The city was under control of Tibetans for more than a century and major center of Buddhism but later around thirteenth century invaded by Mongol armies of Genghis khan and abandoned since then. This is considered as most visually rewarding site of all Turpan’s outlying tourist attractions.

Our next attraction was Karez which is the ingenious underground irrigation system of ancient China. Without this engineering marvel supplying water in large quantities to an area of arid land that would otherwise not be fit for large scale human civilization. A Karez (means well in Persian) is comprised of series of wells and linking underground channels that tap subterranean water and use gravity to bring it to the surface at a destination lower than source. By this means water can be transported long distance in hot, dry climates without losing a large proportion of it to seepage or evaporation in a dry hot desert climate. These Karez were built 2000 years ago with the water source taken from Tienshan’s glaciers. Digging and maintaining Karez was a tough feat to achieve. It requires skill to understand the best place to dig and monumental effort to execute that in harsh weather conditions. Wells generally begin at the base of the mountains to tap good amount glacier melt water. The tunnel is then dug but again engineering accuracy is required to make sure the tunnel slopes at a lesser gradient than the contours of the land so that the water reaches the oasis close to the ground level where surface canals can distribute it to reservoirs. Generally underground tunnels are 1.5 to 2 meter height and around a meter wide and run at a stretch between 5 to 20 km, it was definitely not an easy job to do 2000 years ago. In Xinjiang region total 5500 km of Karez was discovered with more than 150000 wells providing an annual water output of 1000 million cubic meters. Today in Turpan still a part of it is in use to provide bulk of irrigation and drinking water for population. This Karez water system is considered as second best engineering marvel of ancient China after Great Wall demonstrating an astonishing level of engineering innovation and heroic human effort. It is evident that without this life saving attribute of Karez, the civilization of Xinjiang could never reach the size and sophistication that allowed the Silk Road to flourish. Due to this system Turpan became an agricultural oasis, famed for its sweetest grapes, white resins and wines in the middle of the extreme aridity and scorching heat that would otherwise make this a lifeless hell.

We had a plan to Shanshan desert but later abandoned the plan as we had to take a long journey back to Urumqi and next day early morning we had our flight for Xining, the gateway of Tibet Plateau. We reached Urumqi around 8.00 in evening and quickly took dinner and gone to bed. This ended our 18 days grand trip in most diverse province of China. Tomorrow we will be at Xining, capital of Qinghai Province to catch high altitude train to Tibet.

Urumqi Museum:

Loulan Beauty (4000 Years Old Mummy):

Museum Ground Floor From Top:

China’s Next Engineering Marvel: The High Speed rail corridor between Urumqi – Lanzhou – Beijing is in making, soon become another tourist attraction as it cuts through Gobi Desert where a 67 km long wind shield gallery is being built to protect the track from ferocious crosswinds of Gobi and then it will cut Kunlun Mountains via Qilianshan Tunnel at 4000 meter. It will going be highest High speed train corridor in world where trains will run at 350 kmph and reach Urumqi to Beijing 3500 km, overnight in less than 12 hours which now takes more than 72 hours, the work is close to completion now in 4 years:

Ancient 2000 years old Karez Underground Channels of water:

Grape Street of Turpan where on top of the roads grapes are being dried (Turpan is famous for sweetest grapes in China):

Jiahoe Ruins in Turpan (Dated Back to 3rd Century CE):

The main temple complex of Jiahoe (Remember it was a Buddhist town then):

The city Ruins:

Rock Cut Buddha is still visible:

See the Turpan Oasis in the middle of Desert:

Emin Minaret at Turpan:

Coming back to Urumqi – Sunset, our last day was telling us a grand good bye after an excellent Xinjiang trip and remembering Tibet is waiting for us:

Previous: Day 16

Next: Day 19 and 20/Part 1

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 16

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 16:

This was our full day stay in Kashgar and our main attraction of the day was to visit World’s oldest and largest Livestock market at Kashgar and then visiting the Sunday Market, Idkha Mosque, largest mosque in China and the Abakh Khoja tomb. If you really want to see livestock market, which looks very interesting to me, you must need to spend a Sunday there and we have planned our trip accordingly. Kashgar is the largest oasis city of Xinjiang and 70 percent of the population is Uighur which makes it not so comfortable destination for Han Chinese and that’s the reason I planned this place during the Golden Holiday Week of October to get escaped from mad infamous tourist rush of China.

Kashgar’s historical importance is derived from its strategic location at the foot of Pamir, Kunlun and Karakoram Mountain ranges, commanding access to the high glacial passes of the Silk Road Routes into Central Asia, India and Persia (Via Tajikistan to Iran). The trade caravans from China heading towards west on the northern and Southern route through the rim of Taklamakan desert finally meets at Kashgar and similarly caravan towards East from Central Asia and India meets here after descending Pamir and Karakoram. Kashgar’s history spans over 2000 years and both Buddhist and Islamic culture started spreading their wings in Tarim basin in second and tenth century respectively from Kashgar only.

