12/5
Today we started our journey up the Karakoram Highway, the famous highway connecting China to Pakistan via the highest paved road in the world (a towering 3500 feet higher than Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the US and 1500 feet higher than Pikes Peak Road, the highest paved road in the US). It traverses through stunning scenery in the Pamir and Karakoram ranges and reaches a height of nearly 15,500 feet). It has always been my dream to travel the Karakoram highway, so this was a chance to do half of it. The most spectacular side is the Pakistani side, but the Chinese side is also gorgeous.
We hired a driver (Fu) and a car (Toyota Rav-4). Our first stop was a police station to get the permit to dive the road. This road is highly controlled and foreigners must have the permit as well as a driver and car permitted to take foreigners. After obtaining the permit, it was on to the highway. The road is magnificent (at least on the Chinese side)--wide, smooth, and as good as the best American highway and probably with more safety features. Of course it stood out as a crazily stark contrast to the Nepali "roads".
The first stop on the trip was the Oytagh Canyon which as very red mountains. Continuing past a couple passport checkpoints, we were climbing up in a deep canyon with a glacial blue river below very steep, dry mountains. The mountains made me think how I imagined the rugged mountains of Afghanistan (which makes some sense since Afghanistan is nearby). As we continued up, we began catching glimpses of white and glaciated mountains. And as we continued higher up, more and more mountains and glaciers came into view. We then popped out of the canyon at the large White Sand Lake (Bulung Kol Lake).
We first took a road that eventually goes over a pass into Kyrgyzstan to get some views of the lakes and surrounding mountains. Then we went back to the Karakoram Highway to a spot where we could go to the lakeshore. The lake was frozen, so we walked out on it a bit. Additionally we rode a yak for some classic Chinese photos. Surrounding the lake are many glaciated peaks. We continued driving along the shore of the lake to reach another viewpoint which had views of large, smooth sand dunes on the opposite side of the lake. They were simply beautiful.
Back in the car, the beautiful scenery continued, going past snowy peaks and meadow areas with the occasional yurt and flock of sheep with a lone (and presumably cold) shepherd. The next stop was stunning Karakul Lake (also frozen), which is surrounded by tall, glaciated mountains, including Muztagh Mountain (7548m/24,757ft), which means "Father of Ice" Mountain in the local language. Then it was up Subash Pass (13,400 ft), which of course had great views. The next viewpoint stop was the Taheman Grasslands, where a river winds its way through a grassland in front of white peaks. Here we saw the sunset glow on the glaciers.
Just as it was about to get dark, we arrived to Tashkurgan (aka Tashi). Being low season, the first couple of place we stopped to get a room were closed, but we eventually found an open hotel. Their list prices for a room was 500 yuan, but they asked for 300. However, we bargained them down to 150 yuan! It was a huge double room complete with an oxygen machine for the altitude and view of the police station. We went out for dinner (had a delicious eggplant dish) then back to the hotel where we watched some TV (in Chinese of course): ping pong and short track speed skating.
12/6
Slept in because sunrise is after 10am here! We went to a steamed bao buns place for breakfast and also had a bowl of hot soy milk. Then it was in the car to continue up to Khunjerab Pass (15,397 feet). First we took a little side road that goes over a pass into Afghanistan and stopped at a viewpoint to peer into Afghanistan. We saw some camels walking along the dry and frozen terrain. As we continued to ascend, the ground became mostly snow-covered. At one break in the mountains, up a valley, I think we saw the tip of the pyramid of K2 (the 2nd highest mountain in the world). We eventually reached a spot 3km (~1.8 miles) from the border and that was as far as China would let us go at this time. We were at an altitude of almost exactly 15,000 feet. We took a few photos of the border signs and then the police ushered us back down the hill.
