Part 8 - Tsada - Ali - Dahongliutan - Yechen - Kashgar
Four days and 1500 km to our final destination, Kashgar, Xinjiang, the Muslim province in the far West of China. Again a trip through beautiful and varied scenery.
Day 1 - Tsada - Ali/Shiquanhe
In Tsada we cross the Langchan Tsangpo river, known as Sutlej in India and Pakistan, which has its source in the Kailash area, then flows 1400 km through Tibet, Kashmir and Pakistan before joining the Indus river.
Scarce vegetation above 4500m
In Ali (Shiquanhe) we cross the Senge Tsangpo river, better known as Indus river, also with source in the Kailash area, and flowing 3180km through Tibet, Ladakh and Khyber before reaching the Arabian Sea in Pakistan Punjab.
Ali is the biggest town in Western Tibet with 100.000 inhabitants. It is a pure Chinese settlement which 25 years ago was just a tiny Tibetan village.
Day 2 - Ali -Dahongliutan
Pangong Tso Lake - stretching over 134km, from Tibet into Ladakh
Qiensha-la Pass, 5378m, the highest point on earth we ever reached
Lungma Tso lake and Mt Kerya, 7200m
Satsam-la Pass, 5347m
Tibet-Xinjiang border
View of the second highest mountain of the world, Mt K2 (8611m) on the left, and Broad Peak (8056) on the right.
Our guesthouse in Dahongliutan
Day 3 - Dahongliutan - Yecheng
Today's plan is to travel 500km through breathtaking scenery and views of several 8000-thousand-metre peaks, with an estimated travel time of about 7-8 hours.
Well, until ...
Suddenly we had to stop because of a convoy that exited from an army camp onto our road. It turned out that the Chinese army was on military maneuvers in this area close to the Indian and Pakistani borders. This explained the long military convoy we had seen two weeks before from the Tibet train. The exercises had now ended, and all the troops were heading towards the West of China. Hence a convoy of roughly 300 heavy vehicles was going to travel over two 5000m-passes in front of us, with regular breakdowns of trucks and other unexpected events. And no civil vehicle was allowed to overtake the convoy.
Our second view of the majestic K2
Finally at around 1 pm we arrived in our hotel in Yecheng (Chinese name) / Kargilik (Uygur name).
Day 4 - Yecheng - Kashgar
The last day of our trip through Tibet was a short stretch of only 245km from Yecheng to Kashgar, a highway along he western rim of the Taklamakan desert.
The train from Urumqi (capital of Xinjiang) via Kashgar to Yecheng/Kargilik
The last police checkpoint on our trip - we had stopped counting, for sure there were more than 30 of them.
We arrived safely at our hotel in Kashgar, thanks to our caring guide Phurbu, and Loh, our responsible driver. You did a great job, guys, thank you very much. Hope to see you again in the future!
What a fantastic trip!
All photos by the author, apart from those marked with 'www', which were taken from various internet sources.
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