Xinjiang trip report.
I’m just back from Xinjiang. I went to Turpan, Kuqa, Aksu, Hotan, Kashgar and Tashkurgan.
I learned a lot about the ethnic groups there and their history and culture. I saw ancient cities near Turpan and Kizel cave near Kuqa. Just outside Aksu I got to ride a camel 🐫. The Taklamakan desert was extremely vast. Hotan has a weeving silk and wool tradition there. The red rug in the picture was a handwoven rug I bought in a wool weeving factory and brought back to Ireland as a souvenir. I saw the old town in Kashgar. The old town looks very nice especially the rebuilt parts of it the original part looks very dilapidated. The mosque there is very big. The scenery in Tashkurgan is spectacular going up the pamir mountains made it a lot cooler there. I saw ancient cities traditional Tajik performance there. And driving along the Karakoram Highway was great especially the winding back and forth part of it. At the end we left Kashgar from the train station caching a soft sleeper on T270 to Xian and subsequently a G train to Beijing before flying back to IReland.
It was a great trip to see a very different side of china and to a very exotic and remote area. I highly recommend going to Xinjiang and traveling along the Silk Road, making a journey across China by a combination of Car Train and Camel.
We had traditional Uyghur food in most cities and Tajik meal in Tashkurgan. The food is excellent there. If you like food you’ll like Xinjiang.