Day 2, 7/6: Kashgar (4000 ft) - Tashkurgan (11000 ft)

Today’s going to be a long day on the road. Woke up at 8 a.m., packed, and ready to spend the next 8 hours in a bus. We’re traveling to Tashkurgan, the “most western” town (not city) of China. On the way to Tashkurgan, we needed to pass through many “border security stations,” where police required passengers to get off the car and verify our identities. One of our teammates forgot her ID, and all of us became paranoid that the whole crew wouldn’t be allowed to pass through. But thanks to China’s increasingly powerful technologies, she simply needed to scan her face. Since she’s a been a good passenger and had never committed any crimes, the facial recognition gadget was able to fetch her records, categorize her as a “safe” subject, and allow her to pass.

Red mountains.

For the majority of the route, we traveled on the famous Karakoram Highway (喀喇昆仑公路), or as Chinese people call it, the “Chinese-Pakistan Snow Mountain Friendship Highway (中巴雪山友谊路.” The first mountains we saw were flat and red; they were more like giant hills that made the already-hot weather feel even warmer.

The worst thing about this entire road trip is that the A/C is broken on the bus. Although the weather got colder as we traveled further west, the terrible ventilation, coupled with the rising altitude and the thinning air, almost made someone on the bus faint.

White Sand Lake. Very nice Banff-esque color, just without the trees.

But it was all worth it — the views on the entire Karakoram Highway was breathtaking. As we passed the White Sand Lake (白沙湖), we came across several glaciated peaks, including Kongur Tagh (25095 ft, 7649m), the highest mountain in the Pamir range. Just seeing snow alone acted like A/C, which made me feel much more comfortable.

Karakoram Highway. Clouds covering Kongur Tagh.

Then finally, we saw Muztagh Ata. My reaction: Holy, it’s a giant mountain. Can’t imagine how I’m going to stand on the top. It took us two hours just to go around it. The bus stopped for us to take pictures, and everyone was jumping out of excitement. One guy even started singing, which didn’t end well for him. The shortness of breath gave him a little altitude sickness as his head ached.

Hovering on Highway.

Pose.

Other climbers preparing for their expedition.

We could still see the mountain clearly even after we got to Tashkurgan, which is some 50 miles west. We passed Muztagh Ata, didn’t stay at basecamp, and rested in TashKurgan so that we could better acclimate to the altitude. Basecamp was at 4400m high, while Tashkurgan was only 3200m. Even then, a jump from 1200m to 3200m will lead to some degree of altitude sickness. The maximum height a person can acclimate per day is about 1000m (3300 feet). The only way to combat or prevent altitude sickness is to drink a SIGNIFICANT amount of water. (4 liters minimum, per day).

You can see the town gate when you zoom in.

Our hotel was actually outside the town itself. The gate to enter the town wasn’t even open, so we had to sneak under a narrow tunnel to visit the town ourselves. Before the sun set, I went to the Stone City, which was a set of ancient settlements built around 2000 years ago.

Behind the stone blocks, the bald, high mountains stood on a beautiful sea of grass. That’s where I took my profile picture now. Isn’t it stunning like a painting?

Stone City. Photos are only beautiful when people are in it.

i'll get out.

Can someone paint this?

I will return to Tashkurgan one more time during this trip, so I’ll save the food & people & culture until then.