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 0, 1 and 2

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by Kaushik

Day 0

As we had the flight around 12.30 past midnight of 21st Sep, we actually left home on 20th evening. I sent the snaps of my luggage to all the drivers with whom I planned to travel just to check if that could fit comfortably in the car. We were sure about the size and weight restrictions of flights but not too sure about the train and also if these could fit in the cars. China Eastern had almost no airport presence in Kolkata, we were served from Air India counter and also got the luggage tags and more surprisingly the boarding pass printed on Air India boarding pass. I never had this experience of flying in an airline with boarding pass printed on some other airlines. To my surprise the flight was full and full of Chinese (or may be South East Asian Faces) and though Kolkata is linked with Bangkok, KL and Singapore on regular basis, I think this fight between Kolkata – Kunming maintains a good utilization in regular basis and that’s why they now run it daily. The first shock started from announcement itself as initially I didn’t even understand that flight announcements were being done in English too, never experienced such an accent of English before in my life. Gradually we habituated with that Chinese English which needed strong composition power of your brain to make it meaningful. The moment after boarding the flight, we started feeling we entered into China, the flight was full with Chinese, Announcements primarily in Chinese, Even the LCD displays are in Chinese, felt like in a domestic flight of China, hardly could imagine we were still in an international flight.
The flight path was pretty straight and it just crossed Bangladesh, flew over Assam (Dibrugarh) and cross Northern part of Myanmar to enter China, scheduled flight time was 2 hours 10 mins (same as Kolkata – Delhi) but it reached Kunming in 1 hour 50 mins. China being even wider than US, maintains just one time zone where as US maintains 4. The interesting part is China’s official time follows Beijing time which is located in eastern most part of this big country and all airlines, train, bus runs according to Beijing time. Be watchful when you buy a morning flight ticket specially in Western China, inevitably you have to fly before sun rise and getting into airport would be difficult just because in western side, sun rises at least 2.5 hours after Beijing. This is surprising like many other Chinese customs to us but in most cases you won’t get any proper logical answer to many of these strange rules, my guess it’s a Chinese style of maintaining national integrity and make everyone in a culturally and ethnically diverse country aware that whole China follows what Beijing does. Though debatable, still good in one way when we see so many newsprints wasted in India to create new states almost regularly. Anyway we reached Kunming around 3.00 am in India time which was 5.30 Beijing time, China is 2.5 hours ahead of India. That was actually the last day of Mid Autumn Festival, the airport was quite crowded, Kunming is definitely smaller than Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou still having three times size of Delhi T3. China’s growth is surprising specially the way it improved the infrastructure, we traveled 10000km overland in two most backward states of China, yet never seen any asphalt road, all are just made of Concrete, even if it runs 5000 mtr above sea level or through a wetland or desert. Even 3rd / 4th tier towns have 3 levels of ring roads and more than a dozen of flyovers and underpasses. Urbanization is in its extreme and sometimes by ruining the culture and history. Again not sure why it is so and no body could give you any satisfactory answer but my guess is, China really doesn’t have much interest in their rich cultural past, they want to show an ultra modern face of China to the world and might believe their history starts after the communists taken over in middle of last century.

