From the Torugat Pass to Kashgar, Far West China OR A Tough Time for Two Tired Travellers

It feels quite strange to actually walk from one country and into another. But that is exactly what we did.

The amazingly bleak and inhospitable No Mans Land of the Torugat Pass is no relaxing place to hang out and after a miserably cold and frustrating three hour wait with our ever obliging Kyrgyz guide and driver, our Chinese guide Abdul finally arrived to collect us (see note below). The guard gruffly waved us on, an official wearily dragged open a disappointingly nondescript metal gate and we were back once again in China.

For some reason you think that China should look and feel different from Kyrgyzstan. But of course it didn't – at that stage. What was different was the seemingly illogical and frustratingly slow administrative procedures and the rough car and baggage searches that followed. If we thought that the Kyrgyz officials were surly and bureaucratic, then we had seen nothing compared with the Chinese side of the border.

But then again, we were warned.

To say that Alan and I were more than a bit stressed out at this point of time would be a gross understatement. Because we could not access money through our Visa card or use our traveller’s cheques in Kyrgyzstan, we had virtually no available cash left on us. We were hoping to change money at the Chinese border side of the Pass but with time running out that possibility was diminishing by the minute. It was also looking uncertain as to whether we would make the Bank of China in Kashgar some two hour’s drive ahead of us before the bank’s closing time that day.

To further complicate the situation, we were due to catch an early morning bus the following day from Kashgar to Tashkorgan on the Pakistan border - where we knew we would be unable to cash money - before travelling onto Pakistan. We also knew that we would have to pay in cash our Chinese guide and our hotel bill in Tashkorgan, and of course bus fares, food and so on. All our accommodation from Kashgar to Pakistan was booked and we were committed to our pre-arranged travel arrangements. It was an awful situation made worse by the knowledge that there was not one thing that either we or our driver could do about the endless delays we were to encounter.

To add to our demise we were both sick from a recurring stomach bug (Bukhara Belly that we contracted in Uzbekistan), cold and tired.

From the Kyrgyzstan-China border we drove a short distance to the main Chinese customs outpost. At least we were on our way and we were beginning to feel a bit more optimistic about our arrival time in Kashgar. And Abdul and our driver were friendly and pleasant company.

The customs outpost was a crude cold concrete box. Although it was well after 3.00 pm, it was closed for lunch when we arrived. Well, actually no-one was having lunch. The customs official was sitting reading and he continued to do so for another half an hour before opening. We were then to find that our driver was told our car would have to wait for another passenger. Apparently a man had to travel from Kyrgyzstan into China because he had urgent family problems and no time to organise a driver. And so this problem became our problem and did not add to anyone’s humour.

In the meantime our car was being manically searched by armed guards. Car mats were thrown out, seat covers were lifted off, glove boxes were rummaged and the entire car was thoroughly scrutinised – for what we had no idea. Our baggage was up-ended and our clothes yanked out of our cases.

Unlike us, Abdul and the driver did not look at all surprised or even slightly perturbed. They watched on passively as the guards became even more frantic in their search. Eventually the car was declared danger free and we were told to move on. Apparently the Kyrgyzstan passenger would be too late to pass through the border before it closed for the day. Well, that was one plus for us.

We were quite perplexed as to the rough treatment the authorities dished out to our driver. After all, he and our guide were Chinese. Friends we met later on our trip explained that the Chinese authorities always give the drivers a very difficult time because there are Uighur. It should of course have been quite obvious to us that we were once again entering Xinjiang Province and with a largely Muslim Uighur minority population desperately wanting independence, Chinese authorities are highly sensitive to its geographic proximity to neighbouring Muslim countries. We were assured by our friends that such treatment is part of the course for Uighur drivers.

Before crossing into China, our Kyrgyzstan guide and driver had told us that the Chinese drivers were always late in picking up their Kyrgyzstan passengers but had no idea why. It is our understanding that most of the Chinese drivers to the Kyrgyzstan border are Uighur which could well explain the difficulties they encounter in delivering and picking up travellers to and from Kyrgyzstan.

Some 70kms through the desolate snow covered No Mans Land another check point loomed but this time all we could see was an endless chain of what looked like hundreds of stationary trucks. Our hearts sank. We would surely be here overnight with this queue.

Miraculously, our driver just swept past the trucks and pulled up at the Immigration checkpoint building. We later found out that tourists have the right of passage, unlike these weary truck drivers. Things here were a lot friendlier and it seemed that Abdul and the driver were on good terms with the officials. We didn’t experience any difficulties with Immigration and we were going well - until we were confronted by a medical official wearing a surgical mask and white laboratory coat. In the middle of blessed no-where! Our temperatures had to be taken in case we were infected with Swine Flu.

If it had not been bitterly cold and snowing, and we had been in better humour, the scene of us probing a thermometer up our jumpers and under our arms would have been a very comical sight. We were left looking ridiculous with our jumpers up around our ears for at least 20 minutes in the outside cold. And funnily enough our temperatures were slightly low. But what would have happened to us in this god forsaken place if our temperatures were high I hate to imagine.

Our journey from this last check point to Kashgar was uneventful and so nice just to be on our way. We travelled the 200 kms through high desolate plains with only a few lonely dwellings and occasional cattle. The countryside looked typically like that we had seen in our travels throughout far west China – an arid and torturous desert landscape interspersed with stark buff and chocolate coloured loess mountains. Despite its forbidding appearance, the countryside had a certain haunting painted beauty.