2018, Central Asia

“Let’s travel light” we said!

Wild camels along the border route

Landscape from the border road

That’s what you call a landscape!

Chaotic border shop at the Irkeshtam pass

A photo with a Chinese officer

We wake up quite early, at 7 AM Beijing time, to check out from the hotel and take the taxi that will lead us to the beginning of our journey across the Chinese-Kyrgyz border. We booked the taxi through an agent that Simone met at the hotel when we arrived in Kashgar. The guy asked us 1000 yuan (something like 80 euros) for a 1h30 trip until Urumqat, the customs before the border. We could have paid much less, but as we are on a planified trip and we can’t afford to lose time (for example, hitchiking, or waiting for a bus that never comes, things like that) we preferred paying more to be sure that we would cross the border without delays.

Well, at some point of the route, half an hour before the customs, the driver, who once again doesn’t speak a single word in English, stops the car and tells us to get inside another car, where two other men are waiting for us. We message our agent to ask him if it’s normal: it’s not. We’d really like to avoid jumping on a car we don’t know without being able to speak to anyone, but the driver begins putting all our stuff (just to remind: two big backpacks, one trolley, two small backpacks!) inside the other car. We ask our agent to call the driver, which he promptly does. Our driver seems upset, but agrees to get us again in his car, without further talking. When we arrive at the police station for the first control, the police takes our passports, tells us to get all our stuff and our driver waits for us on the other side, after the control. There, we meet a group of five Italians and another group of two composed by an Italian guy, named Simone, and a Hong Kongese girl, named Wei. The control takes about 20 minutes, then we get inside the car again and continue for about five or ten minutes until arriving at the customs. This is the point where the driver leaves us and gets paid.

Before entering the customs building, we pass two controls, where they check our passports and write down information about us (name, passport number, phone number) on a notebook. We realize they write the first name at the place of the last name, and they don’t look like they really understand what they’re doing.

After these two controls, we get a lift from the vehicle of the Italian guys, who rented a bus for this journey, for another couple of minutes, until the proper customs control. There, the police retire our passports and keeps them for 15 minutes. The atmosphere is relaxed and police officers are cold but not disrespectful.

We then pass other two passport checks, distant not more than 5 or 10 meters from each other, and we get our luggage summarily controlled.

Funny enough, during the whole procedure, another police officer with a reflex camera photographs us as a paparazzo. Another officer then helps us with the luggages while the photograph keeps on shooting photos to testimony the kindness of the border control police.

We are supposed to take a taxi to the border with Simone and Wei and, while we wait for them, one of the Chinese agents asks us to pose for a propaganda photo. The situation gets funnier and funnier - and even policemen look amused. After being photographed multiple times, we ask the officers if we can make a selfie with them: the youngest one among the officers asks his boss who harshly replies “No photo! No photo!”. Prisca is really pissed off with this! Even the young policeman looks naively disappointed, and excuses himself multiple times.

When Simone and Wei finally get to the other side too, the boss wants us again to be taken in picture for their internal instruction material, which we refuse in order to be able to get to the final part of the border as soon as possible.

After almost two more hours by car with a driver provided by the police, we finally arrive at the Chinese side of the border with Kyrgystan. There are only a few trucks waiting and the group of Italians. Guess what?

The border is closed!! The opening times are from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM and from 4 pm to 7 PM. Too bad we arrive at almost 2 PM, so we have to wait for two hours before it opens again. While waiting we have the opportunity to discuss with the other people of the groups and buy something to eat at the shop - definitely the most weird shop for a border, but useful anyway! The border reopens with some delay, so we get in the car to pass again two controls: first with a funny officer, who even gets in the car and lets us take a picture of him with us, and a second one with a cold guy who doesn’t seem to know how to smile. We finally get to the Kyrgyz side, safe and sound, relieved that we all made it.

Here begins the second part of our journey, from the Kyrgyz side of the border, to Osh. But that’s another story.

