Great report Jiejie... I remembered my trip to Turpan, Urumqi, Kashgar and Karakul in 2003. I was lucky to be able to visit the Spice bazaar in Urumqi in one of its last days of operation. I am reading "Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud" by Shun Shu Yun now where the author chronicles her attempt to retrace the journey of Xuanzang, which adds a third dimension. Someday, soon, I plan to travel the KKH through the Hunza.

I had been planning to do a grand trip from Istanbul through Syria, Iran, Pakistan, China and Kyrgyzstan for last fall, but it fell through because of the problems in Syria, Iran and Pakistan... I love trains, so I had traveled Beijing-Urumqi by train, and then flew to Kashi for time constraints. Missed out on your stops other thn Xian.

Will you be back in China soon? I will visit Xichang in January '13 for a week and again go back to Beijing/Xian/Shanghai in May for a month. Would love to meet up with you then.

I have one question: Your 3G dongle! Is the hardware locked into a Chinese provider? Do you need a post-paid account to use it? Can you get an unlocked dongle and use SIM cards that can be picked up anywhere?

Once again, great TR. Thanks.