Travels on the Silk Road

A trip to Kyrgyzstan and China, August 8 - 22, 1998
by Dick McCray

Later we drive about 20 km into the Tian Shan Mountains to the famous skating stadium, where we have a good lunch in a yurt. During the afternoon, Claes and I take a hike. The wildflowers are beautiful. The trail is steep and I struggle to keep up with Claes, who climbs effortlessly. Here we are at the point where we turned back.

We stay at the guest-house of President Aleev of Kyrgyzstan who is away for the wedding of his daughter to the son of the president of Kazakstan. That evening we have a banquet hosted by the Minister of Science and Culture, Dr. Sovetbek Toktomyshev. Several other ministers and scientists are present. The high point is a wonderful performance by a troupe of Kyrgyz folk-singers and dancers who are about to go on a tour of Japan. One fellow gives a colorful reading of fragments from the epic poem (hundreds of thousands of lines, we are told) about Manas, the Kyrgyz king who led his people from their origins by the Yenesei River area of Siberia to present-day Kyrgyzstan, some two centuries ago. Another woman sings beautifully. Rashid Sunyaev, who understands their language, tells us that the words are beautiful and moving too.

In the afternoon we take off for lake Issyuk-kul, a few hours drive. On the way we stop at the ruins of Uzgen, once the capitol of the great Karakhanid Turkish empire that dominated this region during the 10th and 11th C and brought Islam to this area and present-day Chinese Turkestan. There we climb the Burana Tower and visit an outdoor collection of ancient gravestones from the area.

We arrive at a big Soviet-style resort hotel at Lake Issyuk-kul at about 10 PM. The restaurant is closed, so we walk down to a disco-cafe at the lakeside to have dinner. We have beer, vodka, and shashlik. A Kyrgyz woman and her children are singing Karaoke at the bar. Then a couple of Russian rock musicians start playing and it's impossible to converse. The Kyrgyz women invite us to dance and we burn off the vodka fast. Finally, at about 2 AM we start walking back to the hotel. Jerry Ostriker suggests that we all take a swim, so we strip and dive into the lake. The water is great. A wonderful day!

Before lunch we visit a scientific station for monitoring carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides in the Earth's atmosphere. We are highly impressed with the quality of science that Dr. Vladimir Semyonov is doing with antiquated equipment there. The site has a beautiful flower garden.

In the afternoon we drive into the mountains on the north side of the lake, up a beautiful canyon where President Akeev has a dacha. The valley is inhabited by Kyrgyz herdsmen who have a hundreds of magnificent horses -- the "heavenly horses" that the Han general Zhang Qian discovered here in 138 BC. We all ride the horses. We drink Kumiss -- fermented mare's milk -- which is reputed to be very good for you. It has a very strong smoky-acid flavor and takes some getting used to. We eat the best Shashlik I have ever tasted.

Then we get into a discussion of how the tribal leader is expected to eat the eyeballs of the roast sheep, as did Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. We all look to Jerry Ostriker for leadership; but he, weak of stomach, slips off to bed. Unimpressed, we wonder whether Jerry has what it takes to protect Princeton from the other tribes of the Ivy League.

Our guidebook says that Tash-Rabat dates to the 10th C; but the rector of the local college, a historian of the area, says that it dates to the 6th C. Marco Polo could have slept here. Inside Tash-Rabat, we see sleeping quarters sufficient for dozens of people and a 10ft deep hole with a circular stone cover that served as a prison cell. There's a slot in the stone for air and food -- I can't imagine anyone surviving long there.

The Minister of Science and Culture and a few other dignitaries meet us at Tash-Rabat and we have a big breakfast in the yurt, including roast lamb, Kumiss (which I am getting used to by now), prepared by a local family. Of course, there are mandatory vodka toasts (7 AM!). The minister gives a toast, evidently aimed at Rashid Sunyaev, saying that Kyrgyzstan has a long history of close friendship with Russia, etc., etc. Rashid responds with another toast, saying that he is not in fact Russian, but Tatar. He says that when he was a boy in Tashkent, his father always told him that the Turkish people -- Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Kazaks, Uighurs -- were his brothers, they all speak the same language, and he could always count on finding friends among them.

At about 9 AM we depart for Torugart Pass, the gateway to China. We cross another pass, then turn east at a passport checkpoint at the beginning of a high (12,000 ft) plateau, about 100 km from the actual border. Another beautiful range of the Tian Shan mountains, with several peaks ranging from 15,000 - 17,000 ft., defines the Chinese border to the south. A long and formidable electric fence punctuated by pillbox machine gun emplacements every hundred meters, all in disrepair, runs parallel to the south side of the road. I can imagine Russian soldiers shivering here some 40 years ago, waiting for the Chinese hordes to come and finish the job that the Han generals had never completed. But now this is no-man's land, with only a few vehicles on the lonely gravel road and a few herdsmen on the plateau.

We make one last stop for brunch at a spring of icy carbonated water. Then we drive a few km to a substantial Russian military base. Here we finally take leave of the Kyrgyz delegation who have accompanied us from Tash Rabat. We have one last passport check, this time by dour young Russian soldiers, and drive about 10 km through a no-man's land to the actual Chinese border at Torugart Pass (elevation 12,600 ft).