Small shops in the Old City

Old Uighurs with a child

Tiny streets around the Old City

Kashgar’s Mosque

A Uighur selling any sort of local (or apparently so) goods

A nice - but empty - restaurant

We start the day wandering in the awe-inspiring old city, which constitutes the City Center. It’s a labyrinth of small streets full of shops selling all kind of goods, from fabric to local handicrafts of dubious authenticity. The atmosphere, at least, is original, and that is due to the vast majority of Uighurs living in the city.

The beauty of the place is sadly ruined by the blockades installed at the entrance of all the neighborhoods of Kashgar: at each one of them we are required to show the passport. But, as tourists, we are the lucky ones: if policemen summarily look at our documents, it is not the case for locals, for whom the checks are more thorough and sometime include random questions and/or perquisitions. Police is basically everywhere: a metal detector is installed at every shop, and bigger ones require a baggage check, which we can randomly skip as foreign tourists. Despite the control and repression, we see a lot of young children playing in the streets, which makes us understand that, after all, these people adapt to the situation and live as normally as they can.

At around midday we opt for visiting the Mosque, the biggest of the country, for which we pay the exorbitant price of 45 yuan (roughly 7€ per person): too bad the place is empty. Besides, we are reminded by the police that the place is not meant to be used for religious purposes: women can enter without covering head or arms and prayers are not allowed. The garden is calm, though, and perfect for some relaxing time away from the busy streets of the city.

Back in the old city, we stroll in the streets and notice how the vast majority of buildings is actually pretty recent: the “real” ancient Kashgar has actually been demolished and replaced with a new one, more suitable for tourism, decorated with brand new Islamic-inspired buildings. The previous ones, made with mud bricks, and dating back to centuries ago, can only be seen in another portion of the small town, around 2 kms away. Even this latter one, though, at the moment of writing, is being progressively demolished and the authorities don’t let anyone in.

During our two days in Kashgar we also have the time to visit the local bazaar, literally full of any kinds of stuff. Despite its gigantic size, many products on sale are fake replicas of luxury brands, making it not so different from the so-callled “fake market” that we visited in Beijing: to our major amusement, we stumble on ridiculously fake Samsung TVs (Somsung), Sharp (Sahpr) or LG (LGwd). Of course, we also find tons of fresh products: fruits, almonds, nuts, dates, cold goat milk and local bakeries based on the local ingredients.

Grenade juice, nut-based pastries and goat meat are just some of the key elements of the unexpectedly developed Uigur cuisine, which can be tasted at incredibly cheap local restaurants: a meal for two costs around 4/5€ drinks included. When ordering, the local language is the hardest barrier though: written in the Arab alphabet, it has absolutely nothing to share with Chinese or to other languages, even if some words share common roots with Turkish. Nevertheless, in general menus are written in both Uighur and Chinese, which allows us to use our translator app to help us understand what we order. Even in the fanciest Uighur restaurants, the atmosphere is hardly happy. It’s high season in Xinjiang; still, most tables are empty and you don’t need to reserve in advance to get one, even in those nights with live music, often performed with a local guitarist singing beautiful local songs with a middle-eastern sound.

The second day in Kashgar, we miss the opportunity to visit the Karakol lake, one of the best spots of the region. The trip is a bit expensive and we are quite tired, so we take the time to better discover the streets and try to get a better glimpse of the local life. In all but the smallest streets, small shops work incessantly, often full of female customers of all ages, buying products for the entire family.

Generally speaking, thousands of years later, Kashgar still plays the role it had at the time of the ancient Silk Road, that is, being an extraordinary center of commerce and trading. Apart from the Bazar, the town is all about selling and buying goods from all over the Eastern World: gold and fruits from Central Asia, electronics and clothes from China, but also silk, leather and even animals.

