In the farthest West of China
The Karakorum Highway
After we found a driver, we milled around for half an hour, eating pilaf for lunch while we waited for the pick-up truck’s other passengers to gather. It was around eleven o’clock, Xinjiang Time, by the time we left. The redneck Chinese guy driving our pickup gathered several other drivers together, telling us we were going to be part of a convoy of pick-ups heading into the Pamirs.
Entering the Pamirs
Getting out of Kashgar was tough. As we discussed in an earlier post, an assassination had just occurred outside the Id Kah Mosque, and the city was being sealed off in order to catch anyone involved with the murder. Our drivers spent twenty minutes circling around small villages in the suburbs of Kashgar, probing for a way to get through the security cordon that had encircled the city. Each of the convoy’s drivers used their cellphones as if they were c.b. radios, calling back to one another with their positions and the positions of the police checkpoints.
Our Pickup
Eventually, each of the pick-ups in the convoy failed to be able to get out, so our driver, along with the rest, gave up, and just went into a checkpoint. Waiting at the checkpoint cost us twenty minutes as we crawled towards the men in fatigues and helmets. At the checkpoint, all passengers had to get out and walk into an inspection booth with a metal detector and an ID check. The truck and driver were inspected separately.
For us, the inspection was little more than a glance at our passport. Han Chinese had to have their IDs scanned but otherwise, they were also mostly waved through. Uighurs, however, were more thoroughly inspected, some of them being interrogated.
Scrub Desert Uighur Village
After that checkpoint, our convoy regrouped outside at a tree-lined canal outside a small, yellow-brown Uighur village. When all four of the trucks in our convoy came together, we took off once again. Now, it was time for the real journey.
Red Canyons at the Journey’s Beginning
The road we were on is called the Karakorum Highway. It is the world’s highest international highway, leading from Kashgar, China to Gilgit, Pakistan. This is the roof of the world, and the terrain along this route is some of the wildest that China has to offer. First, we zoomed past scrub desert villages until we reached the mouth of a red canyon. The canyon was being torn apart by construction. Looking on, I assumed that, in a decade, construction will have completely destroyed the canyon.
Construction
The first red canyon led to more canyons, growing deeper in color with each one. Ahead, our driver saw dark, gray clouds, so he pulled off the side of the road to fix a tarp over our luggage in the bed of the truck.
Loading the Truck
Up until then, Galen had been hanging out of the back driver’s side window, taking the photos that you see. Our driver, humoring him, gave him the front passenger’s seat, so that he had more room to work his magic. I think the driver was tickled to have two foreigners riding with him, as long as we did not interfere with him making his money.
The Valley
Farther up, we had to pass through another checkpoint. A tiny town, nothing more than a handful of stores scraped together around a military guard-tower. Again, we showed them our passports. Here, the guards examined them more closely, but they, too, waved us on. Apparently, foreigners are allowed here, but Chinese have to get a special pass to go past this point, into the border zone. While waiting for our fellow passengers to get through the exam, we bought a milk tea and some nan bread. A jeep pulled up to the guard’s camp, just beside where the passports were examined. Several men saluted him and, for a minute, business stopped as the officer entered the camp.
Selling Nan at the Checkpoint
From this checkpoint, we moved deeper into the Pamir Mountains, white-capped peaks and snow-fed lakes. Soon, we were in one of the most forlorn corners of the planet.
Into the most forlorn corners of the planet
Construction
Village Housing Construction Workers
