Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 12

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 12:

Today’s Route:

The Hotan Hotel as I said was very nice and comfortable, and a 4 star hotel in Chinese standard, we had a nice sleep and fresh for today.

Hotel Lobby:

Kid is looking for next destination

Today we had a long drive through Southern Silk road from Hotan to Kashgar almost 550km through Karghilik and Yarkhand. We stayed in a nice hotel in Hotan which was again a four star in Chinese standard and had a good sleep, you need good rest to get yourself soaked in the beauty and culture of this region, it’s so colorful and varied, an experience you would cherish for lifetime. We reached Karghilik through the road mainly through desert and some oasis few and far between.

Karghilik is now a growing oasis town which comes frequently in the headlines because of flashpoints of ethic conflicts between Hun and Uyghur. Historically this was the point where ancient trade caravans and travellers heading for India would turn southwest into the mountains, trading the infamous desert path for the freezing, torturous track that led over the five great passes over Kunlun and Karakoram ranges to Leh and finally to Srinagar in Kashmir. The route averaging the height of 4800 meters (16K ft) above sea level and crossing five five thousand meters pass named Suget, Karakoram, Despang la, Saser la and Khardungla reaches to Leh and then passes through Zojila to cross over to Kashmir Valley. The region is named as Skeleton Trail as still it’s told to be strewn with skeletons of animals and human from the caravans perished in the wrath of nature. However, despite of its terrible hardships and difficult terrain, it was the best possible and most used route between the Tarim Basin and the Indian Subcontinent until the British finally created a safer and faster route in the second quarter of the last century via Hunza valley of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the Kunjerab Pass. Those famous two humped Bactrian camels many of us have seen in Nubra Valley actually came to India as part of this old caravans from Yarkhand in Tarim Basin. Karghilik Mosque is quite big but not opened for tourists, so we just enjoyed the architecture from outside and proceeded further to Yarkhand.

The people going to local markets:

The ancient trade route bifurcates to India leaving the desert and crossing 5 great passes of Kunlun, Karakoram and Himalaya it reaches Indian Plains and almost through same terrain Chinese built modern engineering marvel of Highway 219 connecting Xinjiang and Tibet, known as remotest and deadliest highway in world, we are at point Zero (Start Point) at Xinjiang side.

Karghilik Mosque:

Day 12 Continued…

Historically Yarkhand was considered even bigger trade hub in silk route than Kashgar or Hotan due to its extensive commercial activities with Indian Subcontinent through Leh. With a forum like BCMT which is so information intensive on Leh, let’s see something on other part of the story that made Leh so famous historically. Silk road caravans carried silks, tea, precious stones, golds, furs and skins and opium (heavily used in China) from India. It’s the Kashmiri traders who taught the Yarkhandis to clean and treat fleeces and soon the quality of Yarkhand’s shawl wool became world famous. It’s again a lesson taught by Indians to China. Yarkhand boasts of its rich culture from Hindus, Pathans, Tibetans, Baltis, Afghans and other foreign traders who swelled the city’s population. It is now officially known as Shache, for some reason Chinese have renamed all the Uighur towns like Khotan becomes Hetian, Niya becomes Minfeng, Karghilik becomes Yecheng and Kashgar becomes Kashi, Yarkhand is no exception, not sure if this is cultural invasion or their idea of making the history blurred to make it all feel Chinese. You would be surprised to know that cultural invasion has gone to such an extent that all Xinjiang town has now got an official sister city from their Chinese counterparts, Kashgarh has Guangzhou, Yarkhand has Shanghai, Hotan has Beijing like this, so cultural invasion can go on systematically. I am not giving any opinion what Chinese are doing is right or wrong, we have seen lots of flipsides of democracy we enjoy in India but one thing is sure China wants its people and others in world to believe that Chinese history starts from 1949 onwards when Communists came into power. But that’s a big loss to whole world specially for places like Xinjiang and Tibet which has a long history and much of that directly or indirectly connected to India.

I met one Japanese tourist who is studying on Chinese language, he told me something on Chinese history, he asked me why I chose Western Part of China as my first trip there when everyone knows (rather Chinas wants all to know) it’s the Eastern part that reflects true China. I replied him that history of Xinjiang and Tibet apart from the landscape fascinated me always. He asked me again why not the history of Eastern side of China attracts me, I replied I never studied so called history of that part of China, then he smiled and told me “How you would study, most of the histories of those part are actually Fairy Tales whether western part has a long and rich real history”, I didn’t know how true is that but the conversation struck me right in my heart. If some country really having rich heritage and culture, I don’t know how they could denounce histories of others.

We visited the Imperial Tomb complex of Altun kings who ruled the Yarkhand kingdom in 16th Century and it was a nice place to see the old architecture of that time. Another place we visited was the Tomb of Amanisa Han, the wife of Sultan of Yarkhand. She was credited with collating and composing much of the epic “Twelve Muqam”, the most significant collection of music in Uyghur culture. Known as “Mother of Uyghur Music”, the Twelve Muqam comprises large scale sets of sung poetries, dance tunes and instrumental pieces. In 2005 UNESCO recognized it by designating it a “Representative work of Human Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage”. She was a great artist no doubt about that but she is very few of the representatives of Uyghur culture who was supported and projected by Chinese Govt, the reason most Uyghur loves to believe as she was a Han Chinese who was married to Uyghur and Chinese shows this as epitome of national integrity. I just wrote what I heard, no pun intended
We gave a miss to Yengisar, another silk route town famous for making Yengisar knife which is strictly prohibited to even carry in your check in luggage. Yengisar knife so nicely made, you would love to buy one if you see it, so be careful, unless you have a plan to get out overland, getting this out of China is difficult. We gave it a miss because we were short in time after exploring Karghilik and Yarkhand. We reached Kashgar quite late around 8.00 in evening and have a quick dinner and went to bed.

Streets at Karghilik:

Women are in Business, common sight in Southern Xinjiang:

Tired Seller:

Tomb of Amanisa Han:

Imperial Tomb complex of Altun kings:

Kashgar Hotel, very nice one:

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 11/Part 2

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 11 Continued…

We drove across the southern rim of Taklamakan and with few and far some oasis appeared, rest all are barren desert as we drove towards West. Hotan is barely 150km from Niya and can be reached easily in 2 hours. So our main objective of the day was to explore this old town of Hotan, it’s famous carpet and silk factories before looking around the historical Hotan Market. The oasis town of Hotan (historically known as Khotan as we read in history book and Hetian in Chinese) is famous for its jade, carpets, silk and embroidery. Indeed the fame rises with the blossoming of silk route. The traditional hand-woven silk produced in small family units and rich natural colors of and designs of Hotan Carpets have still been treasured all over the world.

History of Hotan is no less surprising. This area was originally inhabited as early as late Paleolithic age (up to 10000 BCE) and was occupied around 1000 BCE by the Saka, a semi nomadic, Indo-European group originating from eastern Persian Realm. Around 300 BCE immigrants from India moved into this region and formed this first Indian town in Tarim Basin and according to legend the first King of Hotan said of a son of King Ashoka, the Mauryan emperor, settled there around 225 BCE. During 2nd Century CE, this region was ruled by Indo-Scythian kingdom of Kushans, whose ruler Kanishka though was a Buddhist, supported other religions of Hindu and Iranian faith. This influence of Kushans and Mauryas brought the Gandhar art in these areas including Kuqa. Buddhism flourished here in fourth and fifth century and remained as a centre of Mahayana Buddhism until the early of 11th Century when it was conquered by Muslims of Kashgar. Hotan’s prosperity can be easily guessed by famous pilgrim Fa Xian’s account who stayed in Hotan for 3 months and left a vivid account of thousands of monks and many monasteries ornamentally carved and overlaid by gold and silver. This place was even under serious Indian influence till Communist regime in China took over in 1948. In 1935, when Peter Fleming (A British Adventurer and Travel writer, elder brother of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond) and Ella Maillart (A Swiss Olympian and Travel Writer) took their epic journey of 7 months from Beijing to Srinagar (They were lucky, I am sure they couldn’t take such trip in modern day through Xinjiang, Tibet, Ladakh, Skardu, Gilgit to Srinagar) arrived at Hotan, they found the city was hand-printing its own currency note from Mulberry trees (those who are not aware, Mulberry Tree leaves are main feed for silkworms). Their vivid account of witnessing the arrival by mule of British Indian Postman with documents for local Indian merchants and the three months old copies of “The Times” brought all the way from Kashmir made the point how close these places were to India just even 80 years back.