The next thing we were going to do was to take the "dragon road" (Panlong ancient road) up some mountains on the opposite side. It's a crazy road with something like 604 switchbacks (google image it), but unfortunately it was closed due to being the winter season. Fu said we could see it from the top, however, by going a different route up from the backside, so we headed for this route. It followed a glacial blue river and then along a beautiful turquoise lake (Lake Xiabandi) that perfectly reflected the dry mountains. We continued along to a village famous in area lore where a Chinese soldier met a local woman, and they fell in love. My understanding is they made a movie about it that became famous--something called something like "Why are flowers red". Here at a police checkpoint, they didn't like something about Fu's registration. Fu said that it was because the car was a personal car and not a registered tour car, but I think there was some translation issue (or he wasn't being honest) because the car would have had to be a registered tour car. I think what happened, after talking to someone at the tourist center, was he hadn't gotten the permit needed to go on that specific road at the police station in Tashi. So sadly we had to turn around.
Back in Tashi, I walked around town, and then we went out for dinner. It was a bit of a bummer that we couldn't go up the dragon road, but it was great how far up the Khunjerab pass we got because I was prepared that we might have to turn around right after Tashi.
Something really cool about this area is how it's such a crossroads of so many cultures and countries. Within a small radius of the area you can cross into Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Tibet, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan with Kazakhstan and Mongolia not too far away either. There are still yurts in the area and shepherds with their flocs, but China has also built more permanent housing structures as well.
12/7
We went back to the steamed buns place for breakfast. We then visited the old Tashkurgan stone city (mostly ruins) and the fort , which helped to protect the silk road traders back in the day. It was pretty cool with a nice mountain backdrop behind it. We then walked down on the boardwalk of the golden grassland, which is a summer march pasture, but during our visit was frozen. After touring around these areas we hopped back in the car for the gorgeous journey back to Kashgar.
Our driver, Fu (34 years old), was an interesting guy. He spoke decent English, but he still couldn't always relay deeper, more complex thoughts, or would have to use the translator app. He really likes basketball (Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson are his favorites) and has lots of criticism for Chinese basketball players. He knows his Chinese history. When talking about China or politics, he definitely recited the party line and talking points. For example, he said that America is a the better trade partner with China compared to Europe because of America's lack of industry regulations compared to Europe. He (and most Chinese) are big supporters of Trump because they really value a strong and authoritative leader. He told us he was a big supporter of Trump, even though Trump cost him his good job: He was supposed to manage some American factory in the area before a Trump policy shut down such American factories in China). He is of course a big supporter of Xi Jinping because he is a "great and strong leader".
Regarding the Uyghur people, he believes China is helping them by bringing them out of poverty and bringing infrastructure and modernity to them. He says the best China is a China of one, for the people, and a strong China. He says China doesn't see race like other countries do (and like America does he says). He said that in China, all people are just people. He also thinks that it's better for the people, the more land that China controls and that they should control everything that was once controlled by China at the very height of their empire. In Kashgar, the Chinese government is tearing down a lot of the old city and building a more modernized city. It's definitely true that the area is prone to earthquakes and that the old city buildings were rather dangerous--an EU report found that they were severely under code and that the next earthquake or fire could kills tens of thousands. They are now putting the people in modern buildings and have given them other infrastructure such as high speed internet and cell service. The Chinese have definitely brought money to the province and the people so that they are now richer in the things that we as westerners tend to think are important: hot showers, heated homes, indoor plumbing and sewage, clean water, communication (internet and cellular), etc. However, there is also a lot of thought that the Chinese had an ulterior motive in all of this modernization. It has been said that they also want to tamper down the culture or the Uyghur people and that by destroying their old buildings in the name of progress/safety, that they are achieving that goal since a place has so much meaning.
There's a long history of Chinese conquest and defeat. I remember learning some of it back in Mr. Vik's world history class in 7th grade and then again in Mr. Wells world history class in 9th and 10th grades, but over the centuries, the Chinese empire has expanded and collapsed as they have conquered neighboring areas and then been defeated by others. For example, back when Kublai and Ghengis Khan were running the Mongolian empire, the Mongols conquered and ruled a huge swatch of China and the Chinese empire was small. At some point, and I 'd have to read about it again, the Chinese controlled Xinjiang province and then lost it, and then recaptured it again. The people living there (mostly the Uyghur Muslims) haven't loved the Chinese rule, so in the late 1990's and early 2000's they did quite a lot of bombings and uprisings, which caused the Chinese to answer with their police state and "cultural genocide" as many have called it as China attempts to make the Xinjiang province something they don't have to worry about by basically getting rid of the strong Uyghur identity and making them all "one China". The Chinese, however, for tourism, still try to highlight the Uyghur culture and they emphasize visiting their handicraft shops and music and dancing and such, making their culture something more like a show than an actual part of them. While it might be a greatly impoverished country, it does seem like that Xinjiang should be an independent country.