Our first visit of the day was to Livestock market, stated to be world’s oldest and largest livestock market, still have a very much Central Asian flavor with cacophony of color, sound and smell on a scale found nowhere else in Xinjiang and even in any other Central Asian City. On Sunday Livestock market starts at dawn when traders begin to bring animals in, stalls are setup selling foods, drinks, tourists souvenirs near the entrance and in main markets wooden posts are lined up with yaks, cows, bulls, camels, sheep, goats, donkeys and horses, all for sale at right prices. This is a must visit just to experience the ancient market flavors of Central Asia, you would feel that you rode a time machine and back thousands of years in past to the full glory of silk route trading.

Our next attraction was the Kashgar Bazaar, named as Central Asia International Grand Bazaar has many sections in the market selling silk, cotton, knives, hats, pots and pans, fresh vegetables, dry fruits, spice and many other things. You would get costly carpets to cheap musical instrument and see Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrghiz, Kazakh, Pakistani and Turkish traders apart from Uyghur.

We gone to Idkah Mosque next which is largest mosque in China and most holy sites of Muslims in Xinjiang is also regarded as religious and cultural center of Kashgar. Thousands of people daily visit this place to offer prayer. It was built in middle of Fifteenth Century on almost an area of 17000 sq meters. One point to note like all important religious places in China, Imam of this mosque is appointed by Chinese Govt and operates under full control of Chinese Govt. No where in China bigger Mosques or Monasteries can elect their Imam or Head Lama, it’s selected by Chinese Govt. based on certain criteria best known to them.

Our last visit of the day was Abak Khoja’s tomb is holiest place in Xinjiang for Sufis and an architectural treasure, built in middle of seventeenth century it is reminiscent of Central Asian artistic style of Samarkand. Abak Khoja was the powerful ruler of Kashgar, Hotan, Yarkhand, Aksu, Kuqa to Korla and a greatly respected Sufi leader of seventeenth century. Five generations of this great family were buried here.

Kashgar still carries the memory of great game between two imperial forces of early twentieth century, British and Russians. The old British Consulate was the home for almost quarter of a century of the most famous British India’s representative in Kashgar, Sir George McCartney and his wife. The consulate is now transformed to one of the most well known hotels of Kashgar (Qinibagh, pronounced as Chinibagh hotel) where fortunately we got a chance to stay for 2 nights. The Russian Consulate is now transformed to another hotel Seman hotel still carries the Russian Architecture.

Today was our last day in Southern Xinjiang and tomorrow we would fly back to Urumqi.

Gate of Livestock Market:

Camel sales at its height because of Bakri Eid!!

Sheep Line:

Sheep is dragged from the van and put them in a queue:

Horses for sales:

Sheep are in Queue:

Few different shops selling souvenirs and other interesting things:

Famous Uighur knives made in Southern Xinjiang (Yengisar is specially famous for making knives):

Idkah Mosque Entrance:

Idkah Mosque Complex, heart of Cultural Kashgar:

Beautiful shop and even prettier shopkeeper:

Typical Uighur Shop:

Dry Fruits market – Kashgar:

Musical Instruments:

See the woodcraft all are handmade:

Abakh Khoja Tomb:

This is made of Samarkand Style architecture:

Kashgar Sunday Market:

Kashgar Town:

Previous: Day 15

Next: Day 17 and 18

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 15

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 15:

This is our return day from Tashkurgan through same Karakoram Highway to Kashgar but we started very early so that we can enjoy sunrise in and around Karakul Lake. It was a brilliant journey all through bidding goodbye to high Pamirs once again we proceeded to Kashgar, took a break with Nan and Tea in Kyrghiz hut in Karakul and then returned back to Kashgar. Tomorrow we will be visiting the important trade hub of Kashgar and being a Sunday it would be more interesting to see Sunday Market and Livestock Market which is oldest and largest in World.

Pamir Plateau in Morning:

Karakoram Highway going through High Pamirs:

Tajikistan Border just 14 km away from this point on Karakoram Highway:

The Chinese Immigration / Customs for entering Tajikistan :

Top view of Karakoram Highway through Pamir Plateau, one of my favorite snap:

The Majestic Karakoram Ranges:

Majestic Karakoram Highway:

Unlike Kazakh and Kyrghiz, Tajik are semi nomadic and they stay in their stone houses during heavy winter:

The amazing Pastureland in High Pamirs:

The Reflection:

Kirghiz father and kid:

Colorful Mountains:

See the disciplined way of ethnic destruction, New Guangzhou town is being developed just outskirt of Kashgar, Guangzhou is Kashgar’s sister town and SEZ are established there (Can you see it’s in snap), worst is these all are characterless typical Chinese high rise buildings:

Chinese do little extra in everything, can you believe this is just a middle school building

Former British India Consulate in Kashgar, active during great game, now transformed to Qinibagh (Chinibagh) Hotel, we stayed here for 2 nights, wonderful!!