Silk Threads, the product which named this epic route as Silk Route:

The Silk Clothes but you need a knowledgeable tailor to made something tangible out of it:

Silk Trader with his potential Customers:

Silk Pieces, note the hand made designs:

Creativity in a Meat Shop:

Uighur Kebab in making:

The Designer Nans:

Candid expression:

Hotan Market, looks more authentic and still bear the old touch than the Kashgar Market:

Hotan Market Tailor, certainly has an attitude:

Managing Parents shop in their absence:

Helping her Mother, preparing street foods for shoppers:

Spice at Hotan Market:

Another Cute Kid:

Uyghur Cap:

She really looks pretty:

She was ready to pose, although her mother stopped her

Uighur Man:

Chairman Mao meets a local farmer, something China wants to portray in whole Xinjiang to show how serious and sensitive they are about Uyghur and not only that, they were very serious about their issues from long back — This was an Uyghur man’s explanation, I didn’t thought about it

Previous: Day 11/Part 1

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 11/Part 1

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 11:

Today’s Route:

Today our driving distance was not too long, but we would take the southern fringe of Taklamakan desert and would travel through the most prominent of all silk route branches, the southern one that comes directly from Dunhuang via Charkilik and then touching this small oasis town of Niya, going to big oasis of Hotan and from there further west it crosses Karghilik proceeds further west to Yarkhand and then finally meets the North Silk Route at Kashgar. Southern Silk route is actually the oldest route established first in history.

Historically from Kashgar, Silk route branched off and one route continued over high Pamir and from there to famous town of Khokand, Samarkand, Bokhara and Merv before making its way through Persia and Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea, where the exotic silk, carpets and spices from East ended up in the market of Rome and Alexandria.

Another silk road branch, more closer to our Indian hearts, branched off at Yarkhand (Modern Road 219 to Tibet starts from Karghilik instead of more difficult Yarkhand), continuing south to Karakorum over the 5 great passes, to reach Leh and Srinagar, then into the Indian Subcontinent. Unfortunately the route has been closed since China’s occupation of Tibet in 1950 and subsequent encroachment to Aksai Chin to build Xinjiang-Tibet Highway and till then skirmishes are going on across the disputed Line of Actual Control. This is a dream route for many of us to explore and definitely one the most (if not the most) arduous trek route in planet earth ever crossed over by human being on regular basis in history of human civilization. The road from Kashgar to Leh is around 900km and cross Karakash Valley to go up to Suget Pass and the descending to Yarkhand Valley and subsequently cross the great Karakoram Pass (Now located close to the tri junction border between India, China and Pakistan and only border between India and China that doesn’t touch Tibet) to descend to Chipchap Valley (Known as Depsang Plains as well) and Daulat Beg Oldie (Daulat Beg Oldie was a Kashgar ruler who took repeated attempt to conquer Tibet through ladakh route and finally died and burried here in 15th Century) and then again ascends to Depsang Pass to cross over to Shyok Valley. From Shyok Valley it crosses Saser La to descends to Nubra Valley and finally from Nubra it takes Khradungla to descends to the valley of Leh. This route was preferred to prosperous Indian Traders of Punjab over more straight forward route via Khyber Pass to Afghanistan and subsequent to Iran to Turkey because of safety of valuable goods like Ivory, Gold, Silver they used to carry with them. The route between Ladakh to Yarkhand was extremely challenging from terrain perspective and knows as Skeleton’s Trail but extremely safe from getting robbed by armed bandits across the route. The route is so secluded even traders used to go back couple of years later to retrieve their valuables they forced to leave years back due to hostile weather.

Let’s talk briefly about Niya, It was a prime important town between 2nd Century to 5th Century CE on Southern Silk Route which later diverted to more southwards most likely because of acute shortage of water as Niya River changed its course and it became impossible to survive in this desert town so close to Taklamakan. All these incidents are documented in early scripts written in Indian scripts of Kharishthi and Brahmi lent weight to the argument that the Southern Silk Route had until the middle of fourth Century CE been mainly under cultural influence of Northern India, despite the fact it had fallen most often within political and military zone of influence of China. Yet another reason to be proud of being Indians. Many have rued while making comment in this log, that why we still don’t have roads, infrastructure anywhere close to what China already have, very true but they might be doing good in rampant urbanization and inorganic growth for their country but they never can match India with the culture and rich heritage and history we have. China’s western side specially Xinjiang is very close historically with India including the Tibet and that’s one of the possible reason China doesn’t want to show the world the large non Chinese faces and their dreams and demands. I have seen many people in Kashgar whose relatives stay in Ladakh and Kashmir but being resident of Kashmir, they are issued stapled Chinese Visa and Indian Govt doesn’t allow them to travel in China, now about the people of Xinjiang, they are more unfortunate, their passport application fees are 5 times than of a Hun Chinese what I heard but still less than 20% of population of the state are having Chinese Passports, they are simply denied a passport, so that they can’t go out of China. So this frustrating man made boundary keeps the blood relations apart and it’s not just a story of two Bengals or two Punjabs, it’s equally true between Ladakh and Yarkhand or Ladakh and Tibet.

The Hotel we stayed at Niya:

Kitchen in a Niya Restaurant :

Uighur Restaurant in Niya:

City Center Niya:

The Road sometimes goes through Oasis few and far between:

Most of the roads are through Desert (Not like the core Desert we crossed yesterday but through Southern Rim of Desert):

Nan and Kebab – Famous Uighur Food, a great break from Chinese Noodles:

Cute Uighur Kid:

Ladies and Girls making handmade Carpet, an ancient industry of 2000 years ago still flowing through generations:

They not only weaves the carpet but also manages their younger siblings when their mother is busy:

Handmade Carpets are being made:

Finished Carpet, what a brilliant art made by Human hands and the legacy being carried over a millennium:

Carpets made in front of our eyes just too exquisite, we were stunned, first one shows the Silk Trade hubs on ancient area where as the next one shows the vista of High Pamir and Altai Grasslands, even the Xinjiang Diversities impacted the carpet design:

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Next: Day 11/Part 2

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 10

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 10:

Today’s Route Map:

In Day9 if we have witnessed something by Chinese Govt which we might not like being Indians, Day10 is something where we saw something which we miss in India and wish if our Govt could do even a fraction of this. This day we could easily take route from Kuqa to Hotan and there by saving a full day, instead we planned to go back towards Urumqi for 100 km and to take the Desert Highway (known as Tarim Highway) to cross 522 km within deep desert of Taklamakan to reach the other side at Minfeng (Niya in Uighur). The total distance we traveled around 750km in the whole day and obviously we could reach Hotan only on next day. But still this epic road, which is world’s longest desert highway in any form is a sight to see and best to drive to feel and experience the fearsome Taklamakan Desert. Our only intention was to enjoy the Taklamakan desert which took lives of so many ancient traders of silk route and we achieved that fully. We reached Minfeng quite late almost around 10:00 in night but we could cover the desert part all through the day light and enjoyed the drive a lot.

I am quoting this from the history of the road which any travelers might be thrilled to read on how well Chinese could achieve this seemingly impossible task making longest road cutting just in the middle of second largest desert of the world.

Quote:

When Tazhong-4 Oilfield was discovered in the heart of Taklamakan in late 80’s, China National Oil Corp realized than an economical means of transport would be needed if the recovery of oil from field were to be profitable. A road was only the viable option. With a budget of CNY 4.5 Billion which later finally reached close to 8 Billion (120 Million USD) the China National Oil Corp organized 17 research institutes and more than 100 experts – engineers, geomorphologists, and botanists – to build a tarmac route across the Taklamakan. Nowhere in the world a road ever been built across such a hostile terrain. Engineers faced two main problems : to build a solid roadbed, and to protect it from being buried by constantly shifting sand.

Experimentation began in late 1991. The suitable roadbed formula was underlain with “geotextile”, a heavy-duty weave of tough plastic that was laid on compressed sand. This was topped with a gravel asphalt surface approximately 30 cm depth.

As the road inched its way south from Luntai, researchers found their efforts on finding the best way to protect it from windblown sand. Lateral “Shelter Belts” consisting of two lines of defense were built on both sides of the road. The first, about 100 meters from the road was a 1.3 meter high fence of interwoven reed stalks. The second line of defense lay alongside the road itself: a checkerboard pattern of reed stalks “planted” deep into the sand. This double defense proved effective as 90% of all windblown sand in the desert never rises more than 1 meter above ground – even in most powerful desert storms.

In total the road building teams came up with 310 new desert-stabilizing and road building techniques. Tens of thousands of laborers used thousands of square kilometers of geotextile and millions of tons of gravels. In the summer they braved 70 degree C and in winter mercury plummeted to Minus 30 degree C. Four sweating and shivering years later, the 522 km road with 7 meters width, finally linked Highway 314, to the north of the desert with Highway 315 in the South.
Designated as highway 312 and dubbed the Tarim Highway, this road building wonder – the world’s longest metalled desert road drivable year-around was opened to traffic in September 1995 and now takes 9 hours to cross infamous Taklamakan – an amazing feat considering that only a few decades ago the same journey would require many weeks of extremely dangerous and unpredictable travel.

