Karakoram Highway
For the start of this 3 day/2 night tour, my pickup at the hotel was set for Monday, June 25, 09:30 am Beijing time, so I got up (reluctantly, I was sleeping so good) at 08:00 to pack and grab the included breakfast--not stellar and very Chinese, but adequate. Since I was leaving my rollaboard luggage with the tour company in Kashgar and taking just some basics in a daypack and my computer and provisions, I had to repack a bit differently. That accomplished, got down to lobby right at 9:30 and checked out, reaffirmed there were no rooms available for my returning night of the 27th, and waited about 5 minutes or so for driver and Guide “M” to show up. My stuff went into the trunk then off we went to drop my bag off at the tour office, and then to pick up my traveling companion—a 30-ish expat lady taking a work break from duties in Beijing. I will call her “Q” (I like the James Bond theme for this particular trip mission to the wild borders of China, kind of apropos). Then off on our little adventure.
After getting stuck for about 15 slow minutes at the outskirts of Kashgar for roadwork, we drove for about 45 minutes and got to our first stop—the market town of Upal, around 11:30. Upal is famed for its Monday market, but Q and I thought it wasn’t much to speak of, perhaps we were just too early. There weren’t even that many vendors set up, and it was mostly household goods, clothing, and fresh fruits/vegetables and meats. I did buy a cheap jacket from a Han vendor, as I’d be needing one up in the Karakul area which is quite cool—and my previous day’s looking around Kashgar for one turned up nothing. The Han couple selling was thrilled to find a couple of foreign ladies that could speak passable Mandarin.
Tip: Don’t believe the tour guides and agencies that this market is any big deal, make it a low-ranking priority if part of a longer trip, and no need to force a KKH itinerary around an Upal Monday. Upal does have the Mahmoud Kashgary Tomb, which we were scheduled to see on the way back as an extra, time permitting. And Upal is very useful to stock the car trunk with cases of bottled water, if you didn’t do so in Kashgar.
Water and Food Safety Alert
Important: On a trip like this that involves some “roughing it” there is a high propensity of visitors to get sick. Water is particularly suspect, as most villagers and townspeople boil water for drinking. However, because of the altitude on the KKH, the temperature at which the water starts to boil isn’t high enough to kill any lurking beasties, and the water isn’t boiled long enough. Take enough bottled water for the entire trip, for every person in the party. Best to do this in Kashgar at a supermarket, but Upal is the last chance until Tashkorgan. If you need something hot, try to have the locals use your bottled water for boiling if the context is such that you can do it without causing offence. Otherwise, do without and just drink water from the bottle. No ice, no exceptions, not that you're likely to find any.
Food and food handling is similarly suspect. Try to stick to freshly made meat skewers done over the coals, hot fresh noodles, samsas and breads baked on the side of an oven, peelable fruits that you are able to wash with soap and bottled water (take a knife with you). Augment with some nonperishable snacks purchased in a Kashgar supermarket. No salads or raw vegetables. They do use animal and human waste for fertilizing in these parts, and water for washing vegetables isn't clean. When in doubt, forego eating the goodie. You can avoid causing offence at homestays and all by pleading No Appetite due to Altitude Sickness, whether it’s true or not. It is better to go a little hungry rather than end up with vomiting and/or diarrhea on a trip like this. Food on the KKH will be simple and enough to keep you going, but there will not be a lot of choice and you just need to grin and bear the gastronomic void until you get back to Kashgar. These precautions should also be heeded for trips to the Taklamakan, camel caravanning, etc. Although water boiled fully for a few minutes should be OK there.
