On 24 May 2024 we travelled from Tashkurgan (China’s westernmost substantial town) to Kashgar, aka “Kashi”.
For many centuries Kashgar – the third of our “expedition”’s three Ks – was a major hub on “The Silk Road”.
In the direction we drove, our route was the Karakoram Highway’s final 291 kilometres.
The Chinese section’s landscapes are generally less “vertiginous, on both sides” than are those along the Highway’s actually-Karakoram, Pakistan section.
From Tashkurgan through to Kashgar, vistas tend to be much wider, more likely to be rimmed by mountains rather than absolutely dominated by them.
Big mountains and glaciers are still abundant.
Muztagh Ata is the featured image’s big mountain, I think.
At 7,546 m, Muztagh Ata just squeaks into the “world’s 50 highest”.
The least-challenging of its climbing routes, whilst still challenging, offers one of the easiest ascents of any “7,500 metres+” peak.
A single time zone is imposed on all of China.
When I took this post’s photo we were less than an hour along from Tashkurgan; according to my watch, it was nearly noon.
However, Tashkurgan is several hundred more kilometres west of Beijing than Perth is from Sydney.
So, according to “real time, in relation to the local sunrise”, it was not yet 9.30 am.
Two hours later – with a much snowier side of Muztagh Ata in view, rather closer to us – we would enjoy a delicious lunch, lakeside, al fresco.