Train to Urumqi I walked to Hami’s railway station around 0900 after breakfast in my room.  I didn’t have to wait long before the queues formed for boarding the train to Urumqi. Departing at 1010, time went quickly as I attended to online chores on my phone.  I chose to arrive at Urumqi South where […]

Hami’s sights are concentrated all in one place in the south-west of the city which I reached by taxi. Kings’ Mansion  I lined up to buy the ticket for the Mansion (or palace) of the Hami Kings just before it opened at 1000. Like my old guidebook said, it is a bad recreation of the […]

Flying to Urumqi I had the alarm for 0445, time for a pre-arranged pick-up at 0530 by a taxi.  It was a fixed rate arrangement, with probably a 50% premium, as I was worried that taxis may not be available at this ungodly time, especially when people consider 0530 to be 0330. Waiting on the […]

What I’m not doing I’ve done most of the things I can do in Hotan.  There were a couple that I decided against doing: Mazar of Imam Asim: This mausoleum lies out of town and Uyghurs used to pray here.  More recent reports have suggested that the area is off-limits to foreigners. Yue Tu Gan […]

Train to Hotan I took a taxi for Kargilik station at 0815 for my 0919 train to Hotan.  At the security checkpoint for the station, they had trouble summoning a cop and I had to wait about 20 mins. When boarding came, I noticed they had trouble locating my train booking at the turnstiles.  I […]

Train to Kargilik After one night, I’m on the move by train again, this time to Kargilik (Yecheng).  I left the hotel at 0715 by taxi for the 0819 train.  This time it is only a 50 ride in the hard seat class. With locals observing a 2h unofficial time difference, this ride is bloody […]

To Yarkant by train Today I do my first of five train trips that I’ve booked, the first of which is from Kashgar to Yarkant (Shache), a journey of 2h20 starting at 0950. I didn’t get to have the hotel breakfast with this early start, which is unofficially 0750 locally.  In fact, it was the […]

Animal market After a day of attending to online matters and cleaning my shoes yesterday, I have what might be the highlight of my Kashgar visit this morning.  Being Sunday, I was keen to revisit the animal market to compare what might have changed since 1998. Coming along for the ride was Simon from Switzerland […]