Checkpoints and Restrictions
About another hour’s drive past Upal is the Gez checkpoint, staffed by Chinese police. Beyond this point, Chinese citizens must show ID and foreigners must show passports AND have a Permit to travel the road, issued in Kashgar, presumably by the police or some arm of the PSB. This year, foreigners are not supposed to be traveling independently beyond this checkpoint, but under the auspices of a tour agency is OK. The tour agency takes care of the permit in Kashgar. The permit is essentially a single-page, chopped “permission slip” with name of tour agency, number of traveling party, whether the people will be returning or not (some people traverse this road heading out to Pakistan or Tajikistan). At Gez, all private vehicle, taxi, bus, and truck passengers must get out and walk past the gatehouse office while the drivers take the vehicles through the barrier gates and for quick inspection. The guide presents the permission slip and your passports along with you, the officer gives them a once-over, logs you into the record books, hands everything back, and then you’re out the other side to meet up with your driver and continue. It’s not threatening, doesn’t take very long to get through, and there are public toilets nearby for those feeling the need.
Tip: Given what’s available on the highway after Gez, trust me you should take advantage of the public toilets—especially you ladies.
Heads-Up: I was told that foreigners are no longer allowed to take the public bus (Kashgar-Tashkorgan route) past this checkpoint, but must be in private transport or taxis. I have heard that foreigners who attempt the bus gambit and are Permit-less, have been booted off and turned back at Gez--yet I have heard of a stray foreigner or two who did make it through for reasons unknown.
The Gez checkpoint is the only one that travelers to Karakul Lake and Tashkorgan town will need to deal with, but if going beyond Tashkorgan further up the KKH, there is another military checkpoint which I’ll describe later.
Rain and a Field Adjustment to Plans
We spent the next three hours driving up the highway towards Karakul Lake. This part of the highway is a combination of rocky barrenness, some attractive multicolor mountains, glaciers in the distance, whitish sand dunes, blue and turquoise lakes, small rivers gurgling with snow melt down towards the lowlands, and an interlacing of deep green grasslands and marshlands here and there, enough to support livestock. Lots of sheep and yaks chowing down during the comfortable summer, with their local herders (mostly ethnic Kyrgyz) watchfully supervising. Scattered yurts here and there, sometimes solo, sometimes in clusters. All of it was beautiful in a very wild and stark sort of way. Downsides: Chinese companies are definitely up here to mine various minerals (Uighurs are not allowed to own mines, so I was told), and a dam is being constructed near a formation called the Sand Hills, ostensibly for hydropower. Both of these developments pose long-term threats to the surrounding environment of course...not that the Chinese care if there’s money to be made. But right now, still not too disruptive. On a happier note, this part of the Highway has the first of two big mountains that anchor the area: Kongur at 7719 meters (25,000 feet). I understand that Kongur is a very technically challenging mountain to climb, and few have ever done so. Although it was the end of June, it was covered in snowcap, as were many of the other lesser mountains that form part of this range. It looked simultaneously gorgeous and forbidding. The website of the Himalayan Club
www.himalayanclub.org has some great photos and also detailed descriptions of exploratory treks and climbs in this little known area of the Pamirs.
The Highway itself went relentlessly uphill, little by little, until we were over the 3000 meter (9750 feet) level. Karakul Lake itself, and the surrounding settlements are at 3900 meters (12,675 feet). It would be the highest point where we would sleep, though not the highest point of the entire trip—that was yet to come. It was clouding up a bit, and not only was the air noticeably thinner, but outside was much cooler and quite windy. Actually, it was darn cold! We arrived at Karakul about 16:00 (BJ time) to light rain and threatening weather, really gloomy and almost spooky-looking. Cold and damp, it would not be a great night to stay in the yurts here, and hiking and/or horse riding would be miserable. Weather can be pretty changeable even in summer. Our guide M worked the phones for a few minutes, and decided to switch around our nighttime stops. We would push on to Tashkorgan town and stay in a hotel tonight, then in the morning do the Khunjerab Pass, then work our way back down and gamble that tomorrow afternoon and evening was better for Karakul. I thought this was a great adjustment to make!
