"Crossing China" a China Travel Page by filipdebont

My first trip to China was in July 2000, and this while we where travelling along the Southern part of the Silk Road.

This Silk Road trip started in Uzbekistan, and via Kazakhstan we crossed the remote Kyrgyzstan; Via the Torugart Pass we entered China.

Main goal was the visit of Kashgar (Kashi in Chinese) and its famous Sunday market. Kashgar is located in the South Western Region of Xinjiang. Kashgar is at least 2000 years old and was (and still is) a very important centre of commerce.

It is in fact the crossing of 4 different Silk Roads.

And then we passed the beautiful Karakul Lake, via the Khunjerab Pass (4800 m) in order to take the Karakoram highway into Pakistan, where our trip ended.

My second trip to China started in Beijing in July 2004. We did spend a few days in this big city, so we could visit the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace and of course we could not miss the Big wall.

From Beijing we took the plane to Lanzhou, from Lanzhou a bus brought us towards Xiahe with the Buddhist Labrang Monastery. We continued via Langmusi and Songpan, where we made a horse trekking. And finally we arrived in Chengdu, where we visited the Big Panda research centre.

From Chengdu a plane brought us to Lhasa, Capital of Tibet. Normally there was planned a 4-day trekking near the Yamdruk Tso Lake, but this region was flooded, so there was a change of the program. So we went up north, where there was a big Buddhist festival; we where very lucky to see this festival, as it only is organised every 12 years (in the year of the ape), and also it had been forbidden since the Cultural Revolution. Like this we camped together with 100.000 a 150.000 Tibetan festival visitors; that was really the biggest campsite I had ever seen.

Also during this trekking we did go to a Sky Burial, I must admit that was a very intense experience.

After the trekking we returned to Lhasa in order to visit the Potala, the Winter Palace of his holiness the Dalai Lama.

Then we continued our trip via Gyantse, Shigatse towards Lhatse. From Lhatse we took the Friendships highway towards the border with Nepal. Our trip ended in Kathmandu, Nepal.