Into China - another catch-up

1st July, day 75, Lake Song Kul - Bushcamp near Torugart Pass.

Tomorrow we leave Kyrgyzstan and enter China, the biggest country and the longest visit on our trip. We will be in China for 38 days, just a week shorter than a quarter of the trip.

Just a drive day to an en-route bushcamp. We've finished Kyrgystan now and we want to be at the border as soon as it opens. We were warned about the Chinese border - it can take a very long time.

2nd July, day 76, Chinese Border at Torugart Pass


It does not start well. The Kyrgyz border guards are power-crazed and take perverse delight in keeping us waiting. It takes ages to all file through the grotty decaying and Soviet-looking passport control building and get stamped out of Kyrgyzstan. But then we are all back in the truck and we start the long drive to the Chinese side of the border. This is not like other borders, where the different sides are a short walk, e.g. opposite sides of a river over a bridge. This one is huge - no-mans land stretches for many miles through a high mountain pass, and even here there's the occasional yurt.

When we got to the Chinese side, the initial inspection point was where we had to wait for our Chinese guide. Unfortunately she was running late so we had to wait for 2 hours until she arrived. Meanwhile, the customs staff started processing our luggage through the x-ray machine. This all went OK, these border guards are probably the nicest ones we've had yet, all friendly and smiles.

The we were on our way again. About 80km further on, we get to customs and immigration proper. This is a clean, modern building with friendly staff and we were all processed through quite efficiently. Even the truck got through without much hassle. There's a fair amount of admin required to get the truck in, but the border guards gave permission to drive to Kashgar and continue the admin there.

On entering China I was immediately impressed how we were no longer in the third world, here everything works efficiently.

2nd - 6th July days 76-80, in Kashgar, Uighar Xinxiang Autonomous Region, China




Kashgar is a medium-sized and fascinating city where the Uigher culture, typically Central Asian, meets the Chinese Culture. The Chinese are not the most tolerant of other cultures and any attempt by the Chinese authorities to preserve the Uigher culture is done for the benefit of Chinese tourists and reduced to the status of a museum exhibit. The result is that some parts of the city have been Chinesified - gone are some of the rambling, labyrinthine market stalls selling everything from knock-off Rolexes to live sheep, and in their place is a new, neat tidy gleaming city square. The nearby mosque is now a tourist attraction, too.

We do, however, visit an area which does still have genuine Uigher influence, and that is the market (yes, another one. Central Asia is full of them). There is no livestock here though, like there used to be. That's all been moved out of town.

It's here that we have our first taste of Chinese food - it's lovely, although tricky to order when the menu is in Chinese. One thing that surprised me was just how similar it is to the Chinese food you get in the UK, although it is better.

It's nice to have 4 nights in a good hotel to rest, relax and do laundry.

6th - 8th July, days 80-82, en route to Turpan

From Odyssey Overland Trip 2010

Two nights of bushcamping follow Kashgar, the first at the ruins of Subash Temple, the 2nd near Turpan. Here, we are going round the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, and Turpan itself is in a depression 154m below sea level. As a result, it's seriously hot. When we arrive in Turpan, most people brave the mind-bogglingly hot weather and go and see the nearny ruined city of Jiaohe. I don't. Not in that heat. Having had a nice dose of heat-stroke back in Uzbekistan, it's not an experience I care to repeat. Stepping out of the hotel in Turpan the heat hits you in a similar way to opening the oven door to check on a roast turkey.

Having said that, the city is well designed to handle the heat - most pavements in town are shaded by grape-vines, which grow in great profusion all over the place.

9th July, day 83, en route to Dunhuang


A single night's bushcamp between Turpan and Dunhuang. It's a little less hot as we head uphill out of the depression, but still on the warm side - still in semi-desert on the edge of the Taklamakan.

It's a really nice campsite tonight - a very lonely spot miles from anywhere, arid, almost desert, with a distant view of mountains. Also the camp food is getting a distinctly Chinese taste with the inclusion of mysterious mushrooms, such to some people's distaste.