In 2001, anti-desertification plant species such as Chinese tamarisk, honey tree, diversiform Poplar and saksaul were planted along a 30km section of Tarim Highway to help hold off the sands, which constantly encroach despite the road side shelter belts and subsequently in 2003 a CNY 220 million (USD 31 million forestation project proceeded to create a green belt of desert plants on 3128 hectares of land along 436km of highway. To water these plants well stations are built in every 5km (So 100 wells stations were built for entire stretch) those pumps water through a network of pipes that run along the green belt. Six Million Cubic Meters of water is consumed annually to protect this road from the fiercest desert of planet Earth.

Starting point of Tarim Highway in Northern part of Taklamakan Desert at Luntai:

Mighty Taklamakan (Ocean of Sands, Taklamakan is world’s second largest Desert after Sahara)

One of the 100 water well and pumping station built in every 5 km apart through this 522km road to save the green line beside the road to protect it from sand:

The amazing Dunes of Taklamakan, be it size, shape, colors, textures, grandeur it would keep amazing you:

The famous Tarim Highway crossing the mighty Taklamakan Desert – Note the Green Belt in 3 rows in each side of the road to protect it from shifting sand of fiercest Desert – This is a pleasure to drive deep into a 522 km pure desert highway!!

Previous: Day 9

Next: Day 11/Part 1

Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Things to keep in mind

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

International Air Tickets: can be purchased from any recommended travel site like makemytrip, thomascook, cleartrip, etc. specially if you are looking to buy China Southern or China Eastern Airlines, Except Air China no Chinese Airlines have any India Specific site (read where you can purchase using INR), else you can go the Airlines sites of US/Canada/Hongkong and check where you get it cheapest after forex conversion to INR. Air China India site doesn’t sell tickets between Chengdu to Kathmandu or Lhasa to Kathmandu for some reason which Air China helpdesk could not explain, if you want to buy any of these scenic route flights your option is to use Air China’s US/Canada website but don’t try to buy them from their original site which is Chinese and accept Chinese card only.
Usually in China like other places, there are 60 days, 30 days, 15 days slab and if you can buy ticket even just before 15 days you get cheap price, but within 15 days makes it double and sometimes triple. Also as I said earlier don’t plan during Chinese New Year and Golden Week Holidays as airfare goes beyond roof during that time.

Domestic Air Tickets: To busy Chinese domestic Air tickets your best bet is ctrip.com, elong.net and travelzen.com These are the 3 very reliable sites to book Chinese domestic air ticket in English and and using visa / master card. Ctrip is biggest and have best deal where as travelzen’s advantage is it’s the only site that doesn’t charge additional 4% when you use a non Chinese credit card. Start following domestic ticket price 30 days before and anytime between 21 days to 7 days before journey you usually get the best price.

Domestic Trains Very popular in China and there are several types of train, for detail refer seat61.com china page and you will get invaluable information. Train Tickets are issued from Chinese official railway site (www.12306.cn) 20 days before travel but unless you are proficient in Chinese and have Chinese Credit Card you can’t use this site. Tickets are on sale 18 days before travel from various stations and city ticket booking office and through agents as well. If you take high speed bullet trains from Beijing – Shanghai, getting tickets are easier but if you try to get tickets of mountain trains from Beijing / Chengdu /Guangzhou / Xining to Lhasa, or some other busy lines, you would find it sold out on first few mins of selling. It’s even faster than what we see in IRCTC here during some festival. So specially for Lhasa train, you need to depend on agent and be ready to shell out high commission (sometimes same as ticket price, that means 100% commission) if you want better class like soft sleeper. During high season, even agent can’t guarantee your ticket in your preferred train and preferred class.

Few things on Lhasa Train:

1. You arrange your Lhasa Train Tickets through Tibet Agents and don’t try to get it of your own or by other agents as many things need to be coordinated with train journey date and it’s very slim chance you would get the train ticket of your own unless you try in leanest season of Dec/Jan.

2. Negotiate with the agent on commission but that depends on time of travel.

3. Currently there are daily 5 trains between Xining to Lhasa between 15.00 hours to 20:15 hours (Departure from Xining), The later train you take, you would get better view as you would cross most interesting Golmud – Lhasa section in day time. But getting tickets on a later train is more difficult.

4. Usually it’s cheaper and easier to travel by train in reverse direction. So if you fly in to Lhasa and take a train out, availability of tickets will be more, and cost of commission will be less.

5. In China, age doesn’t matter for concession ticket, what they check is height instead If someone is below 1.2 mtr, it’s free, between 1.2 to 1.5 mtr its half price, above 1.5 mtr full price. This rule even applicable for scenic fee entries. In station I heard (not seen) they have measurement tape to measure the height in case of any confusion

Bus Tickets:
There are lot of long distance buses (sleeper type) available between almost all cities and if you can tolerate Chinese smoking randomly inside bus, it’s an excellent way to save money as bus travel is not very uncomfortable and quite cheap. This also reduce your hotel cost if you can get yourself in a night bus. Bus tickets can’t be bought online, you have to purchase from local bus station 48 hours before journey or can get it through agent.

Local Transport:
Local buses are there almost in all cities where the cost of travel is just 1 CNY where ever you go. Cabs are available but charges vary between city to city, in Beijing /Shanghai it’s costlier than cabs in Kashgar. Remember in Tibet foreigners are not allowed to take a local transport.

Self Drive:
Whatever I read, that self drive needs Chinese Driving License as IDP convention was not signed by China. But big Govt travel agents like CITS arrange the self drive tour (that even includes Xinjiang – Tibet) – China Self-drive Tours
Also companies like Navo is specialized in self driving in China, manages a temporary 90 days China Driving license for tourists but as you understand it’s not easy and straight forward like driving in US and Europe or Australia.

China self-driving tours; foreigners drive Chinese vehicle in China & Oversea

Hire car and Driver:
Hassle free but moderately costly option is a good choice if you can find a local driver who can speak in English, which is extremely difficult to find in any part of China. Most cars go by daily rate which includes fuel, driver’s charge, accommodation, parking, toll (There are lots of toll roads in China). But ice on the cake is if you can find an English speaking driver who can have a guide license. Actually only licensed guides can enter into any designated scenic places and sometimes in some areas, guide is a must for foreigners. But taking a separate guide will cost you a bomb (charges anything between 60 to 100 USD per day just for guide). Somehow I managed to find 2 such English speaking drivers who has guide license in both North and South Xinjiang trip and both were found excellent in their service. I will post details about their contact later but as none of them linked to any travel agency (Just independent driver / Guide) the cost was much lesser than arranging it through an agency.
Thumb rule: Don’t take Chinese Drivers, their driving record is worst in world and also specially if you go to minority dominated place like Xinjiang and Tibet, Local Uighur / Tibetans are better bet as they speak fluently local, Chinese and English (for your case) and have lots of local contacts which is pretty helpful to know situation in advance in a country where information flow is restricted.

Money:
Though agents / drivers / guides will ask you send in advance, I managed to bypass that and didn’t send any advance, sending money to China means even recipient bank deducts 4% bank charge on the amount you remit, in dollar that hurts. Also there is no PayPal and Western Union possible between India and China, your only option is bank transfer which is having lot of paperwork, Chinese visa and travel is so uncertain if your trip gets cancelled, to get your money back, you have to again pay commission to Chinese Bank.
So my target was simple, carry cash, cash and cash!! Many forex dealer like your bank or Amex or Thomascook will try to teach you to be modern and carry a forex card but no one can offer a card that is loaded in CNY as a result you will pay 4% as forex transaction charge each time you swipe that. Also no of visa / master enabled ATM is few specially in remote areas. China is a country where you will face lot of paperworks and processes in anything you do, even encashing TC will be charged 25 USD and a lot of time, your 3/4 hours will be lost to encash 1000 USD.
Always carry Forex in USD which is most readily accepted in China, don’t try to bring CNY from India as that will cost you more rather than converting USD there in China (In China CNY-USD rate is fixed and even in black market if you encash dollar it’s still same) and Chinese Customs is strict on carrying with large amount of CNY. Completely torn bad notes even work (as they say) till it bears the face of Mao. Using black market to convert is easier and very quick but problem is if you convert more than you require and need to get USD back when returning you need another black market to do it as without proper receipts no bank will change your CNY to USD.
Credit Cards are used only in big cities and big hotels, otherwise, master / visa card is not much use in remote china.

Connectivity:
Most hotels have wired network, few have even Wi-Fi. But configuring it not easy even for wired, plug and play doesn’t usually work and the instruction written in room/ modem all will come in Chinese which you won’t understand, if you call someone in hotel, he won’t be able to read English in your screen, so depending on that is little difficult and unpredictable.
I carried a Chinese Data Card available from Matrix and it worked nicely and saved me many situations.

