Tashkurgan, China Travel Blogs

The Father of Mountains
May 1, 2009 (46 photos)

... in a little. After more bread and tea, and more displays of the Kyrgyz handiwork, we left for Tashkurgan, the westernmost city in China and the closest one to Pakistan, along the Karakorum Highway. Tashkurgan's people are mostly Tajik, the driver ...

Heading south on the KKH
Jul 31, 2004 (4 photos)

... one big selling opportunity for the inhabitants. As I stood on the side of the road waiting for the bus to take me to Tashkurgan, the Chinese border town, a local guy asked me if I wanted to share a taxi as we had the same destination. The more direct ...

On the lash with the Tajik lads
Jul 31, 2004 (1 photos)

... proprietor had kindly tripled his rates for the occasion. And the hot water didn't work. There wasn't a lot open in Tashkurgan. I picked the liveliest looking place. It was quite packed and I was ushered to a table already occupied by what materialized ...

There's a reason I didn't much like the Boy Scouts
Oct 21, 2007 (13 photos)

... us by providing good sleeping bags, sleeping bag pads, and, for me, a heavier jacket than I had brought to China when I left Seattle, two weeks before the tour began.)  Come bedtime, everyone but Gary and me quickly disappeared into ...

Tashkurgan Town
Aug 30, 2007 (14 photos)

Tashkurgan Town

Stunning fortresses and shimmering lakes
May 2, 2006

... in the last few thousand years. Regardless it's a very picturesque place that makes the lack of Pakistani curry in Tashkurgan very bearable. Completely unprotected and deteriorating at a rapid pace, the fortress sits on a hill overlooking the valley and ...

Camels are as slow as they look
May 3, 2006

... spitting at me, but Peter had never tried it so we went ahead. I don't know how it's done elsewhere, but the camels in China are controlled through a small stake that's driven through the sinus from one end to the other. A rope is tied to one end and is ...

Les Pamirs Chinois sur la Karakorum Highway
Jul 23, 2008 (33 photos)

Nous en route sur la Karakorum Highway, la route mythique qui relie la Chine au Pakistan, et la plus haute route carrossable internationale au monde. La Karakorum Highway passant à plus de 4600m, on s'imagine une route de montagne très étroite ...

Salam Sheep Alekum.
Jul 1, 2004 (2 photos)

On the way to Chotan we stopped a night in Yarkad, where we had some trouble finding a hotel, and even more trouble getting rid of the guy who helped us find one! He just wouldnt leave us alone, it wasn't that he was a bad person... but he just came into ...

Tashkurgan, China
Sep 3, 2006 (2 photos)

... transport to this high altitude (~10,500ft), lifeless city. a few han chinese could speak mandarin, but otherwise you weren't in china. I was able to line up a ticket for tomorrow morning on the international bus to sost, pakistan, went out and bought some ...

Finally in Uyghurland!
Jul 11, 2007

... world being here.  Unlike the Tibetans, Uyghurs have developed a much more modern and secular society of their own within China.  They have their own Uyghur language tv stations, and boy are those stations popular, even uyghur talk shows!  ...

This car isn't built for the Karakorum
May 1, 2006

... bring theirs) the mountains loom even higher. To get to Tashkurgan you actually drive along a dry riverbed that twists among the mountains. Tashkurgan the town is nothing to write home about. But I guess I'll do it anyway. It's a one-road border town ...

The (Start of the) Karakorum Highway
Sep 25, 2006 (15 photos)

Pictures from the most interesting highway in China attached.

Into China.......eventually!!!
Jul 29, 1976 (28 photos)

When the Chinese border guards finally let us in to the country!!! We headed to Kashgar. We stayed for the night in a nice little hotel, where we were welcomed by dancers!! Quite surreal. Then up early and off to head down the Karakorum Highway, stopping ...

leaving China
Nov 1, 2009 (16 photos)

... connected to nature, although that dried yogurt they can keep for themselves :-p The next day we visit the stone castle in Tashkurgan, the last town before the border. It’s Tadjik town where they wear traditional clothes and hats. And it’s the ...