And if Europe seems having lost the role it had, at the profit of the Chinese superpower, this can’t be farther from truth. Brands people long for in this part of the world are mainly Gucci and Luis Vuitton, with local designers “borrowing” inspiration from their European counterparts; European footballers are as popular here as they are in their home countries. A bunch of hundred kilometers north of Kashgar, in Urumqi, trains fulls of car components for German and French automotive brands go back and forth from Chinese factories.

Of course, Internet has replaced the ancient Silk Road as a mean of exchanging ideas but Xinjiang, thanks to its key position in the continent, has probably never been so important in the last centuries as in this decade. For Chinese authorities, this region is not only another piece of their already enormous territory, but the main access point to Central Asia and Europe. It should then come as no surprise the recent intensification of controls and “safety” procedures: the local government will do whatever possible to keep the control of the region. Cost what it costs.

A lonely street in Tuyuq village

Abandoned Mosque in Tuyuq village

The remnants of a gate in Tuyuq Village.

The Thousand Buddha Caves complex. The lower part is closed to the public.

An unrestaured Buddha in the Thousand Buddha Caves

The Emim Minaret

Our glorious Volkswagen Santana

Night Market in Kashgar

Today is our only day left in Turpan, and we want to visit other major highlights of the region. Our driver picks us up in front of the hotel at 8 o’clock and brings us to Tuyuq, an ancient village built by the Uigurs. It’s almost a phantom village, as very few people live there. We visit for an hour or so and then continue to the Thousand Bouddhas Caves, an ancient place for prayers dating to the IX century. The place is really beautiful, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by infinite mountains with vivid colors. Unfortunately most frescos inside the caves are poorly conserved. It must be noted, though, that the portions which are still visible have a major value in art history, as the paintings have influences coming from all around the world. From colors you’d normally find in the Islamic World, to compositions of Hellenistic origins: these caves are the extraordinary proof of the cross-fertilization of cultures and ideas enabled by the Silk Road.

Continuing with the visit, we then head to Emin’s minaret, which Emin, ancient leader of the Ouygurs, constructed in the honor of the Chinese in the year 1777. The building is impressive seen from the outside but, when inside, everything is pretty empty. What’s more, the place doesn’t look like is used for the prayers anymore.

We are hungry and time goes by fast, so before going to the airport we invite our driver to have lunch with us. He suggests a restaurant to us, we take it. It’s not expensive, but we can see the people that eat there are quite wealthy (for the local standards, I mean). There is even a policeman in the entrance to control the clients, which makes us suppose that it’s for selected customers. Which doesn’t mean expensive, anyway: a lunch for 3 costs us 45 yuan (6€, in total!).

Arriving at the airport, the guards in the first access tell the driver he can’t come inside with the car, so we say goodbye to him and walk for some meters. The driver asks us a really reasonable sum, considering he has escorted us all around the countryside since 8 in the morning. We give him a generous tip, which he refuses at first and then accepts blushing.

The airport is not very far, but we have a lot of stuff (two big backpacks, a trolley, a camera and two small bags). Arriving to the building, surprise: everything is closed. Yes, the airport is closed! At 4:30 pm!! A poster indicates different hours, so we understand these are the opening and closing times. Really strange. Only a door for a waiting room is open, so we go inside to wait for the airport to open. More than 40 minutes later, employees of the airport arrive and we can then proceed to check-in and pass the control of the bagages. Our flight is the only one in the whole airport. The police control is much lighter than the ones we had in the city. Our flight departure is planned to 7:25 pm. The airplane takes off at 7:10! Two hours later, we arrive in Kashgar.

Things are a bit different here, the airport is bigger and more modern. We go outside the airport and taxis are waiting for clients. One guy welcomes us speaking English and tells us a fixed price that we prompyly accept. He drives like crazy, which is quite different from what we have been used to until now. He speeds a lot and makes his way honking at every car in front of him and doesn’t respect basic rules of a normal trafic. The thing is the other drivers drive in the same way. When he finally drops us at the hotel we are relieved. Our hotel is a big nice hotel on a large and very frequented avenue in the city center. We are really well received and the room is very beautiful - but still cheap for European standards.

