KJTI China Tour Kashgar - Truly Central Asia Add-on Seven days to any of KJTI Jeep Trek Introduction Few journeys in the world could boast more awesome contrast and sheer splendor of scenery than the great trip from North Pakistan to Central Asian China. You will leave the green and vertical valleys of the Karakorums in North Pakistan to cross the highest international border in the world and enter the surreal high plateaus of the Kunlun Shan mountain ranges with their own 25,000ft giants. Further on, you will finally leave the mountains behind you and reach the edge of the infamous Taklamakan Desert – half a million square kilometres of sandy desolation. You will reach the city of Kashgar ( Kashi ) - literally an oasis on the silk road, 4000km west of Beijing and famed for an ancient Sunday market tradition that stretches back thousands of years. You will leave the Pushtuns, Afghans, Kalasha, Baltis and Hunzakuts of North Pakistan, for the Uighurs, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Kazak and Han of Western China. In short, by making this journey, you will discover two regions, both full of astonishing scenery, both melting pots of cultural diversity, both quintessentially Central Asian. Wednesday Travel to Sost and stop over at this Pakistani border post. Thursday Watch the sunrise over the Greater Karakorum. Get Passport exit stamps from jovial Pakistani immigration officials then enter the Khunjerab international park, a World Wildlife Fund protected sanctuary for Giant ibex deer, Himalayan brown bear and even the snow leopard. You are also certain to see dozens of golden marmots darting across the road and yaks being arduously shepherded across the high passes to Western China, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. After 2 to 3 hours of driving uphill you will have climbed 2 vertical kilometers from 2900m at Sost to the apex of the Khunjerab pass at nearly 5000m that marks the international border between Pakistan and China. Oxygen is very limited here so the vehicles cannot stop for long before descending into China. Here you must pause for a customs check by border officials at possibly the most isolated army posting in China. As the vehicle swaps from driving on the left to the right the scenery changes almost immediately, from tight steep switch backs with sickeningly sheer views, to a huge plateau carpeted with wild flowers. Here, there is no immediate descent just a gradual disincline from 4500m at the check post at Pirali to 3500m at the first town of Tashkurgan. En route, you will undoubtedly see the remarkable two-humped Bactrian camels wondering across the plains. The road also runs right beneath two huge mountains – Kongur (7719m) and Muztagh Ata (7546m). Both rise in serene isolation out of the 4000m plateau. As the road circumvents Muztagh, it skirts the glacier blue Karakol lake. The views, particularly of Muztagh from Karakol lake are breathtaking and incomparable. By early afternoon, down at 3500m, the road reaches the isolated town of Tashkurgan, where you will pass through Chinese customs and immigration and meet your onward transport to Kashgar which is accompanied by your local Kashgari guide. From Tashkurgan to Kashgar, the road descends more rapidly, passing through scenery that would not be out of place in Utah, Arizona and Colorado – huge mountains juxtaposed with pink and brown rubble desserts, along with small isolated communities clinging to the edges of piercingly blue glacial rivers. Finally, the mountains disappear almost entirely, and immediately, as if from nowhere, the city of Kashgar appears. You should reach Kashgar in time to see the faithful come in their thousands for Friday prayers - as they have done for centuries. There is no better way to get a taste of Uighur culture. The tour will use Kashgar as its base for the next few days. Friday Kashgar, although not the largest city in Xinjiang (Province of Western China) is the last to be still dominated by the indigenous Uighur people. The Uighur are famous firstly for their strikingly unChinese mixed Mongol/European looks, for their enormous hospitality and warmth toward outsiders and, perhaps most importantly, their delicious and richly-spiced interpretation of Central Asian cuisine – pasta. Indeed, the Uighur (not the Italians) are credited with inventing and perfecting pasta and it is not uncommon to see local versions of spaghetti, vermicelli, tagliatelle, and ravioli made fresh in street bazaars. Friday afternoon, you will travel to see Shipton’s Arch (Tushuk Tash). It is the highest natural arch in the world, estimated in 1947 to be nearly 1,000 feet tall, with a span of about 150 feet; and then return to Kashgar. .
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Saturday After a very well earned lie-in and early breakfast, your car will take you out of Kashgar and along a road that follows the southern arm of the original silk road as it skirts around the awesome Taklamakan Desert . (The explorer Auriel Stein, famously said, “After you have crossed the Taklamakan, you can leave the Sahara for the ladies” and today the desert is still noted for being the most desolate and one of the driest places on earth, strangling even the hardiest vegetation to leave nothing but endless sand dunes that rise up more than a hundred feet. Crossing the desert can only be an extended itinerary for additional three days) En route you will stop at Yarkand, a sister city to Kashgar along the silk road: that has a history just as ancient but has been far less touched by modernization; the people are still excited at the arrival of foreigners from outside Xinjiang. Yarkand still has some of the best preserved buildings and monuments from the last thousand years of the silk road – the Mausoleum, the Necropolis and the Juma Musjid. You will return back to Kashgar. Sunday Kashgar’s famous Sunday market. Even today it attracts Kazaks, Kyrgyz, Uighurs, Tajiks, even North Pakistanis and Chinese to trade everything from camels to beautiful local handicrafts, from plastic wind-up cars, to jade from the Taklamakan. You will have the opportunity to spend the day exploring the markets on foot, alone and with the help of your local Uighur guide. You will not forget it. Monday Leave Kashgar after breakfast, and retrace your steps back toward the Pakistani border. You should reach Tashkurgan in the afternoon. Tashkurgan, being the home to nearly all of China’s 20,000 Tajik minority is culturally entirely distinct from Kashgar’s Uighur culture. Tajiks are used to life in the Kunlun Shan living at 3000-5000m, their looks strikingly European, and there is similarly very mild, relying heavily on Yak produce. Tashkurgan is worth a long afternoon to explore. Tuesday Gradually make your way along the route back into Pakistan - even seeing Muztagh and Khorog for the second time will not be disappointment. Return travel to Khunjerab pass. Reach Pakistan by early afternoon, and push on South along the Karakorum highway to return to Hunza by evening. Night at Sost or Karimabad. Dates and Prices for China Tour of Kashgar Adventure Travel in North Pakistan www.kjti.co.uk KJTI does not itself book flights but can recommend an ATOL agent. The flight price is normally £499 + Taxes.