Stone City Ruins & Grassland***
Aug 31, 2007 (28 photos)

Stone City Ruins & Grassland

Highest (paved) road in the world!!
Jun 26, 2008 (30 photos)

... the Silk road where locals took advantage of the terrain, robbed the caravans and slaughtered their merchants. My journey started at in Tashkurgan from where I had tried to book the bus for the next day but was informed that I couldn't but this would be ...

Tashkurgan
Sep 26, 2006 (22 photos)

Pictures attached ... somewhere.

Korakoram Highway to Pakistan Photo Essay only
Jul 23, 2009 (29 photos)

The drive along the Pamir mountains was too beautiful to put into words and the town too grotty to bother with. Famous quote from one of the newbies on the trip. "So we are driving all the way up this road just to come back down again?" Ahh to have ...

much more than just a road, karakurum
Jul 7, 2009 (17 photos)

נשקתי לגבול פקיסטאן. למה? כי בתור ישראלי זה כ ...

Khunjerab Pass
Jul 19, 2005 (1 photos)

... . The scenery was truly awesome. So goodbye Pakistan hello China! The bus over the border, from Sust in Pakistan to Tashkurgan in China, is one of the great journeys of the world, passing over the Khunjerab Pass at 4900m. The journey up was dramatic ...

Bazaars et vieilles villes à Karghilik et Yarkand
Jul 19, 2008 (35 photos)

Nous continuons notre route vers Kashgar en nous arrêtant à Karghilik et à Yarkand. Ces deux bourgades ont une ambiance sympa, avec chacune leur bazaar et leur vieille ville. A part ca, pas grand chose à raconter, je vous laisse regarder ...

Karakol Lake
Jul 8, 2008 (8 photos)

En-route to Kashgar we decided to stay at Karakol lake, 3700m above sea level. The lake is famed and lugging our tent 6000km already on this trip for only 3 weeks use was also motivation for unwrapping the fly and putting in some pegs. We were a bit ...

Kingata Shan!!!!
Jul 10, 2005 (30 photos)

... day, Johan said to me that he "just didn't feel like working." Hello??? Johan was also spewing tales about life in China. I downgraded to believing about 75% of what Johan said. June 18: We wait around for the Slovenians, who have gotten stuck in ...

Karakul Lake
Sep 3, 2006 (6 photos)

beautiful blue lake surrounded by snow capped mountains and..yes... camels. the white, concrete yurts were a litte touristy though. nice to take photos for an hour or so but I couldn't imagine spending a night here.

Pakistan Border
Aug 27, 2007 (10 photos)

When the bus rolled into Tashkurgan I thought I made a mistake leaving beautiful Karakul Lake to come see this border town.  After checking into a dorm room at the New Traffic Hotel (not sure when it was new...maybe 1980?), I wandered into the ...

Kyrgyz People
Aug 25, 2007 (17 photos)

... at the side of the road and flagged down a bus headed the rest of the way along the Karakorum Highway to Tashkurgan, the last town before you leave China for Pakistan.  While waiting on the side of the road the weather turned from a nice, warm, sunny ...

braking and entering
Jul 13, 2007

We rode for two more days skirting the edge of the Taklamakan desert. This is not the land of rolling sand dunes, and for the most part even seemed quite fertile. There was a 50km stretch with no water available, which I had not foreseen (there had been ...

sost-tashkurgan
Jul 3, 2007

... on the original bus, with our stuff, and coincidentally in accordance with the legal manifest demanded by Chinese immigration. Tashkurgan was shockingly modern, with beautiful roads, streetlights, even some neon. It was late, past 10pm, when we ...

Kara Kul
Jul 3, 2007

The sky was bright, but we left Tashkurgan under a cloud, having picked a fight with the guesthouse we spent the night in. We had discovered that there were rooms, nearly identical to those we stayed in, available for 5 yuan cheaper than ours, which ...