Mobile
Your international roaming will be too costly, getting a Chinese local SIM is easy (though need some paperwork in sensitive areas of Xinjiang and Tibet) but worst is their bill plan works only in City. So if I buy a SIM in Urumqi, it will start roaming just outside of it and many times won’t work at all. Best is to get SIM which works across whole China, though that is not easy to find, so again I chose Matrix and though charges were little higher than getting local prepaid SIM, it helped me escaping lot of hassles. You need a good mobile as sometimes our driver left us on road to park and then we had to talk 15 mins over mobile to find him out because you won’t be able to tell your exact location as everything around you is written in Chinese.

Others
Good to have a health insurance if you are in a long trip to China but later I saw in my Bajaj Alliance insurance, in fine print it was clearly written “Tibet is not covered specially Mansarovar Yatra”
If you are very social and can’t live without Facebook or may need Google or some of your favorite site, 90% chance you will see they are blocked in China. So you need a temporary subscription of some VPN or Proxy Server which will route your browsing through some servers located in Hongkong or US.
Take all your important document printouts in Chinese, like your name, your details, etc. and documents like Air Ticket, Hotel Voucher etc should be printed in Chinese, we were almost missing our flight as we didn’t care for this. You will rarely get someone even in an Airport which is 3 times bigger than Delhi T3 where people can read or speak English.
So with all these in our tiny heads, we started the trip on 20th September from home to catch a Kolkata – Kunming Flight of 21st Sep, early morning (12.30 am).

Approaching Thong La, through which Friendship Highway crosses High Himalayas, Can you spot the Kiyangs:

The below road, can you identify? That’s going to Manas Sarovar, Mt. Kailash:

Seems Heavenly:

After Cyclone Philin the snow was so heavy, Chinese machinery took 72 hours to open just one lane of the road :

Thong La around 5500 mtr:

Inside mighty Himalayas:

Never seen a sunset in Himalayas sitting on top of it. Unbelievable!! :

The Border Town between Nepal and China (Tibet) at last, in Chinese Zhangmu, in Tibetan Drum. The landscape changed drastically with more green and height is now just 2250 mtrs

First View of Kathmandu where our epic journey ends as we catch flight back home from here:

Previous: Visa and Flights to China

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Visa and Flights to China

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

There are many land borders of China with neighboring countries except with India, I knew of crossing overland to China from following countries:

1. Myanmar – With some requirement of additional permits from Muse to Ruili but note in Myanmar side you need special permits as these belt is infamous for Kachin militants, permit is not cheap either.

2. Laos

3. Vietnam – You can cross even in Train from Nanning

4. North Korea – Train crossing possible.

5. Russia – Only possible through Trans Manchurian Rail

6. Mongolia – Couple of borders along with possibility of using Trans Mongolian Rail

7. Kazakhstan – Both by road and train crossing possible.

8. Kyrgyzstan

9. Pakistan

10. Nepal

I have excluded Hongkong and Macau which are two special administrative region of China but you need separate Chinese visa to enter mainland china from either of these places. There are boat and road crossing between them.

So out of the above 10 countries which has overland border crossing with China, except Nepal, visa processing is same for others. This is more interesting topic of discussion who might have a dream of making it from Europe to Singapore overland as most likely you need to cross China sometimes (Unless India-Myanmar-Thailand overland is possible and you can get through Iran – Pakistan – India leg).

Other than that for lesser mortals, it’s much easier to fly into China, the visa requirement is same but it’s worth remembering one point, getting a Chinese visa from a third country (where you are traveling and not a citizen) is always difficult and dicey. Just before our trip in China, suddenly Chinese Govt stopped issuing visa from Kyrgyzstan embassy for non citizens and lots of foreigners who are making their ambitious Eurasian trip overland had to abort their trip midway. So when you plan to visit China through other countries, plan your route and visa accordingly.

Also whatever process I will describe below is actually what I experienced in Chinese consulates in India, a lot of people have different experiences in getting Chinese visa from one consulate to others in same time. So it depends on the consulate where you are applying for, check the history of it in some international travel forum. The Chinese visa rule changes very frequently as well, so before your trip, keep yourself updated with the process from local consulates.

In India, there are 3 consulates, in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and they have their respective jurisdiction and as of when I asked them last.

1. People having passports issued from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka can apply in Mumbai

2. People having passports issued from West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa can apply in Kolkata

3. Rest all have to apply in Delhi.

There are many different types of visa and for tourists, it’s the tourist visa (Type L) which you need to apply and that’s important as with work / student or other visas, getting permits (specially in Tibet) is extremely difficult. So whatever we will discuss it’s about Tourist Visa.

The requirements were:

1. You need to have 6 months of validity in your passport on date of application.

2. Passport Issue should be within consulate jurisdiction as I mentioned above.

3. You need to fill up an application form with your photo.

4. A covering letter mentioning your intent of travel and a detail travel itinerary

5. Your 6 months bank statement signed and stamped by bank (Stupid that they don’t accept bank statement printout from net banking) where closing balance must be 1 lac per person (Means if you apply for your family of 3, you should have 3 lacs in your account)

6. Your confirmed proof of arrival and departure (Read Air Tickets and that’s the reason entering / exiting china overland is extremely difficult unless you catch an international train like Trans Siberian where you get physical ticket issued much earlier than your departure date)

7. Your confirmed hotel booking voucher in each place of stay (Yes for a 30 days trip, you need to show proof of hotel for all 30 days)

You have to apply visa through their authorized visa processing agent (VFS Global) in respective cities where consulate is located.
Now most important is Chinese don’t understand that China is vast and people may have interest to see something else than Beijing / Shanghai / Guangzhou. Specially if you mention XUAR or TAR, you would most likely be declined your visa. Mention of TAR would not allow you to apply for visa with VFS, and makes it extremely complicated as VFS would direct you to Consulate directly who has clearly mentioned as their policy that Indians are allowed in Tibet as pilgrims only and in a group visa. So better don’t be honest here, be correct!!

So now you understand requirement 4, 6 and 7 would make your lives complicated, this mean you need a fictitious itinerary to start with and then support that with relevant documents. To write it simply, I prepared

1. Itinerary of 40 days covering Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Kunming, Xian etc. Itinerary of 40 days will make you eligible to get 60 days single entry visa which makes life little simple as otherwise for a long trip if you are delayed you are risking yourself to get into the tangle to visa extension. (normally they issue a 30 days single entry visa)

2. Then support it with hotel bookings, not a real problem as you can use many global booking engine to do this and then cancel it without any extra charge.

3. The real problem is air ticket, you need to either get a full fare air ticket which is fully refundable or you need to book something very cheap (may be like Air Asia) which you can throw away. All Chinese Airlines have minimum cancellation charges of 500 Yuan, (Approx 5500 INR per ticket) for discounted tickets, Air India has slightly lower cancellation fees. This you can’t escape and it’s better to consider your loss as part of visa fees.

Air Connectivity:
Following Airlines were the choice for you to get your real and fictitious tickets.

Chinese:

1. Air China – Connects Delhi – Beijing and Mumbai – Chengdu (Seasonally connects Bangalore to Chengdu too)

2. China Southern – Connects Delhi – Guangzhou

3. China Eastern – Connects Kolkata – Kunming

Indian:

1. Air India – Connects Delhi – Shanghai

2. Jet – Connects Delhi – Shanghai

3. Spice Jet – Connects Delhi – Guangzhou

You won’t get any direct connection to Xinjiang from India, rather you have to change flight somewhere in China and more eastern port of entry you choose, longer will be your flying time and cost to Xinjiang as it’s in extreme west, flight time is almost same as Coast to Coast flights of US
You might buy an air ticket to Lhasa via Kunming/ Guangzhou etc. when you book it with international leg but it’s not at all recommended because to board Lhasa flight from anywhere you need to produce original Tibet Permit which is extremely difficult to get before entering China as they don’t send your permit abroad. So discuss with your agent on how you can make it. Only international connection of Lhasa is from Kathmandu where again your boarding will be denied if you can’t produce Tibet Permit but that’s a separate story we will discuss when we talk about permits from Nepal.

Entering China (Tibet) from Nepal:

This is handled in a separate way through a treaty between China and Nepal. Even if you have valid Chinese visa in your passport, if you try to enter through Nepal, that’s have no value, it will be cancelled by Chinese Consulate in Kathmandu. Only Group visa for a minimum group size of 5 people are issued (which in 2012 was even stricter and all 5 were to be with same nationalities which was relaxed in 2013) but catch is it comes with your Tibet permit as from Nepal you have to enter into Tibet first to get into China. So if Tibet is closed for foreigners, you won’t get to enter through this route.

Pros:

1. This visa is completely handled by Kathmandu based travel agents, I have never heard someone applying of their own going to consulate, so you don’t have to go through all the paper works and other hassles as I described above.

