Shanghai'd

It's hard to use Chinese for descriptions of a country where the writing is Arabic.

One of the most renowned and beautiful parts of Xinjiang is located in the southwest corner of the province, sharing borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and some other "Stans". The Karakoram Highway runs south from Kashgar into Pakistan. On the Pakistan side the KKH runs by the second highest mountain in the world, 28,251 ft K2 (Everest is the highest, but you already knew that).

Needless to say, this was the number one sight we had to see in Xinjiang. Our first morning in Kashgar was spent figuring out how to get there. We wound up talking to Abdul, the smooth-talking owner of a travel agency that talked a lot, but never QUITE answered any of our questions. But, he could set us up with transport and a local guide to show us into the mountains. Our destination was Karakul Lake, which is an aqua blue lake that reflects its neighboring mountains, Kongur Tagh and Muztag-ata. Muztag-ata is over 23,000 ft high, by far the highest mountain either of us had come close to. We scheduled the departure for the next morning.

The car was a VW taxi and the driver a stereotypically massive Uighur guy in cheap, full suit, who barely fit into the car seat. The drive started out flat enough, but soon entered a valley and started to climb. We stopped for photos of the 'famous' mountain with sand dunes pushed against it and finally made it to the lake.


We could definitely feel the altitude at 12,000 feet! We first sat down with our guide, Alim, to make a plan and drink some salty milk tea offered up by the yurt-dwelling local people. We set off and after a few hours reached Subax village and the primitive stone house that would be our home for the next few nights. This was a one-room dwelling with a little pot-belly stove near the entrance. The rest of the room was elevated about 2 feet and covered with numerous colorful carpets and blankets. This was the eating/sleeping/resting area. We sat down to more salty milk tea (an acquired taste to say the least) and hard bagel-like naan breads that would be our diet for the next 3 days. This house was very basic; no electricity during the day, sketchy at night. Heat and cooking came from the yak-chip fueled stove, no sink - water was pulled from the nearby well and poured onto the dirt floor for washing. No conveniences that we have in city life. No toilet, no shower, there was even no counter for chopping vegetables - that was done on a board on the floor.


As soon as the sun went down we ate then soon went to bed. Dinner that night was typical noodles - but they were hand made, which took about 2 hours. We all slept snugly side by side in the one room, 9 people total! The first wake up call came around 4am local time so the Muslim adults could get in their Ramadan meal before the sun came up. We took this opportunity to go out and see the stars. The altitude combined with the lack of light pollution made for the best star viewing I have ever seen (better even than Big Bend park in West Texas!). Then back to bed until sunrise.

The next day was spent hiking around eerily barren high-altitude desert scenery. After about 3 tough hours battling the altitude and sun exposure, we reached about 15,000 ft. Most amazing to us was how our guide walked the entire day with no food or even a sip of water (rules of Ramadan). Needless to say, as soon as the sun went down, everyone eagerly dug into a big fast-breaking dinner. That night it snowed (which I noticed when I went out again at 4am); Tim, the photographer's wish come true! I especially like Camels in the Snow.


In the morning, we walked back to the base of the lake to arrange transport to Khunjerab pass on the Pakistan border. We heard about 10 different conflicting stories about the checkpoint crossing at Tashkorgan - "it's too late, they don't let people cross after 10am", "you have to apply for a permit the night before", "the crossing guards will take lunch and you'll have to wait", and finally "they let anyone offering up 10 yuan cross with no problem". This final, first-hand account proved true, though we did have a few tense moments when the Chinese border patrol gave our Uighur guide a hard time about accompanying us. Finally, we were across, with nothing but 2 hours of beautiful, sheer mountainous highway between us and the Pakistan border. It was perfectly picturesque, ultimately reaching about 15,000 ft at the border, supposedly the highest pass road in the world. We took a few tentative steps into Pakistan (the Chinese border patrol officer who had accompanied us was keeping a stern, watchful eye), snapped a few photos, and headed back down to nurse the altitude-induced headaches and shortness of breath we were feeling.


That night was spent in a yurt, playing tri-lingual version of the card game euchre, which we taught Alim and the driver who took us to the border (who earned the name Shark after his card playing). We would explain the rules to Alim in English who would tell it to the Shark in the Uighur language and we would answer his questions in Chinese. Pretty Interesting. After 3 days of salty tea and hard naan, the same dirty clothes, no sinks, and going to Pakistan and back, we hitched a ride with a local guy back to Kashgar.

Our time on the Karakoram Highway was beautiful. This is definitely a recommended spot for any travelers who have a little extra time in China. Although the very touristed areas around the lake are far from untouched, a few hours hiking (or on horse or motorbike) can deliver you to a place that seems timeless.