South Xinjiang...

I arrived in the distinctly more Muslim city of Kashgar via a sleeper train in the afternoon of the 19th. People speak a lot less Mandarin and a lot more Uyghur (a Turkic language complete with squiggle style writing). Don't ask me how to pronounce Uyghur.

Since trains in Xinjiang are much slower than the rest of China (due only having one track and the use of diesel locomotives), I only had half a day to explore Kashgar. The city itself isn't very big though and I managed to fit everything in. I showed some cultural tolerance and visited the city mosque, supposedly one of the biggest in the world, there wasn't a "sermon" so I didn't see that many Muslims.

After my brief foray into Islam, I checked out the old city. Hippies and Lonely Planet editors harp on about how Han Chinese developments are going to wipe out the old city altogether, but the government has now stopped bulldozing the old city and a fair portion of it still remains, at least enough for you to look at it and be wowed by how their houses don't fall over after a healthy sneeze or a docile shower.

The rest of the sightseeing was somewhat lacklustre with a trip to the tombs of the local royal family when Kashgar was a prosperous city-state, and then a visit to the bazaar, where Uyghur and southern Chinese merchants fight to get you to buy their stuff, half of which is fake, and didn't even have any fake Rolexes (Rolexi?), or watches where Chairman Mao waves his hand :(. Sorry Thomas.

Oh yeah.. there is a People's square with a huge Chairman Mao statue, but I felt a bit religious after visiting the Mosque and decided that it wouldn't be right visiting Mao after going to a Mosque. Afterall, Karl Marx did say "Religion is the opiate of the people".

The next day was much better, left the hotel bright and early to embark on a journey 150 odd kms in length, and 4kms in height. The brave taxi driver picked me up in a stock standard Volkswagen Santana (don't ask me about the name, I'm sure Chinese people have never heard of Carlos Santana) with bad suspension and a totally wasted CV joint. I thought the vehicle was going to be at least a Pajero, oh well.

The first 5kms outside Kashgar was OK, and then we hit road works on the Karakorum Highway, according to the taxi driver, there are non stop road works because the government keeps giving funds for it. The next 3 hours were very bumpy, dusty and generally kept me on the edge of my seat, I almost had to get out of the car and push. The crapness of the car ended up not being entirely a bad thing as I have a tendecy to fall asleep when the ride is comfortable, and you don't really want to fall asleep at anytime on the way to lake Karakul, the scenery changes constantly and is absolutely stunning.

You start off with a few trees, receding to barren desert and wasteland, then the foothills of the Panmir moutains suddenly spring out of nowhere, and you have big rocky hills, the hills are multi-coloured depending on the content of the minerals inside the rocks (chiefly red, black and grey). Before you know it, a few snow-capped peaks appear, and the vertical journey starts. After a kilometre vertically, you hit a grassy plain and a lake (not Karakul), which seems totally out of place compared to the bare mountains around it. The taxi driver stops for a nap, I go for a walk and am immediately greeted by Kirgiz hawkers trying to sell me rocks that I can pick up on the ground. Another kilometre or so, there's another unnatural feature, a lake (again, not Karakul) with a moutain of sand (possibly a dune) next to it, some goats, donkeys, Kirgiz and Tajiks. The view from here on becomes a bit more predictable, Kongur peak and its nine surrounding peaks become more and more visible, and eventually you seek another peak(I can't remember the name, its too Pakistani) opposite Kongur peak and of course the lake itself.

The views around the lake are absolutely stunning, although I decided to be cheeky and not pay the RMB50 admission fee (its natural scenery! I shouldn't have to pay to see it!), so some attention was diverted to looking out for people on motorbikes accosting people for their tickets.

If anyone ever comes to Xinjiang... come to Kashgar, you can see other parts of Xinjiang in New Zealand.