Today got an early start on the Karakoram Highway. The Karakoram Highway (Zhongba Gonglu) over the Khunjerab Pass (4800m) is the gateway to Pakistan. For centuries this route was used by caravans plodding down the Silk Road. Khunjerab means ‘valley of blood’, a reference to local bandits, who took advantage of the terrain to plunder caravans and slaughter the merchants.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Travelogue - 2008 Italy & Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I started the day by visiting the Abkh Hoja (Wiangfei) Tomb.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Travelogue - 2008 Italy & Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Kashgar is the largest oasis city in Chinese Central Asia. It is the heart of Islam within China so the area feels more like the Middle East than China. Everywhere you walk, there are large groups of muslim men just hanging around either people watching or playing cards. Nevertheless, the city is much bigger and more developed than I was expecting.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Travelogue - 2008 Italy & Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Today I checked out of my hotel and then headed to Heavenly Lake (Tianchi Hu), which is about 3 hours out of town by bus. This is said to be the prettiest lake in China surrounded by snow-sprinkled mountains. The water is crystal clear.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Travelogue - 2008 Italy & Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

This morning I arranged a tour of Heavenly Lake for tomorrow, booked a flight to Kashgar tomorrow evening, and followed up on my email from the past week. I had wanted to visit the museum, which was recommended to me by multiple people but it is closed on Mondays, so I headed to Red Hill, which is a large city park with views of the city as well as amusement rides for kids. 

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Travelogue - 2008 Italy & Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.