2. Tibet Permit will be coming with it, a big plus.

Con:

1. It’s only valid for 15 days, so whatever you plan has to be done within 15 days and it’s non extendable anywhere in China.

2. It’s a group visa, so it’s just a separate paper and not stamped in your passport and one person if got sick in your team and need to leave, your whole team have to leave together, group visa mean you will enter and exit through same port at same time.

3. Depends on Tibet Closure, so shouldn’t plan other part of China with this special visa.

4. Consulate in Kathmandu only opens 3 days a week and you need to be present in Kathmandu keeping one working day in hand to allow agent to complete paperwork, consult your Kathmandu agent for your detail plan and arrival in Nepal.

Most importantly be careful as you are taking a big risk of not acclimatizing yourself by taking friendship highway from Kathmandu side. At Kathmandu you are at 1200 mtr, at Drum (China Immigration) you will be at 2250 mtr and then in another hour or so you will reach Nayalam which is at 3750 mtr and the height will never go below 3500 mtr after that, next stop Tingri or Pelbar will be at 4200 mtr.

So if you take this route, it’s always advisable to flying to Lhasa from Kathmandu (The best scenic flight, much better than so called mountain flight of Nepal where you will glide past Lhotse, Nuptse, Everest, Kanchanjungha, before crossing High Himalayas to Tibet but air ticket is quite costly and better you buy it through agent as you don’t know when you get your visa) and then drive out to Kathmandu through friendship highway after getting acclimatized in Lhasa which has best medical facility in whole TAR.

Sheep graze in backdrop of the Himalayas:

Pieku Tso Lake, on the way to Saga, if you go to Mansarovar from Nepal Crossing at Drum, you will see this beautiful alpine lake:

Pieku Tso:

The Toyota Land Cruiser, King of Off-roading, the most trusted and reliable mode of Transport in Tibet for decades:

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Recommended time of Travel

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

When you are spending so much financially and emotionally you should understand the best time to travel in the region. Actually there is no best time of travel that we know very well, few of us now have been to Ladakh probably in all 12 months of the year but still getting into Tibet so frequently is not easy, more so for Indians.

So let’s discuss first on Xinjiang:

Xinjiang is divided centrally by Tienshan Mountain. The Northern Xinjiang between Tienshan in south and Altai Mountains in North geographically called Jungar Basin which is mostly a desert and in northern side, Altai County is more of Siberian Tundra region. So From October to March it’s a long winter with mercury dropping down even to Minus 40 and it’s completely snowed out. All hotels remain closed during this time and unless you are eyeing for a specific Ski destination and using flight from Urumqi, Northern Xinjiang is out of bound in long winter. Southern Xinjiang which is between Tienshan range in North to Kunlun range in South, named as Tarim Basin, is mostly covered by Taklamakan Desert, very cold in winter with snow toppings on Taklamakan red sand makes it look very beautiful. Hotels in southern part usually opened during year long, though Kashgar, Hotan, Yarkhand, the main towns on silk road might be snow bound between December to February. Karakoram Highway is completely snow bound but kept operational by Chinese till Tashkurgan. The Western Highway 219 is anyway out of question which goes through Aksai Chin just because of terrific weather. Though trucks keep plying and Chinese keep this 5500 mtr road operational through out the year just for strategic reasons.

Spring time, April and May usually shoulder season and you get it in cheap but infamous for frequent Dust Storms, The Desert Dust Storms can be deadly to stop air traffic even for 72 hours and it sometimes take 2 weeks for the dust to settle down. Definitely it won’t be a pleasant experience to catch in Dust Storms in Xinjiang.

The best time to Travel is summer which is between June to August and usually lush green grassland of Yili (Kazak side) or Altai (Northern Side) are its best during this time with lots of Siberian Birds of different species. Weather is sunny with least rain and blue sky even in Southern side and all roads are open but of course this is time when everything is very costly.

Autumn is short, just in September for Northern and Sep and Oct for Southern Xinjiang show you tremendous fall colors and give still bearable temperature in North (We still got lowest 10 degree below freezing point) and roads are all open. But sometimes you will face dust storms in Fall too. But this is a shoulder season and if you are budget conscious and can give the green of grassland a miss (which is a huge miss) you can eye on this time.

Golden Rules:

1. Never travel in China in Chinese New Year (Usually in Feb) and Golden Holiday Week (First week of October) unless you want to make a complete mess of everything, starting from air ticket, to train ticket to hotel everything is costlier and still you might not get and you can’t imagine the rush of Chinese tourists during this time, who thinks Kolkata Durga Puja or Mumbai Suburban Trains are last words for crowd and rush, you will change your perception if you ever be in China during this time.

2. Xinjiang is avoidable in the month of Ramadan, this is a Muslim dominated region and you never know the threat perception of Chinese Govt, you might get caught in between and mess up your plan.

Tashkurgan Grassland – vast grassland gone till China – Pakistan Border for 125km:

Tashkurgan Stone Fort Entrance:

Tajik-China Border Immigration – Border is just 14km away but not yet opened for foreigners:

Karakoram Highway crossing the valley below Kunlun Range:

Reflection:

Kyrghiz Father and Kid:

Famous Uighur Knives dated back from the ages of Carpet and Silk, you love to have it but Chinese Govt doesn’t, it’s not even allowed to carry these knives in Check in Luggage:

Nice Kashgar traditional shop but even prettier shopkeeper :

Ruins of Kashgar Old City, Govt doesn’t give permission now to visit, we had to escape police to reach here, may be someone’s drawing room, so nicely painted wall, God knows how old these are:

Jiahoe Ruins, at Turpan again a 3rd Century Town’s Ruin:

Luilan Beauty – A mummy preserved in Uighur style (Different from Egyptian Mummy) dated back 1800 BC, almost 4000 years old – At Urumqi Museum

Let’s come to Tibet now:

Never plan Tibet between Feb and March though it’s the best to see most Tibetan Festivals, Spring colors and all in a low season during this time. The reason is this is the time when 2007 uprising took place and since then for these 2 months Tibet was closed for foreigners in every year. So better not to try it, let’s keep even January out of bound as sometimes Chinese Govt gives 48 hours notice to foreigners in Lhasa to leave Tibet, after so much plan and putting so much money you will never want that.

So now let’s think between April to December period.

For Western Tibet (Ngiri Region) best time is June to September as you will get hotels / guest houses open and weather at its best, though last few years I have been observing serious of Eastern Disturbances from South China Sea hit this region and cause substantial rain fall. (One such stream met with an Westerlies from Arabian sea, did the massacre in Uttrakhand, this summer, the other side of hill Tibet was battered too.

For Northern Tibet (Nag qu region), the grassland is at its best in June, July and August, from Sep the grass started turning brown and red. Rest of the time it’s very difficult to approach this part.

For Eastern Tibet (Nyingchi Region) it’s best to travel between Oct to Dec and April – May as these part receives highest rainfall in whole Tibet and during June-Sep its prone to landslide and road block. The weather is very similar to our North East, more close to Arunachal.

For Central and Southern Tibet (Lhasa, Shegatse and Shannan Prefecture) it’s anytime between April to December. Cost is lowest in Nov and Dec with weather slightly with you, you can enjoy even the clear view of Everest. April-May is shoulder season when you get some discount but between June to October it’s high season with everything costly. July and August usually is rainy season when Lhasa receives highest rainfall and Everest will be covered in cloud. So weather wise if you want best, May and October is the best bet for you.

Golden Rules:

1. Keep eyes closely on important Chinese events and don’t plan anything close to that even if it happens far from Tibet. During whole 2008, the year of Beijing Olympic they kept the Tibet shut, as I mentioned in some early post, it was closed during the Communist Party Congress in October 2012.

2. Don’t plan in Chinese New Year and October Golden Holiday as I mentioned earlier.

3. Don’t plan between Jan – Mar as Tibet usually gets closed for foreigners during this time.

4. Keep eyes on Tibet’s situation as anytime if there is some disturbance like Tibetan monks self immolation bid might lead to closure of Tibet, as you are applying visa one month before your journey date, keep yourself updated.

5. Just pray that things go well during your visit, Tibet is terribly uncertain.

Food and Accommodation

Food is cheap, in Xinjiang it should USD 5 per person per day and in Tibet would be 10 USD per person per day. Accommodation widely varied and catch is foreigners can only stay in few selective hotels in China and cheapest accommodations won’t fall in this categories. This is very strictly followed in China and so for accommodation you can’t get away very cheaply here. Travel Permits in contrary is not costly, many times absolutely free but need so much effort and ability to speak fluent Chinese, you have to depend on agencies and they would certainly charge you something.

Language

It is impossible to speak / understand Chinese so easily, not having any link to any of my known languages. I was depending on my drivers (English speaking) to manage the show but most who travels independently using public transport prefers to use some offline Chinese – English Translator to manage it. You can search it in Amazon. But don’t try to depend on Google Translator or something, China is famous for its National Firewall (almost as famous as Great Wall) which blocks Google, Facebook etc.