We enjoy our first night in Kashgar by going out to the night market to eat something and walk around a bit to discover the city. Kashgar’s night market is a food market rich in Uighur specialties and really appreciated by tourists and locals. The place is like no other we have seen so far: people of all cultures wander around the small stands of the market, emerging from the smoke of goat barbecue that fills the Arabic-looking streets, creating a very pleasant atmosphere. We eat something and go have some sleep. Tomorrow is another day in Xinjiang.

Stopping at the Hamì airport

Entering the Old Jiaohe

Buddha Statues in the temple of the Old Jiaohe

Main Street of Old Jiaohe, with its temple in the background

Bomì bomì mai bomì

We land in the oasis of Turpan (also known as Tulufan) after a brief stop of our plane in Hamì, one of the main cities of the Taklamakan desert in the Xinjiang. The hot and dry weather is considerably different from Beijing’s, which comes as a relief.

Xinjiang is also the home to the Uigurs, an ethnic group of Turkic (i.e. Mongolian) origin barely known in the Western world (by the way, did you know that present day Turks originate from the Mongolian steppe?) We don’t see any on the plane - even if, according to the official numbers, they should compose around 50% of the population of the region.

Turpan welcomes us with a very heavy border security: along with another three foreigners, we are escorted in a police car to the police center of the airport, where officials take photos of our faces and ask us a couple of common questions (where are you going, what are you doing in the city, and such). Thankfully we are helped by a young German lady of Chinese origins who translates questions and answers for us.

The guy appearing to be in charge of the police office kindly offers to escort us to the brand-new high-speed train station, where we can finally catch a taxi: we realize the entrance to the airport is actually blocked by the police forces and no vehicle is entering the area.

On the road to the hotel we cannot but notice a police station every 2 kms or so, presided by lightly armed officers. Also, strangely enough, an impressive number of cars are prototypes, covered with mimetic sheets. We can recognize very well known brands of vehicles, and models which we haven’t seen on any European street yet.

The hotel, hidden behind a bigger and older one, is apparently brand new. The tenant doesn’t speak a word of English and struggles scanning our passports with the check-in app installed on his phone. He’s rarely met a foreign tourist but, today it’s his unlucky day: another French tourist, arrived just before us, is waiting for his documents to be processed too. We wait a full hour until we can finally go to the room.

A great part of the afternoon is already gone: the long flight, the check at the police station and the check-in at the hotel have eaten up the vaste majority of the day. We decide to hire a cab and pay a visit to one of the major highlights this land has to offer: the ancient city of Jiaohe, one of the most important military centers of the Han dynasty, built some 1500-2000 years ago. The town, carved into a huge rock almost 2km long and 30 meters tall, is incredibly well preserved: nowadays it is still possible to wander around the small streets of the city, enter its main buildings and stand at the top of the complex, with a nice view on the oasis.

Back to Turpan, we start looking for something to eat but, to our major disappointment, the main pieces of information in our possession - thank you Lonely Planet - are totally wrong: the night market, supposed to sell all kinds of local food, from Chinese to Uigur’s, is nowhere to be found: it maybe closed months, years ago? Our lack of any understanding of Chinese is not helping much.

We find ourselves walking for a couple of kilometers trying to find an acceptable place for eating. The choice is hard: despite the large number of restaurants in the city, many seem to lack of hygiene. We end up in a small place serving excellent spicy noodles, with Air Conditioning probably set to -20 celsius. The total price for the meal is 34 yuan, not even 2.5€ per person, including drinks. We can hardly find cheaper.

It’s already 11 PM in the evening, most shops are still open, while old ladies go back and forth with their carts selling vegetables in the street (“bomi bomi, mai bomi!”). Officers are still standing outside their police stations, located on each main crossroad of the city - even in the center. In the pleasantly warm air, people still enter and exit restaurants while their children look at us, westerners, as if we came from another world. And, maybe, we do.

