Xinjiang, China’s Central Asia and incredible Tibet – Day 12

Day 12:

Today’s Route:

Hotan-Kashgar

The Hotan Hotel as I said was very nice and comfortable, and a 4 star hotel in Chinese standard, we had a nice sleep and fresh for today.

Hotel Lobby:

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Kid is looking for next destination

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Today we had a long drive through Southern Silk road from Hotan to Kashgar almost 550km through Karghilik and Yarkhand. We stayed in a nice hotel in Hotan which was again a four star in Chinese standard and had a good sleep, you need good rest to get yourself soaked in the beauty and culture of this region, it’s so colorful and varied, an experience you would cherish for lifetime. We reached Karghilik through the road mainly through desert and some oasis few and far between.

Karghilik is now a growing oasis town which comes frequently in the headlines because of flashpoints of ethic conflicts between Hun and Uyghur. Historically this was the point where ancient trade caravans and travellers heading for India would turn southwest into the mountains, trading the infamous desert path for the freezing, torturous track that led over the five great passes over Kunlun and Karakoram ranges to Leh and finally to Srinagar in Kashmir. The route averaging the height of 4800 meters (16K ft) above sea level and crossing five five thousand meters pass named Suget, Karakoram, Despang la, Saser la and Khardungla reaches to Leh and then passes through Zojila to cross over to Kashmir Valley. The region is named as Skeleton Trail as still it’s told to be strewn with skeletons of animals and human from the caravans perished in the wrath of nature. However, despite of its terrible hardships and difficult terrain, it was the best possible and most used route between the Tarim Basin and the Indian Subcontinent until the British finally created a safer and faster route in the second quarter of the last century via Hunza valley of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the Kunjerab Pass. Those famous two humped Bactrian camels many of us have seen in Nubra Valley actually came to India as part of this old caravans from Yarkhand in Tarim Basin. Karghilik Mosque is quite big but not opened for tourists, so we just enjoyed the architecture from outside and proceeded further to Yarkhand.

The people going to local markets:

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The ancient trade route bifurcates to India leaving the desert and crossing 5 great passes of Kunlun, Karakoram and Himalaya it reaches Indian Plains and almost through same terrain Chinese built modern engineering marvel of Highway 219 connecting Xinjiang and Tibet, known as remotest and deadliest highway in world, we are at point Zero (Start Point) at Xinjiang side.

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Karghilik Mosque:

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Day 12 Continued…

Historically Yarkhand was considered even bigger trade hub in silk route than Kashgar or Hotan due to its extensive commercial activities with Indian Subcontinent through Leh. With a forum like BCMT which is so information intensive on Leh, let’s see something on other part of the story that made Leh so famous historically. Silk road caravans carried silks, tea, precious stones, golds, furs and skins and opium (heavily used in China) from India. It’s the Kashmiri traders who taught the Yarkhandis to clean and treat fleeces and soon the quality of Yarkhand’s shawl wool became world famous. It’s again a lesson taught by Indians to China. Yarkhand boasts of its rich culture from Hindus, Pathans, Tibetans, Baltis, Afghans and other foreign traders who swelled the city’s population. It is now officially known as Shache, for some reason Chinese have renamed all the Uighur towns like Khotan becomes Hetian, Niya becomes Minfeng, Karghilik becomes Yecheng and Kashgar becomes Kashi, Yarkhand is no exception, not sure if this is cultural invasion or their idea of making the history blurred to make it all feel Chinese. You would be surprised to know that cultural invasion has gone to such an extent that all Xinjiang town has now got an official sister city from their Chinese counterparts, Kashgarh has Guangzhou, Yarkhand has Shanghai, Hotan has Beijing like this, so cultural invasion can go on systematically. I am not giving any opinion what Chinese are doing is right or wrong, we have seen lots of flipsides of democracy we enjoy in India but one thing is sure China wants its people and others in world to believe that Chinese history starts from 1949 onwards when Communists came into power. But that’s a big loss to whole world specially for places like Xinjiang and Tibet which has a long history and much of that directly or indirectly connected to India.

I met one Japanese tourist who is studying on Chinese language, he told me something on Chinese history, he asked me why I chose Western Part of China as my first trip there when everyone knows (rather Chinas wants all to know) it’s the Eastern part that reflects true China. I replied him that history of Xinjiang and Tibet apart from the landscape fascinated me always. He asked me again why not the history of Eastern side of China attracts me, I replied I never studied so called history of that part of China, then he smiled and told me “How you would study, most of the histories of those part are actually Fairy Tales whether western part has a long and rich real history”, I didn’t know how true is that but the conversation struck me right in my heart. If some country really having rich heritage and culture, I don’t know how they could denounce histories of others.

We visited the Imperial Tomb complex of Altun kings who ruled the Yarkhand kingdom in 16th Century and it was a nice place to see the old architecture of that time. Another place we visited was the Tomb of Amanisa Han, the wife of Sultan of Yarkhand. She was credited with collating and composing much of the epic “Twelve Muqam”, the most significant collection of music in Uyghur culture. Known as “Mother of Uyghur Music”, the Twelve Muqam comprises large scale sets of sung poetries, dance tunes and instrumental pieces. In 2005 UNESCO recognized it by designating it a “Representative work of Human Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage”. She was a great artist no doubt about that but she is very few of the representatives of Uyghur culture who was supported and projected by Chinese Govt, the reason most Uyghur loves to believe as she was a Han Chinese who was married to Uyghur and Chinese shows this as epitome of national integrity. I just wrote what I heard, no pun intended
We gave a miss to Yengisar, another silk route town famous for making Yengisar knife which is strictly prohibited to even carry in your check in luggage. Yengisar knife so nicely made, you would love to buy one if you see it, so be careful, unless you have a plan to get out overland, getting this out of China is difficult. We gave it a miss because we were short in time after exploring Karghilik and Yarkhand. We reached Kashgar quite late around 8.00 in evening and have a quick dinner and went to bed.

Streets at Karghilik:

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Women are in Business, common sight in Southern Xinjiang:

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Tired Seller:

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Tomb of Amanisa Han:

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Imperial Tomb complex of Altun kings:

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Kashgar Hotel, very nice one:

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