First Glimpse of Mighty Himalayan Range and first time in life, I am looking South to see these glorious ranges:

Himalayan Wall, that changed India’s History and Geography for its sheer presence, read so many times first time realized the protector wall of our North, mighty Himalayan ranges, an amazing experience:

Tibetan Landscape will cast a magical spell on you, see the far away small village, near one is Tingri, gateway to Everest North Base Camp and enjoy the amazing colors:

Can you see the little dark cone in middle, highest point in world, Mt. Everest North Face – My first sight of the dream:

How much colorful a landscape can be? Has God used all colors in His palettes to draw this canvas:

And here it is, North Face of Highest Point in Earth in its full glory: Watching Mt. Everest North Face gives you more clear view of the whole ridge than when you watch it from South, because of other high mountains in front it, Just left see the 4th Highest Peak of World, Mt. Lhotse – Another long cherished dream accomplished.

This is the highest part of Himalayan Ranges from left Mt Everest to right Cho-Oye, dream to see that with Tibetan Landscape fulfilled:

Road is going to Eternity as the Friendship highway turned south and started climbing high Himalayas:

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Travel Restrictions in Xinjiang and Tibet

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

This is an important part of any planning to this region, China is a very much controlled state and information is few and far, also getting latest yet correct information is quite a big challenge even for big travel agents. So whatever I am writing here is current regulation as on Sep/Oct 2013 which might get changed anytime (during my preparations in this year itself rules change several times), take an idea but do your own research before taking this trip. Best way is to connect as many as local travel agents (who can speak at least some English) and then use their network to get more details about that, it is time taking and plan your travel accordingly.

Let’s first see Xinjiang:

A state with 8 international borders must have complex restrictions, refer to be the same photograph again, and see the red marked areas with number marked (that I am going to refer below) where you need some kind of permission / fulfill some formalities before you start. Most of the land border crossing is only operational during week days and in certain hours and you need to keep in mind local time too (Kazak and China is having 3 hours time difference)

1.Takashiken (China) / Bulgan (Mongolia) Border Crossing – Since 2011, this border is opened for 3rd country tourists to cross over, easier logistically if you cross from China to Mongolia, no visa on arrival, you must have respective country’s visa before you are allowed to border post, public transport available in China side to reach there. Vehicle crossing permitted with appropriate regulations to be followed in both end.

2. Habahe County / Baihaba Region : They say it’s one of the most wonderful fall colors you can witness in this region with best mountain scenery of Altai but it’s fenced border with Kazakhstan and completely closed for foreigners. There is no formal border crossing here.

3. Maikapchagai (Kazak)-Jeminay (China) – This Kazakh border is open for 3rd country tourists to cross over but no vehicle crossing permitted.

4. Dostyk/Druzhba (Kazak) – Alashankou (China): – Open for 3rd country and this is the rail road crossing as you might be aware now trains connect Urumqi to Almaty, if you take train expect long delay here (like trans-mongolian rail) as china and Soviet railroads use different gauges, and the wheels of the train need to be changed.

5. Khorgas – The largest and busiest border crossing between China and Kazakh, open for 3rd countries, neither of the above does allow vehicle crossing as far as I understood, most Europeans thus choose to cross to China from Kyrghiz specially those in a driving trip.
For all of 3, 4 , 5 you will be allowed close to immigration town even if you don’t have a visa of Kazakh in your passport but of course there is no chance of cross the border without visa, no visa on arrival.

6. Torugart Pass between China and Kyrghiz – Restricted crossing but opened for foreigners and need to take special transport from Kyrghiz Immigration to Chinese immigration or vice versa and in both side you need prearranged transport with adequate proof. I heard this crossing is costly takes around 550 USD. Vehicle crossing possible with usual Chinese Vehicle crossing restrictions. Presently road is good in Chinese side.

7. Irkeshtam Pass between China and Kyrghiz – Cheaper crossing as you can use public transport to border to cross unlike Torugart. Opened for foreigners, Chinese side 250km road is in very bad shape, supposed to be rebuilt and ready by 2015. Vehicle crossing is allowed with usual restrictions.

8. Qolma Pass Crossing between China and Tajikistan – Not opened for Third Countries (only opened for Tajik and Chinese Nationals) but if opened it will be one of the easiest route to to Europe – Asia Drive with minimum number of border crossing.

9. Wakhan Corridor between Afghanistan and China – At historic Wakjhir Pass (4900 mtr) this is difficult pass and Marco Polo crossed China through this, this is completely closed border, though China has finished a metallic road up to the border, in Afghanistan side there is no infrastructure as of now for next 100km. During battle with Taliban, NATO wanted to use this route for their supply lines as this area is relatively free of the strong hold of Taliban but Chine declined it showing internal security concern. This is sharpest official change of clock of 3.5 hours between any land border in world.

10. Kunjerab Pass between Pakistan (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and China : Highest paved border crossing in world, at 4700 mtr, this pass is closed between 30th Nov to 1st May every year due to snow. When opened, due to inhospitable terrain, the actual immigration happens 130km away at Tashkurgan in China and 75km away at Sost in Pakistan. You need to board the bus between Kashgar to Sost / Gilgit to cross this border as vehicle crossing is not allowed. With a special pass arranged from Kashgar, foreigners without Pakistan Visa can travel up to 2km of actual border gate (shown in the picture I posted earlier)

11. No International Border (Actually the border with India) but more sensitive to China than any of these international border as Western Highway 219 crosses Aksai Chin which is claimed by both India and China. World’s highest and remotest road is strictly barred for foreigners without escorted guide, driver in a rented land cruiser. Some foreigners get special permit to drive through this epic road which became now much more difficult after 2008 Tibet uprising and for Indians this road from Mazar (150km from Karghilik from where K2 North Base Camp Trek starts) to Rutog is completely prohibited. Police even keep watching every tourist staying night in Karghilik to watch is someone tries to sneak into this road by hitch hiking in a truck.

12. Centrally Located Narat – Bayanbulak Grassland region – No apparent reason why this is protected but unofficial sources said this is sensitive for Military installation and permits are required to be obtained from CIT (China International Travel, Xinjiang) for any foreigner to stay night in this region. This is year I heard this is little relaxed but even last year people were simply thrown out of the town in middle of night during police checking in the hotels when found without permit.

13. The actual remote off roading paradise between Xinjiang and Tibet via Qinghai, Highway 219 is historical and deadliest paved highway but if you want sheer 4X4 adventure this is the road for you that starts from Charkilik and goes till Golmud and then connects Lhasa highway, but almost impossible for foreigners to access as you need a lot of permission and in many places enroute you won’t get a place where foreigners are authorized to stay, so you have to spend your night under the sky literally.

Kazakh man with his pet – at Narat :

Yarkhand Tomb:

That’s the border gate between China and Pakistan, at Kunjerab Pass – A long born dream Accomplished

Tajik Mother and Kid:

Now let’s come to Tibet:

See the below pic, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is having 7 administrative prefectures:

1.Lhasa – You need Chinese Visa and separate Tibet Permit for which rule changes frequently.

2. Shigatse – Outside Lhasa, in any prefecture you need Chinese Visa, Tibet Permit and on top of that Alien Permit (Issued by PSB, Public Security Bureau). Everest North Base camp comes in this prefecture and you need a separate and costly permit to go there.

3. Shannan – Same as Shigatse

4. Nyingchi Prefecture – Completely different, called Tibet’s Switzerland it’s lush green and resembles close to Arunachal and this have a long disputed border with Arunachal. Need Army Permit, Sensitive Border Permit and Foreign Affairs Permit on top of what you need for Shigatse and Shannan. The famous Tsangpo Gorge considered as world’s highest waterfall (where Tsanpo River drops several meters before being Siang in Arunachal and Brahmaputra in Indian Plains) is still a big mystery for many is located here. Not at all easy to get into Tsangpo gorge zone from permit perspective. For Indians it’s almost impossible to get access deep into this prefecture.

5. N’giri Prefecture – This is Western Tibet, landscape wise more close to Ladakh and Changthang Plateau in this part is equally attractive as we see a small glimpse in Indian side, more famous for Mt Kailash and Mansarovar. For foreigners permit requirements are same as Nyingchi Prefecture. But for Indians, it’s completely restricted and out of bound unless you come as pilgrim to visit Mansarovar and Mt. Kailash. India Pilgrims are offered separate kind of permits and handled through a body called CIPSC (China India Pilgrims Service Center). Only 3 Travel agents in whole Tibet are eligible to apply Pilgrim permits for Indians in Ngiri through CIPSC. All the Nepal based operators are connected through them only and any India based agent is mostly connected through one of those Nepal based agents. So with different layers of agents Manas – Kailash travel becomes so costly but it’s not cheap either if you directly approach CIPSC, they charge permit cost per group and hence usually agents take bigger groups (sometimes unmanageable though) to this Yatras. CIPSC is have jurisdiction from Lhasa to Ali and hence they won’t arrange your trip, if you want to come from Kashgar and also they won’t be able to arrange other permits like EBC, even though you find it logical to visit EBC on the way to Manas/Kailash. If you approach any Lhasa based agent, 95% of cases they will express their helplessness when you tell you want to visit Ngiri and holds an Indian passport.