Today we are finally heading to visit the Forbidden City, as on Friday we failed obtaining the tickets to get inside. We wake up not too early and take our time to get the breakfast in our favorite hutong near the hotel: we eat noodles, at 9 AM, as most locals apparently. After a good walk we take the metro to go to Tian’anmen square to meet our dear pal Mao. The queue is huge but we’re ready for it. After passing the control we cross the first door of the City, the Door of Heavenly Peace. Past that, we arrive at the point where all tourists (mostly Chinese, no need to say again) wait on the queue to have their audio guides or guided visit. We decide to try a guided visit, but the visits are for groups of 5 people, and we see no European English speaking tourists around. A guide comes to see us and explains that most non-Chinese tourists take audio guides, but we insist on having a real person, which provides a more interesting experience in general. We finally pay the full price (thanks to a dusty POS machine that seems not having been used for years) and the visit starts right away. The guide is very nice and tells us a lot of interesting stories, but her strong accent makes it difficult to understand everything she says. Anyways, we try to retain at least the idea behind every story, which describes the history of the palace throughout the ages, and the Ming and Qing dynasties. We then continue the visit by ourselves to take pictures of the humongous place. Main drawback is the number of tourists: each day 80.000 tickets are sold (which makes 2.5 million people per month in peak seasons!). As a result, the most interesting parts hardly accessible. Around 4:30 PM the vaste majority of the visitors quit the place, leaving the palace in a surreal silence and emptiness: in those few minutes the Forbidden City reveals its original beauty, made of thoughtfulness and isolation.

We end the day at Tian’anmen square and miss for very few minutes the Flag Lowering Ceremony held every day by the Army. It’s already 6:30 PM and we start getting tired of walking: distances are quite huge, especially since we’re wandering on foot since the morning. However, as we are not very far from the Dashilar neighborhood, one of the most famous commercial areas in Beijing, we decide to take a dinner there while discovering its look, recently overhauled with brand new XIX century inspired architecture.

But, first, we need to find a new trolley, as yesterday’s shopping is already threatening our luggage capacity limit. We stop by a shop whose seller wants to sell us the most expensive bag among the two we are interested in. One costs 99 yuan, the other one 219 yuan. We’re going for the cheaper, as we know we won’t need it after the trip. The guy prefers selling us the more expensive one, and insists on its qualities. That’s where the negotiations start, but after yesterday’s silk market we’re now used to it. 10 minutes later we leave the shop with our 219 yuan bag, but for 150 yuan only, with the feeling that we could have kept on lowering the price should we had wanted to keep on negotiating.

A fake ancient alley hosts a wide choice of local restaurants; we pick the first one before it begins raining heavily. Here enters one of Prisca’s new favorite meal: Beijing flavor Dumplings, which is dumplings stuffed with rice and mushrooms. Too bad it was supposed to be eaten by Simone!

It’s our last night in Beijing and before getting back to the hotel we couldn’t of course, resist hitting our favorite hutong for a last time. Of course, it’s the moment for the last Milk Tea with Pearls, Prisca’s new favorite drink.

Here end our weekend in Beijing. Tomorrow’s the time for another destination: Xinjiang.

Summing up:

• Beijing’s crazy hot and humid in summer, but its treasures really make for the sacrifice of visiting
• European tourists are surprisingly nowhere to be found
• Prices are more than reasonable, even cheap we’d say. Negotiations are often necessary though
• The city has a real vibe: hutong, shops and bars are full of young people and interesting ideas
• Transports work perfectly and hardly overcrowded unless you take them in peak hours
• Beijing is probably less of a culture melting pot than Shanghai, but has a lot more to offer overall. Even more probably these days, since in 2019 Beijing will host the Expo and, in 2022, the Olympic Winter Games.