Xinjiang is the most western region of China-right above Tibet- at the border with 8 countries, among which Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. More than 3,000 km from any coast, it is bigger than Western Europe and covered for the most part by deserts. Nuclear tests and oil explorations are carried out in Xinjiang, but the control of Beijing is almost unperceivable: in Kashgar, where 80% of the population is Uigur, the people are Muslim, speak a language similar to Turkish and have very different physical features than the Han Chinese.

It’s a totally different China from the one I knew!

Friday: Shanghai-Urumqi

After more than 5 hours of flight, you step out of the plane and are still in the same country. Unbelievable.

Urumqi is a modern and anonymous town, like many other Chinese big towns. The people, though, are very different: Arab likes, round eyes, beard, dark skin. The signs are written both in Chinese and Arabian characters. Men shake their hands when they meet on the street (very unusual for the rest of China).

The official time is the same of Beijing, but we’re 3,000 km west of the capital and people set their watches 2 hours late, so that the sun doesn’t shine when they go to bed.

Saturday: Tian Chi – Urumqi – (Kashgar) – Urumqi

Excursion to Tian Chi, a mountain lake 2 hours from Urumqi. The landscape resembles the Alps. On the road I see the yurts of some nomads (mostly Kazakhs), who pass the summer on these mountains.

In the evening, I take the plane to Kashgar (1,000 km West of Urumqi, at the border with Tajikistan). After 90 minutes of breathtaking views, the stewardess makes us prepare for landing. The plane starts to descend and then… it accelerates and goes up again. We are in the province with the smallest rainfall of all China (18 mm at this time of the year), but apparently it is pouring in Kashgar the minute we have to land. They decided not to risk the landing and we are heading back to Urumqi. The Sunday Market in Kashgar (tomorrow) was one of the highlights of my trip and I’m really worried I might miss it….

Sunday: Urumqi-Kashgar (finally!)

Luckily they embark us on an early plane.

Kashgar is one of the most important centres on the Silk Road and for many centuries it has had an important role in the commerce of this area. The Sunday Market is an extraordinary experience, especially the cattle section of the market, where you feel like having gone back in time. All the different ethnic groups of this region converge here on Sundays, creating traffic jams of donkey carts (the main mean of transportation) loaded with sheep, cows and chickens.

Freelance barber                Woman with a moustache

In the secondary roads of Kashgar you can distinguish buildings in middle-eastern style and tea houses. Loudspeakers at every corner broadcast the local radio station and prayers.

A Uigur child comes out of a house to greet me and I find myself eating and drinking with his family, who don’t speak a word of English or Chinese. There are 6 of them (the only child law doesn’t apply to minorities) and they all sleep in the same room, on the floor.

The night bazaar takes place near the mosque, people are on the roads and the air fills with the smoke of kebabs.

Am I really in China?

Monday: Karakoram Highway –Karakul Lake

I wake up in the Uigur home where I spent the night, dreading the fact that I have to start the day at the public toilet round the corner

  Toilet

I won’t have a sink or a shower for the next 2 days either. I wash myself in the courtyard with some mineral water and I go to take the bus to Tashkurgan, the last Chinese town before Pakistan.

The road is the famous Karakoram Highway, legendary for its breathtaking views. It is indeed breathtaking. Every 10 minutes the landscape changes into some new incredible panorama.

The term “highway”, though, seems an overstatement: little more than one third of the road can be called as such and the rest of the 200 km are under construction. The bus has to drive on rough terrain most of the time.

  Bus to Karakul

Bouncing from one bump to the next and crossing the river in many spots with the bus, after 7 very tiring but beautiful hours I get off at Karakul Lake. The only other people who stop here are 2 Swiss.

It is cold (we are 4,000 meter above sea level) and the only accommodation are some yurts on the shore of the lake. The landscape is great: you can see the Pamir and Karakoram snowy peaks reflecting in the water. The highest peaks are more than 7,500 m high.

  my yurt on Lake Karakul

Tuesday: Karakul Lake

I hike around the lake. It feels like being at the end of the world.

2x36 shots of just landscape. The only encounters are a few locals (mostly Kyrgyzs) and a couple of camels grazing. Thanks to SARS and the complete indifference for remote landscape on behalf of Chinese tourists I have the lake all for myself.

   Kyrgis child

  Panorama da Sogno attorno al Lago

At the end of the hike, 30 minutes away from my yurt, I stupidly fall into a stream I was crossing with too much confidence. Never mind: I’m so happy!

In the evening, a group of Austrian mountaineers arrives: they will climb Mount Muztagata in the next 3 weeks.

Mercoledi’: Karakul – Kashgar – Urumqi

What a day!

It starts fine, with a clear view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. I walk to the road to get the bus to Kashgar.

They told me it usually passes around 10. To be sure not to miss it, at 9 I’m already on the side of the road, waiting.

9:10 – a Kyrgyzs joins me. I make it clear from the beginning that I’m not going to buy any of the rocks he is carrying in his bag, but he sits with me and keeps me company.

9:20 – I have 8-9 Kyrgysz sitting around me. Don’t ask me how, but we’re even managing some conversation.