6. Nagqu Prefecture – The vast grassland in North, best way to see them to take the train, road is very limited and most of the part of this prefecture is closed for foreigners.

7. Chamdo Prefecture – Since the uprising of 2008, this area became most politically sensitive and closed for foreigners since then, with Chamdo’s closure, any overland travel to Tibet from Sichuan (Chengdu) or Yunan (Kunming) are now closed for foreigners, no one knows if they will reopen again.

So before any planning, keep your thumb rules ready, Xinjiang is possible with some tweaking in visa application, Tibet is your luck and Ngiri and Nyingchi is almost impossible unless you are extremely lucky. (As I wrote N’giri visit for Indians mean basically Manas – Kailash and a defined route but freely roaming in N’giri and explore this most exciting prefecture is still a dream for Indians)

Old Lhasa Town :

The amazing Fall colors around Lhasa:

Is there any dog which is bigger than this Tibetan Mastiff? I don’t know, but paying 10CNY (Rs 110) you can take a snap with this one:

Grazing Yaks are one of the typical landscape of Tibet:

Maiterya Buddha at Tashilunpa Monastery, Shigatse:

Landscape beacons:

The Landscape around Friendship Highway will amaze you:

Reflections are abundant :

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Route Overview

July 4, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Well, before going to detail planning, let me try to give an idea of the route map, it was so long a trip and we touched upon so many places, you might feel lost unless I show it in a map. It’s actually too big to be shown in a map, still trying with 3 snaps, first one on whole route map at a glance and next two are detail maps of Xinjiang and Tibet. This is the best Xinjiang map I ever seen in a travel agent’s office and took a snap of it, Tibet map I found in net, can’t recall from which site I downloaded it. But both are pretty accurate.

Overview of the route:

We flown from Kolkata to Kunming (which is around 2 hours flying) before changing flight there to Urumqi (Pronounce most q as ‘ch’ there, so it’s more like Urumchi), which is capital of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), the largest province of China, totaling 1/6th of whole China’s land mass. The flight between Kunming to Urumqi takes 5 hours (Close to East-West Coast Flying time of US). The flight route was bypassing Tibet Plateau, rather going north to fly between Chengdu and Chongging and then go up to Langzhou in North and then taking a West turn to cross the Gobi desert just south of Mongolia – China Border to reach finally Urumqi.

The Road journey starts from Urumqi.

Day 1 – Kolkata – Kunming – Urumqi (Flight)
By Road:
Day 2 – Urumqi – Burqin (Pronounce as Burzin), our one of the longest drive 750km drive through Jungaar Basin (A part of Gobi Desert) to Northern Altai Region, Burqin is gateway of Altai Prefecture. We saw multi colored Bay on the way. (A-B)
Day 3 – Short drive of 150km from Burqin to Jiadengyu which is gateway of Kanas Nature Park and explore the park, this is extremely close to border of Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan with China and the climate is just like Southern Siberian Tundra, in Sep, we were experiencing -15 degree C at night here. (B-C)
Day 4 – Full day explore the Kanas Park
Day 5 – Jiadengyu – Back to Burqin – Karamay, a drive of 400 km. Karamay is the oil city of China, you can see natural oil spring here. This is the place where you see the amazing landscapes created by Air Erosion called Ghost City (Chinese are very imaginative and they name almost everything to Ghost or Dragon, you will find hundreds of Ghost Cities and Dragon Bays in China) (C-B-D)
Day 6 – Karamay – Sayram Lake – 300km drive (D-E)
Day 7 – Sayram Lake – Nalati Grassland – 400km drive (E-F)
Day 8 – Nalati – Kuqa (Pronounce Kucha) – 500km drive (F-G)
Day 9- Kuqa Around
Day 10 – Kuqa – Niya (Minfeng) – 750km, crossing World’s longest Desert Highway to South Silk Route’s first Oasis (G-H)
Day 11- Niya – Hotan – 200km (Hotan is somewhere between H and I, not showing here)
Day 12 – Hotan – Kashgar – 550km (To Point I)
Day 13 – Kashgar – Karakul Lake / Tashkurgan on Karakoram Highway (Somewhere between I and J) – 300km
Day 14 – Tashkurgan – Kunjerab Pass till border of Pakistan and back to Tashkurgan on Karakoram Highway – 250km (Kunjerab Pass is Point J)
Day 15- Tashkurgan – Kashgar Back – 300km
Day 16- Kashgar Around
Day 17 – Fly Back to Urumqi (I to A)
Day 18 – Drive from Urumqi to Turpan (A to K) and back to Urumqi – Total drive of 450km
Day 19 – Fly from Urumqi to Xining (A to L)
Start of Tibet Leg
Day 20 – From Xining (L) catch the Mountain Train to Lhasa (O) via Golmud (M) and Nag qu (N), Total journey of 2000km
Day 21 – Reach Lhasa (N)
Day 22 – Explore Lhasa
Day 23 – Lhasa – Nam Tso – Lhasa (We skipped this later as my daughter was not well, instead we explore Lhasa more)
Day 24 – Lhasa – Shegatse (Taking the Friendship Highway) Drive of 350km
Day 25 – Shegatse – Shegar, 300km Drive
Day 26 – Shegar – Everest North Base Camp at Rongbuk (Drive of 100km) (We couldn’t finally made it because of super cyclone Philine, which blocked road for more than 72 hours)
Day 27 – Rongbuk – Drum (Jhangmu) 300 km drive
Day 28 – Drum clear Chinese Immigration and proceed to Kathmandu (Nepal) (P) Drive of 130km
Day 29 – Kathmandu – Kolkata Flight back home

Total overland distance traveled around 10000km

Xinjiang Map (See the Blue Lines and above description to understand the route.) :

Tibet Map (See the Blue Lines and above description to understand the route.):

Overland travel from Kashgar to Lhasa, which would offer an alternative to backtracking to Golmud:

This epic highway 219 that starts from Karghilik (Yecheng in Chinese), a town between Yarkhand and Hotan, crosses more than ten 5000 meters pass with average altitude of 4000 meters is considered as deadliest and loneliest highway in planet earth. The highway ends at Lhatse when it meets with Highway 315 between Shanghai and Kathmandu via Lhasa more often known as Friendship Highway.
The Highway 219 is now completely paved and the road work was completed just in 2012 and after forking it from Yecheng, it goes up to cross Kunlun and part of Karakoram ranges through Mazar (From where the Mt. K2 North Base Camp Trek starts, you might be knowing the K2 North side climb starts from Xinjiang, China) and Dongluitan (which is just a trucker stop) and then crosses Aksai Chin which is a flat salt basin (which is considered disputed between India and China and led to 1962 war when India discovered about Chinese built up highway 219 through this in 1960-61 period) to reach Tibet and first Tibetan town Dorma is again a trucker’s stop. Then it crosses through amazing Pangong Lake at Rutog before entering the capital of Ngari prefecture of Tibet at Ali (Named as Senge Kabab in Tibetan). The road goes further down south and then turned East and passes through Mt. Kailash and Mansarovar region which is considered holiest place in Hindu and Buddhist religion. After Mansarovar the road goes further 450km east to reach last prominent town of Ngari, named Saga and from here the road is forked in 3 different direction. The right turn towards south will take you to Zhangmu, Tibet-Nepal border and further to Kathmandu. The Left will take you to remote Changthang in North crossing Tsochen and further crossing Gertse and Geggye to meet in Ali again. The main road goes further East and meet Highway 315 in Lhatse and ends there.

My original travel plan was , after Kahsgar, I was about to take Yecheng – Dongluitan – Dorma – Rutog – Ali – Tsada – Darchen – Saga – (fork right) – Zhangmu – Kathmandu and Lhasa was never in my plan in this trip.

The major problem of taking this route from Kashgar to Lhasa direction was

1. The altitude jump between Yecheng (1200 meter) to Dongluitan (5200 meter) is proved to be fatal in one night as there is no place to stay in between. AMS can be triggered severely and in that remote region can be fatal.