Day 1

One good thing about Kunming Airport is, it’s all in one building, you don’t have to rush from one terminal to other to catch your connections. We approached to Immigration where they didn’t allow us to accompany our daughter, not only for us, for all young kids, the rule was same, he/she has to face the immigration officer alone and understand his / her out of the world English pronunciation, had to answer a few questions like where we would go, why we have come like this and then some more which the kid won’t understand and finally if they wish, they would stamp the passport, a torture in one word! We discussed and decided we won’t tell anything about Xinjiang / Tibet in immigration unless we were forced in such situation, so kid was prepared to answer correctly what was expected from her and we were not asked much, our passports were stamped, we collected our luggage and then realized no body around us even know that there are few more language exists in planet Earth apart from Chinese. Our only hope was the display boards those were displaying alternatively in English and Chinese. We somehow reached Domestic areas but then didn’t find anywhere any board where our flight number was displayed. We still had enough time almost 3 hours, so just relaxed, tried to find drinking water, only hope was again the signs, now we found the water but it was boiling, everyone else sipping it like a cup of coffee, we tried hard to find something we are aware of as normal water (even cold would do) but didn’t find any. So we also tried the same, sipping the hot water, good it killed some time too. But then we needed to check in to our domestic connection to Urumqi but no display board showing which counter to proceed for check in for our flight and no check in counter had any display board. We started asking the China Eastern Staff, she looked carefully to our ticket print out for few mins and then showed us some counter in other side, we gone there but then I realized she didn’t see the back page where the domestic flight detail was printed, so either she didn’t read or she couldn’t read, we asked someone else, again a blank expression after looking at the ticket, gone to a third person, she gave us an expression close to laughing Buddha, now we started feeling the heat, I started asking in English rather than showing the print out, asking in loud voice so even if someone out of the airport (who knew English) could hear me. Now someone directed me to another person, seems to be the best in English, as usual she couldn’t understand much what I asked, I didn’t understand anything she was trying to explain, but she at least asked me to go to counter 1, yes at last got a counter number, now their the lady never heard the airport named Urumqi (Urumchi), she said no such airport is there in China, I tried my best to make her understand it’s there and China Eastern issued me a ticket for that, tried with Airport Code URC too but still no result, then I tried with the province name Xinjiang (Shinjiang) and got first sign of some success, she was surprised that some foreigners coming to Kunming and instead of going to China, trying to go to Xinjiang, she smiled and asked me “you wanna go to Wulumuchi right?” Oh God, I learnt in hard way Urumqi is actually Wulumuchi in China and then even if it’s not, I was desperate to get out of Kunming, so I said yes by nodding my head fast. She took my bags for check in and asked me to go to security. Then I first understood check in process in China is to some extent different, you can check in using any counter of the specific airlines and luggage scan for check in bags happen after issuing the boarding pass. This is in general an efficient process than scanning your luggage separately but issue is if something they find objectionable you might need to come back to check in / luggage handling area from the secured area which is another hassles, I had to go through that once and while doing so I almost lost my passport but that was another story, will write about that later. We crossed the security, inside bought a 500 ml mineral water bottle in 14 CNY, costliest water I ever drank but no other option if you don’t want to drink boiling water.
We boarded the flight for Urumqi and fortunately it departed at right time, it had a half an hour stop at Jiaquan but all had to get down from flight, again didn’t understand much why so, (It actually takes more time to get down, collect temporary transit pass and then again come back to flight, as a whole its more than the scheduled stoppage time) but when back we found they cleaned up the flight and even took the snacks we left unfinished. The flight goes to North from Kunming, cross between Chengdu and Chongging and fly North till Lanzhou before it turn left and cross Gobi Desert by the side of China – Mongolia border through the Northern side of Kunlun Mountains and finally reach Urumqi. We reached almost on time and Urumqi seems to be a relatively new city, around 300 years old (Yes its new comparing to historical cities of Hotan, Kashgar or Turpan all of which would exist even in 2000 BC).

I arranged two different drivers one for Northern and other for Southern Xinjiang mainly because it’s such a big province, it’s better to travel with someone who knows the area well, otherwise it’s like hiring a driver from Ladakh and travel to Madhya Pradesh with him. To do that I had to rework in my plan as I need to choose a place where first person would drop me and second person would pick me up without much of additional driving. The person whom I hired for my Northern Xinjiang trip was an Uighur in his mid 30, very nice person, speak excellent English and most importantly have guide license that means I could save a lot as in some places for foreigners, a guide is must. His name was Ablajan and he was right there in Airport with his Nissan Bluebird to pick me up. He just came from another long trip with couple of German tourists who were doing there China to Italy trip overland and he just transferred them to Kyrghiz border. I must say he is a very nice host, entirely professional and clearly told me he never took any Chinese Tourists even if they are ABC (American Born Chinese), most of his tourists are Europeans, he never handled Indians but knew about Gandhi/Neheru and the soured Sino-Indian relationship across Tibet/Ladakh border. Anyway from first day I felt not everything is right between Uyghur’s and Chinese, Ablajan took me to a Uighur hotel (actually I never been to any Chinese hotel in my entire trip except one or two places where there was no option). We picked up lot of dry fruits, cakes, cookies and most importantly few Nans (Bigger version of our Roti) and quickly collected local SIM Card and most importantly exchanged dollars to CNY from black market as there were lot of people from Kazakh/Kyrghiz/Tajik who run this money market in this part of China, much hassle free than spending your 4/5 hours of prime time in morning and rate wise even slightly better than what Bank offers. Ablajan made all these super smooth and we completed all these in an hour or so. Ablajan also gave his Wi-Fi hotspot which was of immense help during the first week of travel as long as I was with him. This he bought specially for his clients as most want a hotel with Wi-Fi where as in China even if it has Wi-Fi, it’s not easy to connect and speed is not up to the mark always. Now with phone and data connection, having local currency and some foods for next day’s long journey we were ready for dinner, again it was Ablajan who saved the day for us, with lots of effort we found some rice and chicken to fill our stomach without hurting our test buds a lot. Now it was the time for bed for first day of our trip. Tomorrow we would drive for 750km, one of the longest drives in our whole trip.

