Aksu to Kashgar
Xinjiang
China
July 1, 2017
Highway 314, a modern road, runs 286 mi (460 km) southwest from the city of Aksu to the city of Kashgar. It takes almost five hours by car.
It’s a colorful drive. The Tianshan mountains to the right. The Taklimakan desert to the left.
And what colors!
Have you ever seen orange mountains?
Me neither.
Kashgar (Kashi)
Xinjiang – Uyghur Autonomous Region
People’s Republic of China
July 2, 2017
My Dear Carnivorous Friends,
Kashgar is “The End of the Line” for man and beast. (Mostly beast.)
Unless and until I venture further south and west, towards Tashkurgan and the Pakistan border, Kashgar is “the end of the line” for me and for other Silk Road travelers in China.
But for most of the four-legged domesticated creatures here at the Sunday Livestock Market, Kashgar truly is “the end of the line.”
Tashkurgan
Tajik Autonomous County
Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region
People’s Republic of China
July 6, 2017
My Dear Friends,
What a splendid, albeit cloudy and misty, ride along the Karakorum Highway to Tashkurgan and an equally splendid, sunny and clear, ride back to Kashgar the following day.
The last town in China before the border of Pakistan, Tashkurgan Town has a long history as a major stop on the ancient Silk Road along the Karakorum Highway. The Highway runs from Kashgar, China in the north to Islamabad, Pakistan in the west.