I guess something sort of of similar could be the US and the territory/state of Hawaii. Hawaii was a militarily strategic place for the US and we brought "modernity" and American culture to the people, removing a lot of the traditional values and practices such as how they governed with chiefs and chiefdoms and their traditional ways of marriage, land ownership, religion, sacred sites, and such. Now, we like to highlight certain parts of their traditions and customs by having Hawaiians dress in traditional costumes and dance and eat fire and such at luaus for mainland American tourists. And I didn't necessarily realize the angst and anger that many Hawaiians have towards Haoles (Americans) until my Hawaiian friend (close friend in college and roommate in Boise), Yosh, told me all about it. In fact, he told me that in many places outside of the touristy areas of Hawaii, he would fear for my safety if I visited. When Elisha and I visited the Big Island a few years ago, and I had more knowledge about all of this, we certainly noticed this feeling towards Haoles when we were in some of the more remote and rural areas. Not exactly the same situation, of course, but just something that we thought related in our own country's history.
He also has a major aversion to risk and danger (much like most Chinese)--for example, skateboarding is too dangerous as is swimming in a big lake. He says people in China don't play baseball because of how dangerous it is with the fast pitching. I have to admit that China is probably one of the safest countries I have ever visited. Not only is crime basically non existent due to all the police and video surveillance (and b/c the Chinese people are just really good rule followers), but they really don't allow you to do risky behaviors. For example, you can't just hike wherever you want, you have to be on these perfect paths, with all the warnings and handrails and such. They have warning signs for everything everywhere; they have beautifully constructed roads with all sorts of safety features and slow speed limits (which are followed). They have modern vehicles, etc. And they have safety features like fire masks and such in every room.
As we drove along the road, it was fun to have google translate the communist party propaganda on giant billboards along the highway. I noticed them more in Xinjiang than elsewhere, though we were on the roads there a lot more since we mostly traveled by train in China.
We didn't really talk to many people about politics in China, mostly because we came across so few people that knew enough English where this would be possible, but also because it's just better not to. I would have loved to ask Stella what she thought about the Uyghur situation since she spoke good English, was highly educated, had Chinese friends living in NYC, and was a Han Chinese visiting Xinjiang. But, you just don't really want to cause a problem with a new friend. She did acknowledge how China blocks google, but didn't say much about it. And she also said she was excited to see the new Barbie movie since it has a feminist theme to it. So she clearly wasn't entirely on board with the communist machismo.
Back in Kashgar, we said hello to the family and little tiger before going out to get some dinner, including some Shawarma style burritos. That evening while Elisha rested up in our room, I hung out with the family in the family room (Mrs. Li, her son and daughter, and of course little tiger). The kids talked to me in English and mom was practicing too. We snacked on dried fruits, oranges, and pomegranates. The daughter was face-timing with a friend who also wanted to practice her English with me. They told me they thought I was 30! And that I was kind and sweet. Then the daughter sang a Taylor Swift song (Love Story) and a Chinese pop song for me. Definitely a fun night with the family.
12/8
Mrs. Li made us noodle soup and HUGE steamed buns for breakfast. Then we headed out on the town for more exploring of both the ancient city and old city and a visit to the pagoda. We had a meal at our favorite restaurant, getting steamed buns, meat on a stick, and eggplant laghmon. We then visited a famous "ancient" teahouse where you sit on the floor in the traditional way. Some Uyghur men were playing music with their traditional instruments. Next we watched a camel show right outside our guesthouse that was highlighting Uyghur culture and marriage practice. We then had to say a sad goodbye to Mr. Li and her family before catching a taxi to the airport.
We flew from Kashgar to Xi'an, and they served Laghmon and plov (rice dish) on the plane, which Elisha got a huge kick out of. We arrived very late (after midnight) to Xi'an and stayed at a hotel near the airport. The hotels are just so chea. This was a nice hotel with free airport pick up and drop off for 11 USD.
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