At Kunming Airport:

About to Fly out from Kunming to Urumqi – A long Five and Half Hours of Flight:

At last landed at Urumqi Airport:

Day2

We got up early, Ablajan was very disciplined person and punctual, he told us on first day we would go by Beijing time and by 9.00 in morning we would be checking out and in lobby, the problem in Xinjiang is, local Uyghur’s actually set their clock as per unofficial Xinjiang time, they don’t follow Beijing time, so once you are in an Uighur hotel, 9.00 am means 7.00am so that’s the earliest when you can expect breakfast. So that’s the earliest time we can set for us. We took quick breakfast with the help of breads and some noodles and by 9.30 we were off.
The morning was awesome, we were greeted by brilliant weather, heard from Ablajan, last day was cloudy and raining there, from hotel room we could see the first rays of Sun touching the Tienshan Mountain ranges, actually Urumqi lies just in Northern side of Tienshan (Heavenly Mountains) and receives lot of rainfall and snow from moistures brought in from Siberia/Altai region, but just south of Tienshan till Kunlun, it’s absolutely desert, the great Taklamakan and the area receives very less rainfall. Urumqi is strategically located for ancient migration from Tarim basin oasis in south to grassland of the nomadic tribes in north crossing the Jungar Basin. However Urumqi is considered as a recent settlement with history goes past maximum 200 years and didn’t play any role in early trade route which passed through south east of town. Now its been a modern Chinese city with tall buildings and lots of flyovers and heavy traffics even on a Sunday morning. We were surprised to see the traffic at 9.30am (which is 7.30am local time) in a Sunday morning in Urumqi.

If you see the map below you would easily understand that we are trying to reach from Tienshan mountain range to Altai mountain ranges in North during this day

The route as I mentioned was long and there are two main highways of Northern Xinjiang meet at Beitun, Highway 216 going through eastern side and Highway 217 going through western side of the big centrally located Gurbantunggut Desert which is connected to Gobi in Eastern part towards Mongolia. We planned to go through 216 as we wanted to see Multi Colored Bay, a fascinating danxia landform of Jurassic age with many astonishing colors and specially in morning and evening it’s certainly a photographer’s delight. But the location is odd for staying a night to enjoy the sunset or sunrise as there is no place to stay nearby, you need to camp yourselves. Still we decided to have a look at this place but paid hefty price of taking highway 216. It’s basically passes through the coal rich region of Xinjiang and movement of coal trucks are too heavy to make it not so pleasurable driving experience. We stuck in a traffic jam here and lost 2 hours which was critical for such a long journey. Initially the landscape was fascinating as you will have Tienshan ranges in your right but slowly when it enters the desert, it becomes little boring. Add to the worry, out of 750km road, at least 100km roads are being re-laid and traffic were diverted through an off road which further slowed down the journey. We didn’t understand why Chinese people couldn’t repair every 5/10km of short stretch instead of closing 30/40km at a stretch and made it painful diversions for the motorists. The lack of information is another big problem, you would hardly know which roads are under maintenance and when they would be completed until you really hit there.

We reached Multi Colored Bay quite late around 2.00pm after all the traffic jams and spending around an hour we had to rush to our destination to Burqin which was still somewhere around 350km away. The desert landscape continued till Fuhai county from where you would get first view of Altai ranges and landscape started turning to green with emergence of Irtysh River which is only river in Asia flowing North to drain into Arctic Ocean, the highway turned west through northern rim of desert and you would see in your right the snow peaks of Altai and lined up poplar, elm and willow trees with Irtysh flowing beside you all along. From Beitun the main highway 216 turns North towards Altai City, the capital of Altai prefecture where as we continued straight to Burqin, a nice small town with European touch which looks completely non Chinese and pleasure to your eyes. We reached quite late at almost 9.30 in evening and after such a hectic drive of 12 hours, didn’t have any intention of trying Chinese dinner, we understood the importance of carrying Uighur Nans, we just have our dinner with nun, fruits and tea. We were tired and gone to bed as quickly as possible with a promise of better tomorrow.

Urumqi – made its place in Guinness Book of World Records as most remote large city from any sea in the World, located at 2250 km from nearest coastline, farthest city from Sea

Urumqi is greeted by first ray of Sun on Tienshan Mountain:

Urumqi – Modern Chinese City and Capital of Xinjiang:

Amazing Colors of Multi Colored Bay, Danxia Landform:

Highway 216 – still going through Gurbantunggut Desert but approaching towards Fuhai County and far away Altai Range is getting visible:

Bacterian Camels crossing highway 216:

Our Hotel in Burqin:

Previous: Things to keep in mind

Next: Day 3

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

Next: Day 0, 1 and 2

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:

Previous: Recommended time of Travel

Next: Things to keep in mind

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:

Previous: Travel Restrictions in Xinjiang and Tibet

Next: Visa and Flights to China

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 :

Previous: Route Overview

Next: Recommended time of Travel

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:

Previous: Prologue

Next: Travel Restrictions in Xinjiang and Tibet

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”):