Tag: Xinjiang

 

 

The pictured location is circa 80 minutes driving distance from White Sand Lake, and within two hours or so of downtown Kashgar.

(astonishingly low speed limits apply to buses on the Chinese section of the Karakoram Highway, even in benign weather. The road itself is excellent. A rational, less rigid approach to speed limits would enable considerably shorter, safe driving times on days when ice and snow are entirely absent from the Highway’s surface. On the day when the rules become rational, motorists should be sure to wave at the pigs who’ll then be flying high, above)

I took this photo from the bed of the Ghez River, adjacent to where it is crossed by the Karakoram Highway.

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“White Sand Lake” is the most common of many names given to the pictured place.

Some call it a lake, others call it a mountain.

The lake’s surface is circa 3,300 metres above sea level, on the Pamir Plateau.

It is adjacent to the Karakoram Highway, around 150 kilometres south of Kashgar city.

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Not directly present in my photo, but close by and clearly visible to any sighted human, standing a few footsteps away from our table: Karakul Lake – the Pamir Plateau’s highest substantial lake.

The highest of the mountains that look down upon its shores is more than 4, 000 metres further above sea level.

Among mountains outside of the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, Kongur Tagh (7,649 metres, the Pamirs’ tallest) is the highest of them all.

Our lunch was absolutely delicious; “great view” and “great food” are not always mutually-exclusive.

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Upon reaching the very popular tourist stop beside Karakul Lake –  just off the Chinese section of the Karakoram Highway, between Tashkurgan and Kashgar –  I understood the purpose of the horse and rider pictured in this series’ previous post.

For the moment at least, they were engaged in the tourism trade, rather than herding.

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