2. Getting all necessary permits for Tibet is a big ask to arrange from Kashgar end and you need more logistics support of getting all done in Lhasa and then couriered to you in Kashgar, which is costly and prone to chance factor. Of course the cost will be high.
To go through this road one need
a. Tibet Permit
b. Alien Permit
c. Sensitive border permit
d. Army Permit
e. Permit from Foreign Affairs Ministry

3. Foreigners are not allowed to use local transport in Tibet and you need to hire private transport and guide for Tibet. For this leg, it’s extremely difficult to get this from Kashgar end and most likely you need to hire a Lhasa based agency for this logistics support and the cost is extremely high.
It’s easier to arrange this trip from reverse direction if you start from Lhasa and end up in Kashgar but ready to pay huge premium for this journey if you take it from Lhasa. Usually many foreign tourist adopt a trick of hitchhiking the stretch between Yecheng and Ali in some trucks and then when caught in Ali without permit, they pay the fine and the Chinese send them to Kathmandu border or towards Lhasa. That’s easiest way to do this section but if you are unlucky you may be deported back to Yecheng again. With family this was not possible for me and also now a days police monitors every truck and catch anyone who tries to sneak in without permit.

Now for Indians this stretch between Yecheng to Ali (read crossing Aksai Chin) is absolutely off limit. I got 4 permits and spoke to their external affairs ministry and they said I could take the rest of the trip except between Yecheng and Ali overland. My only option then was to take a flight from Kashgar to Ali which was very overpriced and only a weekly connection and the biggest risk was I needed to get all permits in place to board the flight. Also that way I couldn’t take the overland between Kashgar to Kathmandu as planned, so I finally dropped it.
To cut long story short, if you are in Non-Indian Passport and take this trip from Lhasa to Kashgar direction and ready to spend a fortune, you can experience this amazing road.

Now some snaps.

This Carpet needed 5 crafted women worked for 4 months:

One young Uighur Carpet Maker, they retain it generation wise:

Natures own painting:

Muztag Ata – 7750 mtr high peak in Kunlun range in the backdrop of Karakul Lake with Kyrghiz Yurts, you will love to stay:

Driving on famous Karakoram Highway, 1500km engineering marvel connecting Kashgar in China to Islamabad in Pakistan across high Pamir and Karakoram Range

A small town on the way:

A truck in rugged terrain:

Lhasa River:

Potala Palace – Residence of Dalai Lama until mid of last Century when 14th Dalai Lama Fled to India after Chinese Aggression : Another dream accomplished

Authentic Tibetan debates on Buddhism still taken place in Sera Monastery of course under supervision and closely guarded:

Unintentionally I took this snap, trying to take street photo, see the anxious Tibetan faces, anxiety in all corner, note the background, those black dressed are police and that’s one of the many X Ray Scanning machines in most part of old Lhasa. Every 100 mtr your hand bag will be scanned and you will be searched. Normally photography is strictly prohibited in these searching places and they can snatch your camera if they find you shoot this. Tibet is now like a closed cage, worries are evident even in these young faces.

This cutie has played a long hide and seek game with me before I could catch a snap:

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Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet–Prologue

July 4, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

We never thought we would go for a trip out of India so soon when India has so many things to offer but destiny had something else written for us.

With reading and more reading, I found a place with amazing diversities, the place where it’s called roof of the world, Pamir Plateau and north face of world’s second highest point Mt K2 coexists with Turpan Depression, second lowest place in earth (After Dead Sea, Jordan) at -154 mtr below sea level, the four out of five fingers of Pamir spread over the entire region, starting from Altai at North, Tienshan in middle and Kunlun and Karakoram at South, a paradise for anyone who loves mountains. The place has the origin of only river in Asia that flows Northwards to meet North Sea and rest of all the snow melt waters of all these big mountains fades away in the world’s fiercest deserts, yes Taklamakan and Gobi. The place hosts 13 different ethic minority groups starts from Mongols, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Tuwa, Tajikh etc. apart from Uyghur’s who are more like European faces than typical Chinese and of course Hun Chinese. The otherwise deserted land produces China’s best fruits like grapes, Melon, Pomegranate, apples. The area produces 35% of Petroleum products of whole of China and we saw some natural oil springs just like water springs in Northern side (and that’s one of the major points of interest of China in this piece of land).Possibly only province / state in world which has almost 5000km of international boundaries with 8 countries named Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrghizstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Now when I started reading about its history it was even more amazing, the history dated back 3000 years from 2000 BCE when first trade established between Rome through Turkey, Iran to China through this route famously known as Silk Route. The then Persian Empire in helm of power, this land and its natives have a root with that Persian Blood saw many bloodsheds starting from inter group conflicts to its switching loyalties to two of biggest empires of history (Russia and England) and finally settled to be part of modern days People Republic of China in mid of last century. In the early 19th century, the region experienced conflicts between 2 biggies Russia and England to expand their imperialism, Kashgar was the center of ‘big game’ as history fondly calls it and many British officers starting from Thomas Montgomery to Francis Younghusband, started taking keen interest in these region to keep buffer states ruled by locals to distance Russia in coming to rich Indian plains. This was the time when they employed native Indians, disguised as Buddhist Pilgrims to survey these most treacherous region of earth starting from Pamir to Tibet and it was time when world came to know highest points on earth lies in this region as Himalayan peaks were measured for their heights and they tamed all other mountains, this resulted into creation of famous McMahon line that still runs as demarcation of India and China with lots of disputes.

So I found a place which was so much discussed in my school days history and geography text books and that triggered my childhood dream to visit this place and walk on the same path Marco Polo and Huen Tsang followed. Not sure how and when I slowly started thinking that I must visit this place, a dream slept for quarter of a century was rekindled.

Initial plan was traveling the state of Xinjiang and following the ancient trade route that used to get diverted from Yarkhand, start elevating to cross Kunlun and Karakoram Pass to enter the Daulat Beg Oldie area of Northern Ladakh and then follow Saser La to Panamik and Nubra Valley and finally reaching Leh by crossing Khardung La, the road continues to Kashmir Valley via Zojila and finally hit Punjab Plains. We thought of taking western highway regarded as deadliest and loneliest road in earth to cross over Aksai Chin to Tibet and then coming out through Kathmandu. The plan was in place until June when recent Sino Indian conflict reached it peak and I got taste of my first sweet Chinese diplomacy. We would cover in depth later but just to let you know to cover this region you need 5 permits on top of Chinese Visa and one of them was foreign affairs permit for which I spoke to the foreign affairs ministry of China and what I finally got was a raw deal (expected for an Indian). I was given few conditions which was not just way too costly but impossible and conflicting my main objective of driving through this region. More of that later but finally I learnt hard way Chinese usually neither say nor like to hear the truth, they prefer what is correct (you know that’s again a relative word), so you should understand and follow what is correct in Chinese eyes and I modified my trip and to compensate my broken dream planned to include the Tibet by riding the famous mountain trains from Xining to Lhasa and following friendship highway to Kathmandu to end the ambitious trip.

The plan was born but execution was a real challenge as I understood I have chosen two largest provinces of China (XUAR – Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and TAR – Tibet Autonomous Region) and not only that, the word ‘Autonomous’ region means something wrong in Chinese language and actually I chose two major uncomfortable areas of Chinese mainland where they want least international focus, least attention for number of reasons. For those who might be new to these regions, an Uighur needs to spend 5 times more time and money to get a Chinese Passport than a Hun Chinese and for Tibetans it’s grimmer, the don’t ever get a Chinese Passport. So obviously if you write in your visa application that you would like to visit Xinjiang and Tibet, Chinese would take the application with 3750 INR and thankfully send you a polite note declining the visa (but they would mention you can apply again as if this is just an isolated case and if you apply, you would loose again your application money, nothing else would happen). As I mentioned earlier play the Chinese game in Chinese way, you need to be correct but not honest with them, that’s the bottom line for anyone who want to travel this part of China.

In home front Rupee touched all time low of 69 against USD and Chinese Yuan reached all time high of 6.1 against USD, double edged sword actually. I booked major international tickets long back, so that was a relief but again I can’t book domestic tickets so easily, the name of the country was China, they allow you apply Visa one month before your departure date and so we had to wait to see how INR falling sharply against dollar, then there were hassles of getting lots of permits specially in Tibet, then it was a challenge of traveling inside China as you can’t book train tickets without knowing Chinese and having a Chinese Credit Card, you can’t book bus tickets without going to bus stand just 2 days before journey, you can’t be sure the hotels you might book would really accept foreigners are not (Very selective hotels specially out of big cities like Beijing / Shanghai / Kunming / Guangzhou / Chengdu etc accepts foreigners and they need a compulsory registration of foreigners to Public Security Bureau (PSB) whenever you move from one town to other. So challenges are countless and we are just two adults and one child, determined to go to Chinese hinterland, see the China what few Chinese even have seen in their life.

We started our ambitious trip on 21st Sep early Morning and back on 19th October making it a month long trip, let’s see few highlights first before going to more texts to give you an idea if it was really rewarding taking so much pains to travel this part of world.

Danxia Landform inside Gobi Desert – Painting by Nature herself: (Anyone finding any similar scene in the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”):