10:30 – I hear the bus arriving. I stand up and wave the driver to stop, but he thinks I’m a Kyrgyzs and keeps driving.

10:40 – I’m still under shock.

What now?

11:00 – no cars on this damn road! When the bus didn’t stop, the Kyrgyzs had a laugh and told me to take the next bus tomorrow. I explained to them that I have a flight to Urumqi tonight at 7:30. They stopped laughing.

11:30 – 2 cars passed in one hour and despite my new friends’ waving they didn’t stop.

12:00 – time to start panicking: on the way here, it took me 7 hours. I’m going to miss my flight.

One car arrives: I step in the middle of the road and force it to stop. It’s a land-cruiser Pajero, with a Uigur family in it.

I bargain quickly for the price (in China hitchhiking is almost never for free, they will ask you at least for the bus fare) and I jump in the car.

12:30 – despite the 40 degrees Celsius of the car, I take a deep breath and resume hoping: I could still make it. My saviors look like Arabs, in typical formation: men in front, women in the back. The 8 year old son is wearing an AC Milan shirt.

Nobody is talking.

12:45 – the silence has been filled with loud Arabian music

13:00 – road construction is blocking the road. The bus is 2 cars ahead of us and I smile to myself, thinking that now I will be getting to Kashgar ahead of it.

13:30 – there’s nothing to smile about: the situation seems to be frozen and the time is passing…

The Uigur father is snoring in the driver’s seat.

14:00 – I walk to the head of the car queue and ask the workers when they will clear the road. They answer at 4. At 4??????

I panic. I try to explain that I have a plane at 7:30. They shake their heads. I convince them to let my car pass and run back to the Pajero.

14:10 – the father has left! He is walking back the road we came from and despite his son calling him, he’s not turning around.

I take my stuff and look for another car that could drive me. I can’t find one.

14:30 – the father is back, but he doesn’t believe me, when I tell him they would let our car pass. I struggle to convince him. In the end we go and they let us through the first block. After 200 meters, we find the asphalting machine, blocking the road in all its width.

I take my backpack and walk towards the other extremity of the construction site, where I obviously can’t find anyone going to Kashgar.

Finally the construction chief collects me from the side of the road.

15:00 – Mamat Eli, the construction chief, is Uigur and around 30. He explains to me that he can’t drive me to Kashgar, but he will help me to look for a lift.

15:30 – I’m doing the afternoon rounds of the site with Mamat Eli. I’m exhausted and I stopped worrying. I will never make that flight, but at least I’m in an air-conditioned car.

16:00 – Mamat found somebody who can drive me to Kashgar. I don’t know what kind of vehicle it is (I can only hope it flies), but I reached the point where anything will be just fine.

Mamat Eli insists on exchanging phone numbers (for what possible occasion, when we’re not even able to communicate live?)While we are saying goodbye, cars start to pass by. They must have opened the road!

16:10 – I’m back in the Pajero with the Uigur family. They don’t seem very happy.

16:15 – the father is unusually talkative. He is probably insulting me in his language: it’s my fault if we are now stuck behind 5 very slow army trucks.

16:45 – we passed the last truck. We’re sealed in the car and the temperature is reaching the survival limit. The father seems to detain the control on all windows and I don’t dare to open mine.

Obviously, I’m sitting on the sunny side.

17:00 – the mother takes off her Muslim head-cover and dries the sweat from her forehead.

One window is lowered a bit and I resume breathing.

17:05 – we start driving off the road for what seems to be an infinity. Because of the dust, the windows are sealed again.

17:20 – while bouncing from one hole to the next, we start melting at 50 degrees Celsius.

18:00 – we are back on the road. As we leave the mountains, I start hoping again.

I realize that if I had taken the bus this morning now I would be several km back and I would have already lost my flight.

18:30 – I thank the family and sink into the seat of the taxi to the airport.

Thursady: Urumqi-Turpan

Bus to Turpan, China’s hottest spot: an oasis 80 meters below sea level. A Uigur man is seated next to me. He asks me whether I am from Pakistan. He asks where Italy is, whether I am Muslim, what currency and what banknotes we have in Europe, where Iraq is. The next question includes “Saddam” and due to the very likely-possibility of misunderstandings I decide to stop the conversation: the level of comprehension on both sides is too low….

Flat tire in the middle of the desert. At noon, of course: 2 hours stop under a very hot sun. We finally arrive in Turpan on 5 wheels, all seated on the left side of the bus.

I rent a bike and cycle to Jiaohe, an ancient town that was destroyed by Genghis Khan. It’s incredibly hot.Thanks to the very efficient irrigating system, plenty of water flows on the side of the road. A lot of children are playing in the water, but stopping to take pictures would mean melting instantly to death. While I cycle I notice the beds on the roof of the houses: people sleep there at night, desperately looking for some fresh air.

Sunday: Turpan-Urumqi

I get to Turpan at 7 o’clock in the morning, right in time to see the town waking up on the roofs.

I stay a couple of hours and then I go back to Urumqi,

Monday: Urumqi-Shanghai-Changzhou

After 13 hours of travel, I enter the Mingdu: I’m exhausted but happy!

For more pictures of Xinjiang click here.