Lake Karakul itself is very pretty—crystal blue and surrounded by hills and mountains. There is a permanent village on the far side where many of the locals live year round; others spend the warmer months out in the pastures and hills in temporary yurts. Although conditions weren’t ideal for photography, we took a few minutes to snap some anyway and stretch out legs, then pressed on. It was still another 1.5 hours’ drive to Tashkorgan. We passed the second great mountain of this region of the Pamirs—the iconic Muztagh Ata, which is 7500 meters (24,000 feet) high. M told us there were currently three separate expeditions attempting to summit it. Hope they have good sleeping bags and tents to get them through this night! The highway kind of loops around Muztagh Ata, so you get views from a couple of sides. We could see the little dots of one expedition’s base camp, about half-way up. Reputedly, there’s a fabulously long ski run that can be done...and from down below, it looks like it, provided you’re an expert at steep, ungroomed downhilling. M also told us that the cost of getting permits to climb these mountains was expensive, but Muztagh Ata is, for the climber, considered easy and pretty safe to summit.
Much of the journey between Muztagh Ata and Tashkorgan was high plateau, with the hills and mountains receding a bit into the distance. Quite a few little Kyrgyz settlements around, and many more permanent masonry houses in this part than yurts. I remarked how so many of the houses looked rather new, and M told us that the Chinese government was basically buying off a lot of the local ethnic groups by building them houses and providing other goodies—for free. In return for “harmony” and going with the PRC official flow. M further said that this offer wasn’t open to the Uighurs, just the Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Afghans, and other groups in the area. I wasn’t really sure if the offer wasn’t made to the Uighurs, or if it was but the Uighurs just weren’t into having their cooperation purchased. I could tell it was a sore subject so turned the conversation to other topics. But I did see two separate convoys of Chinese army trucks full of building supplies on the highway, and M confirmed it was for this ethnic housing program.
The settlements began to change over from Kyrgyz to Tajik people. About 30 minutes before reaching Tashkorgan, we passed a spiffy new Border and Customs post—the new Chinese-Tajikistan border crossing. M said it is open to foreigners, as long as you have a Tajik visa in your passport. Or inbound, a Chinese visa. The Karakoram Highway at this point is only about 5 km from the actual border, but it’s at this new facility that you pass through Chinese Exit Immigration and Customs. I know of no specific tales of foreigners that have passed through here, and Tajikistan (especially the part on the other side bordering China) is pretty wild and lawless. Also I have no information on transport from one side to the other—I would assume there is not yet a public bus, but private vehicle or hitching with a trucker might be possible. On the KKH, you’ll see plenty of Chinese trucks fully loaded and heading to neighboring countries. Empties heading back to Kashgar and Urumqi.
Tashkorgan
We rolled into Tashkorgan about 18:00 (BJ time), still quite bright out as it was only the equivalent of 15:00-16:00 for the locals. We checked into the basic Traffic Hotel, Q and I sharing a room. Simple and small but clean. Tiny bathroom where you can use the toilet, brush your teeth at the sink, and shower all at the same time! No a/c but with the cool fresh air, it’s not needed even in summer. Internet access depended on my 3G dongle, which worked fine. Q and I rested for a bit then met up with M and the driver about 20:00 to find a place for dinner. Our car had had some overheating troubles on the way, so they had been to a local auto shop to get something fixed. The first couple of places we tried (that M had been to previously) were either closed or out of business. We finally found a place that had already sold out of kebabs but did us up some rather delicious spicy noodles with beef—those short, fat, scissor-cut noodles that I really like. It was enough for a basic meal. After dinner the guys headed back to the auto shop to pick up the car, while Q and I wandered the (very few) streets of central Tashkorgan.
Tashkorgan is a small and simple town but nestled in a scenic valley with low mountains and a marshy grassland on one side, and snow-covered mountains in the distance on the other side. This used to be a very strategic post on this spur of the Silk Road heading to Pakistan, and tomorrow we will see the ruins of the old Stone Fort that used to guard the valley. One of the main streets of Tashkorgan has the curious landscape device of being completely lined at the edge of the roadway, with long continuous row of white picket fencing, exactly the kind that you see in classic little USA Midwest towns. Hilarious. Mostly small shops of various kinds; I did not see any larger department stores or big supermarkets. The weather was interesting, the sun was shining but we had a brief light rainshower at the same time, and caught a huge lovely rainbow. The air was really fresh, cool, and clean. I didn’t get the impression that many tourists—either domestic or foreign--made it this far on the KKH. Many of the small number of tourists stop at Lake Karakul for a daytrip and head back to Kashgar, or spend the night at the Lake then head back the next day without getting this far.