10th-12th July, days 84-86, in Dunhuang


Dunhuang in Gansu Province is the first proper Chinese city. Kashgar and Turpan have strong Asian influences from the Uighur people, but here it's almost exclusively Han Chinese. The city is clean and modern.

On our full day here, we take a trip just out of town to see the Magao Caves (The Caves of A Thousand Buddhas). About 1500 years ago, some were carved out of rock, others were constructed. The Magao caves is home to the (now) biggest Buddha. It used to be the 2nd biggest, the biggest being in Afghanistan, but the Taliban are not the most tolerant of peoples and destroyed the biggest because it was un-Islamic. Even Saudi Arabia condemned that. Seeing the Buddhas here really brings home the unspeakable vandalism by the Taliban, but at the same time makes me relieved that these ones are so very well protected.

12th July, day 86, the night of 2 bushcamps.


We set off early from Dunhuang for the long journey to Golmud. We have to take a 1500km detour because the direct road is closed to foreigners! This puts us about a day behind schedule, so we'll need to catch up somewhere. The road from Dunhuang is luckily quite a fast one and we make good time.

Near the end of the day we turn off the highway and head towards Golmud. We have done the bulk of the extra distance, but the road ahead is much slower.

We are now starting to see mountains in the distance - small as yet, but these are start of the foothills and the extreme northern edge of the Himalayas. As he head into the mountains, desert gives way to much greener country, and the temperature reduces (thank goodness!)

That evening we find a nice camp site in a river valley amongst the mountains. We set up camp, set about cooking tonights meal, when a group of Chinese on motorbikes come and join us. It all starts off nice and friendly, but they soon turn nasty. They try and extort 1000 Yuan (about £100) from us to allow us to camp there. Pete's not having any of that so we all have to hurredly pack everything up again and take down the tents. In the pouring rain. With thunder and lighning. Oh what fun. The meal has been cooked by this time but not eaten yet, so all the food has to be packed up as well, somehow.

Soaking wet, we all climb onto the bus again and try and find a new place to camp. It's still raining, and now it's getting dark. About half an hour later we find a new place and set up camp again, luckily it has stopped raining by this point. The meal is served up, a nice curry and rice. The curry's fine, but the rice has turned a bit stodgy, never mind though, it's still good.

July 13th, day 87, Start of altitude sickness

A long day driving mostly uphill. I start to suffer from headache, feeling very tired, nausea, loss of appetite, and, whenrt the Diamox, I think.ever I try to do anything strenuous I get quite breathless. At the campsite that evening I can just about put the tent up but it is very hard work. When I find out that we are now at an altitude of about 3600m, my feeling dodgy is all explained. Time to start the Diamox, I think.

In order to get to this nice (if somewhat wet and muddy) spot, we had to ford a stream in the truck, to find somewhere out of sight of the road. It's not a very big or fast stream, no no problems there.

July 14th, 88, arrive Golmud

It rained all night. This morning it's even muddier. I still feel rough, but I slept OK and the Diamox is getting to work, so I'm not quite so rough.

Remember that stream we forded yesterday? On the return trip to the road, the stream is no longer a stream. It's now a raging torrent, enough to make the hardiest white-water rafter turn pale. Fording it again is no longer an option, so we need another way round. I was worried we'd have to wait here until the stream subsided, and then what if it rains again? Luckily Pete found another way round - along a narrow track just barely wide enough for the truck there was a bridge. All in all, we reached the road after only an hour's delay.

This evening we arrived in Golmud, our first 'proper' Chinese town, where no tourists ever go, nothing is in English, and Joy & I go to a restaurant to find the menu entirely in Chinese. I suggest pointing to random things on the menu, but Joy's not convinced by that idea. Luckily Dennis is already there so we just go to his table, point at what he's got, then point at our table. We and up with a style of Chinese food you never get in England - a steam-boat where you get a pot full of boiling stock and bowls of raw food you cook yourself at the table. It was gorgeous, we were very full, and the whole thing cost only just over £10 for the 2 of us.