Now we reached Kashgar, next we explore this ancient town and trade hub before flying out to Urumqi again.

Previous: Day 14/Part 2

Next: Day 16

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Day 14/Part 2

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

The turn of 30km road from Karakoram Highway towards Afghanistan Border:

Colorful Pamir Plateau:

Tajik Shop at Tashkurgan:

Tajik Mother and Kid (Note the hat Tajik woman wears) :

The cute Kid:

Tajik Gentleman, gave a pose for me:

Tajik Family in traditional attire:

Rickshaw Puller in Tashkurgan:

Tashkurgan, a picturesque Tajik town:

Tashkurgan Grass Land:

Tajik Mom and Kid:

This grassland goes till Pakistan Border :

Ancient Water Wheels:

Walkway on the grassland:

Sheep grazes in the grassland:

Walking across the Grassland:

The vastness of the grassland is amazing:

Tashkurgan Stone Fort, built in 3rd Century:

The Stone Fort at Tashkurgan, famous for the memory of Huen Tsang who stayed here 20 days during his return from India and recently for shooting of the movie “Kite Runner”:

From Stone Fort the surrounding views:

The original gate to Fort, now abandoned:

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Day 14/Part 1

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 14:

Surprisingly the hotel we got in Tashkurgan was real nice and we didn’t expect such a good accommodation in 5th/ 6th tier town in China but that indicates how far this country has already progressed. Modern Tashkurgan is a delightful town, compact and made with Greco-Roman style columns, with a large attractive eagle statue, symbols of the Tajiks, stands in the center of the town.
First existence of Tashkurgan was documented in second century book written by Ptolemy as extreme western province for its stand on the trade route over Pamirs and the Karakorum to the ancient Buddhist kingdoms of Taxila and Gandhara (Both are near Islamabad in Pakistan).

Now there are almost 30000 Tajiks live in Xinjiang and apart from very few live in other part of Silk route, they mostly live in high Pamirs around Tashkurgan, so if you want to experience Tajik Culture, Tashkurgan is the place to be unless you visit Tajikistan.Unlike their nomadic neighbours like Kazakh or Kyrghiz, they engage in both animal husbandry and agriculture and in summer time lives in yurt in high mountain with the animals in pastureland where as in autumn they come back to their stone houses in lower altitude.

The major attraction of Tashkurgan is the Stone Fortress perched on top of a hill at the northern edge of the town. The fort was built in 6th century by Tajik king and subsequently destroyed by Genghis Khan’s Mongol army in twelfth century and then rebuilt again. Huen Tsang spent a month in this fort during his return journey from India through the silk road. The view of lush green meadow and pastureland spread across till the border of Pakistan would give you an amazing view once you are on the top of this ruined castle. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Those who would go to Pakistan overland needs to do their immigration and Customs completed in Tashkurgan. As the road proceeds further south, within 30km from Tashkurgan a road bifurcates to the west and further proceeds to Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan but it’s off limit for international tourists and also the other side of border in Afghanistan end the nearest road head is 100km further, so this is not a place to venture into Afghanistan but this is strategically very important to NATO forces during their Afghan war as this area has least control of Taliban and NATO asked permission to PRC for using this route to replenish their supply lines. But showing internal security reasons China denied that. The main road proceeded further south to Khunjerab Pass. crossing a barren and treeless landscape. The name came in Wakhi language means “Valley of Blood” referring to murderous raids on caravans and travellers staged from the neighbourhood of Kingdom of Hunza. Pakistan’s entry formalities taken 86 km further when the road descends to 2500 meter from Pamir Top at a place called Sost, which someday we dream to touch upon. Khunjerab is highest paved border crossing in world and officially remains open between 1st May to 31st October.

We came back to Tashkurgan to find for this day our hotel is completely filled up, with lot of effort from Hasan, we finally managed to stay in Govt Hotel (Stone City Hotel) in Tashkurgan for this night, it was actually within Golden Holiday week and in remotest corner of China we were almost running short of accommodations, so think again before you plan any trip to China during that time.

Inside Tashkurgan Hotel:

Traditional Tajik Drawing room:

The Hotel at Tashkurgan:

Karakoram Highway :

Pamir Top – On the other side of Mountain, Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan:

Exquisite Beauty of High Pamir:

Yaks crossing Karakoram Highway:

Colorful “Roof of the World” – Pamir Plateau:

Karakoram Highway, the concrete road built on High Pamir and Karakoram, certainly an engineering marvel:

Dreams coming closer:

Driving through Pamir, on the backdrop of Karakoram, a drive to remember on Karakoram Highway:

Now ascending to Khunjerab Pass:

Far away Chinese Last Post on Khunjerab Pass:

The Last Chinese Post in Khunjerab, Photography is strictly prohibited, took a long shot, the building looks nice in backdrop of the mountain, just artistic perspective, no other motive please (In the balcony of first floor try to spot army man with AK-47)