Tip: If you decide to go to Karakul, then might as well spend an extra day and keep coming to Tashkorgan, and (if weather permits) the Khunjerab Pass. Again, this particular area is unique unto itself and I've never seen a town quite like this one.
The atmosphere is certainly different and I’m struck by the look of the people—the Tajiks. They don’t look like any group I’ve ever seen before, with dark skin, men mostly tall, and fairly prominent noses. Also many with light eyes. They don’t look like the Uighur at all, and definitely not like the Chinese. They seemed very subdued, quiet and close-mouthed, not too chattery like Hans and Uighurs. Not particularly friendly but not hostile either. Just...very...low-key and insular, not surprising given their isolation. Unlike Uighur and Kyrgyz languages which are Turkic languages, Tajik is related to Persian and they are mutually unintelligible. M does not speak Tajik, but most of the locals seem to understand enough Uighur so communication isn’t a problem. Nobody is speaking Mandarin except a very few stray Hans I see around, talking to each other. Q and I run into a couple of Pakistanis who speak pretty good English...and roped us into visiting their Gem Shop. (Ok, at least it wasn’t tea ceremonies or art exhibits!) Though we didn’t buy, much to their disappointment since they thought our foreign faces meant a quick jackpot, we did have a good time talking for about 15 minutes. They were Pakistani traders from Gilgit (north Pakistan at the end of the Karakoram) who went back and forth frequently. They admitted that their best customers were PRC Chinese tourists or overseas Chinese, but also said that not that many were coming up to Tashkorgan lately. If you had the cash and knew what you were doing, they had what appeared to be some decent stuff and I daresay that at least some of it was real. I particularly liked the semi-precious loose and crafted items like the lapis lazuli and tourmaline.
On the walk back to the hotel, I marvel at the Tajik ladies’ outfits. They generally wear some sort of skirted suit with a pillbox-style embroidered hat. Some have scarves artfully draped under the hat. Really sharp looking. I thought the Tajiks were Muslim but M said “not so strong” sort of implying they are nominally Muslim but not very devout in general, compared to the Uighur and the Kyrgyz. Well, by his standards anyway. Due to the thin air, I am huffing and puffing and have to walk slow, most annoying. Tashkorgan at 3100 meters (10,000 feet) is actually lower than Karakul Lake, so we have come downhill a bit. But I’m still a bit ragged and also fatigued. (As a point of comparison, Lhasa, Tibet is at 3650 meters (11,900 feet), between elevation of Tashkorgan and Karakul).
I cleaned up and showered which always feels great after a long day on the road, spent a little time on the internet then tried to sleep, even though the night sky still had some residual light. Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to get comfortable. Every time I lay down, I had trouble breathing, and it was a little cold. Definitely don’t miss the lack of aircon—it’s obviously not needed here even in summer. Got my silk sleep sack out and that helped add a little bit of extra warmth under the quilt, then figured out a way to prop my head up which helped me breathe better. I think I ended up dozing off about 3-4 in the morning, getting maybe a total of 3-ish hours of fitful sleep. Vaguely wondering if I was going to expire in my sleep from lack of oxygen. At least I hadn’t had a headache or nausea, so can’t say it was really full-blown altitude sickness. Clearly though, the rapid ascent all in one day from Kashgar to Tashkorgan was not as smart as the slower, paced ascent I practiced in 2011 in Yunnan from Kunming to Lijiang to Zhongdian (3200 meters) over one week, with stops on the way. I think I was also a bit overstimulated and excited for the next day’s plans, which were to head up to Khunjerab Pass as far as we were allowed to go. I often sleep poorly if I’m over-anticipating the next day.