Kashi Travel Guide

This place took my breath away. People live in either mud huts or buildings made with precast concrete slabs. Most of the inhabitants there don't look Chinese at all, many of them have an Arabian influence. And they don't speak Mandarin or Chinese, they have their own language and also characters. You wouldn't say that you're in China. Kashi is famous for the Sunday Market, which is defenitely worthwhile visiting. People travel long distances often with donkey carts to get there to sell and buy things, mainly veggies, fruits and meat. But also animals, kitchen utensils, TV's and some souvenirs can be bought there. It's a very lively place - and they leave tourists alone, they're not pushing or forcing foreigners to buy anything. When being in Kashi I recomment to take a two or more days trip to the Karakul Highway towards Pakistan. The scenery is fantastic. First you drive through a rocky deseret and suddenly a huge mountain range appears in front. And in the background there are tall mountains. Lake Karakul for example is such a picturesque and quite place with the Mutzagh Ata (7,500 m tall). You can stay there in Yurts. There are official Yurts for tourists, but if you're lucky you can also stay privately in one of the Yurts. In order to get there I would suggest to hire a driver - possibly through a travel agent in Kashgar/Kashi.

It's worth paying the extra yuan to take a taxi from Kashgar out to Karakul Lake, which is found by the Karakoram Highway in Xinjiang Province, China, instead of the public bus. The road through the Pamir Mountains is spectacular and you will then be able to stop and take photos. Make sure you let the driver know you intend to do this, otherwise he might get very grumpy. Ask him to drop you off a few hundred metres before the entrance gate to avoid paying the ridiculous entrance fee. It's worth spending the night there in a Kirghiz yurt, as the ever changing light on the lake is simply mesmerising! You can hire horses to go around the lake.

Sometimes getting a train ticket can be a pain if you are in a hurry to move forward or don't want to upgrade to the most expensive sleeping option.  I do not recommend taking a hard seat for 30+ hrs unless you wish to interact with local Uighurs.  If you are not opposed to a sleeper bus, the journey is around 26 hrs and the roads are smooth - so you can actually sleep.  This can work either way from Kashgar or from Urumqi.