As promised in the most recent post on the Karakoram Highway – part of the Karakoram Highway experience includes Karakul Lake and the Kyrgyz people, both nomads and permanent residents, that live in the region. Karakul, whose crystalline waters beautifully reflect the surrounding glacier-capped peaks, is surprisingly unspoiled, with almost no development along its shores. … Continue reading
Stretching more than 800 miles from Kashgar in China’s western Xinjiang region to Abbottabad in Pakistan, the Karakoram Highway is the world’s highest transnational roadway and a testament to modern China’s determination to shape and contain nature’s most daunting obstacles. Completed in 1979, the roadway’s official objective was to foster trade between Beijing and Karachi, … Continue reading
This scene report may be a thousand years too late, but this is the action in Jiaohe right now… Said to be the largest, oldest and best-preserved earthen city in the world, the remains of the ancient city of Jiaohe are incorporated into an island in the middle of the confluence of two rivers near … Continue reading
Found deep within a canyon in the Flaming Mountains, the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves are a complex of Buddhist niches and caves that date back to the 5th century… Long-time readers will, I believe, find that the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves remind them very much of the Buddhist caves (and former site of the giant … Continue reading
Located on the outskirts of Turpan, the Emin Minaret and Mosque were constructed in 1777 to honor a military general from Turpan, Emin Khoja (which is where the name derives from). Designed by a Uighur architect, it was constructed using the local materials available at the time – brick and wood. The textured bricks were … Continue reading
Turpan is… Well, it is an ugly city with low quality construction thrown up by the Chinese government: But the people are lively and fun… And I’m laying the groundwork for a broader discussion of the region. For that effort to make sense, it will help to understand the people and how things look in … Continue reading
Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, has the distinction of being the most landlocked city on the planet. Positioned 1,600 miles from the nearest coastline, this distinction has earned Urumqi a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. In an effort to attract more Chinese tourists, the government of China has … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 