This is the last dicey part of the trip (or so we thought!). If there were no Chinese person to meet us at this gate, we would have been sent back to Kyrgyzstan and that would be the end of this narrative. But we are delighted to see Professor Hu Jingyao of the Beijing Astronomical Observatory waiting for us with two new Toyota 4-wheel drive vehicles. We head on down toward Kashgar after a swift passport check. A few km further we encounter another checkpoint, where they search our luggage, and 80 km further we cross the final checkpoint with yet a higher level of scrutiny, at a more impressive gate that I am not allowed to photograph. We are now fully in China. The terrain on the Chinese side of Torugart Pass is much drier and less attractive than on the Kyrgyz side and I take no photos.

Finally, we arrive at our hotel in Kashgar, comfortable but not at all luxurious. We have a good Chinese meal and turn in early after a long day.

We visit the great Idkah mosque in the center of town. The medieval city behind the mosque is very colorful, with many street vendors, shops, old buildings, cafes, etc.

Near the center of town is a colossal statue of Mao, an unwelcome reminder to the Uighurs that the Han Chinese are fully in control here. Another reminder is a tacky modern monument to the Han general Pan Chao (80 AD). The plaques there describe him as a wise diplomat and ruler who brought stability and prosperity to the region. According to the history books, Pan Chao subjugated the region by beheading most of the local rulers and any other people who dared to support them.

In fact, this region (the Tarim Basin, including Kashgar and the oasis towns of Yarkand and Khotan on the southern branch of the Silk Road and Kucha and Turfan on the northern branch) has not been Chinese for most of its history. These towns were independent of China from the fall of the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty in the 14th C until they were re-conquered by the Qing Emperor Qianlong in the mid-18th C. The people were (and still are) not Chinese; they are mainly Turkish -- Uighurs, Kyrgyz, and Kazaks. The towns, religion, culture, and commerce were much closer to the Middle Asian kingdoms of Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara than they were to China.

We visit the Abakh Hoja Mausoleum outside of Kashgar, a beautiful 17th C building containing many tombs of religious leaders and members of a rich muslim family. The tombs are very similar to the tombs I saw in Konya, Turkey, where Rumi is buried.

In the afternoon we visit the great Bazaar of Kashgar -- one of the most colorful markets in the world. There is a tremendous variety of foods, fabrics, shoes, handicrafts, etc. Bright colorful silks are hanging everywhere. But we find that the flow of the Silk Road has reversed: all the silk comes from Turkey, not China!

At the market I try to talk with the shopkeepers in Mandarin. They can understand but are not particularly interested in talking to me. Then Rashid comes over and begins to talk with them in Turkish. They ask why he can speak their language. He explains that he is Tatar, and the situation changes entirely. An animated conversation ensues and we all have a great time.

My digital camera has a wonderful advantage. Walking through the Uighur neighborhoods on the way back from the bazaar to the hotel, I snap a few pictures of children and then show them the images displayed on the camera. They are tremendously excited and pretty soon I have a herd of dozens of kids following me, clamoring to have their pictures taken. Then their mothers want to see the images, and they invite us into their homes where we can take more pictures. Here are a few.

We arrive at Karakol (elevation 13,000 ft) in time for lunch at the "hotel" there, where travelers from Pakistan may stop. We see some tough guys who have come over the pass on bikes. At lunch we chat with some people who came up yesterday on the bus and have stayed overnight in a yurt. Their leader is a young French woman who has lived in Beijing for three years and speaks Mandarin fairly well.

After lunch we take a stroll around the lake. It's overcast so we can't see the peaks, but still very beautiful. We see a few herdsmen on camels and burros. Then we return to the hotel and buy a few trinkets from Kyrgyz tradesmen who have set up a little outdoor market for tourists.

After this peaceful sojourn, we decide to return. On the way we stop to watch a group of Kyrgyz people taking down a yurt and buy a few trinkets from the kids. It's raining a bit harder, but we still have no idea of what awaits us in the gorge below.

We find out soon enough. When we enter the gorge, water and mud are flowing over the road everywhere. The river below is a raging black monster, no longer anybody's kayak run. We drive over several mud slides, and finally arrive at a restaurant where the road is totally washed out. There's no way that we're going to get back to Kashgar this night. In fact, we begin to wonder whether we might have to go the other way instead, over the pass to Pakistan.

Our driver meets a Chinese army officer whom he knows. After waiting around an hour or so, wondering what to do, we drive back 10 km to an army camp, where we send a phone message to let people in Kashgar know that we won't be back that night. We then drive back down the gorge to see what is going on, thinking that we might walk across the mud slide and hitch a ride on the other side. But conditions are worsening fast. We barely make it to the place where we stopped before. The army officer advises us to go back with him to the camp where it is safe. It's dark now and we have to drive over several more mud slides. This is getting scary!

At the camp the soldiers are very friendly and give us canned rations to eat. We sleep in a building just outside the army base. No three stars, not even one, but we sleep comfortably all the same.

Driving back down the gorge, we see the havoc. By now there are about 50 cars and trucks stuck on the road, including a convoy of Chinese Army trucks. The road is washed out in several spots. We see evidence of some pretty impressive slides. In two places a huge slurry of rocks, mud, and water flowed down deep channels, depositing big boulders on the top of a bridge. We're amazed that the bridges survived.

It takes us about 6 hours to go 10 km through the gorge. At each wash-out we all wait and watch giant bulldozers clearing the road and filling in the gullies. Then we watch the cars, buses, and trucks try to make it across the filled parts. It's quite a scene. Each vehicle takes a running start and goes careening across the fill. With the passage of each subsequent vehicle, the clay liquefies a bit more. Everybody pitches rocks into the slurry to try to help stabilize the road. A Pakistani guy in robes takes it upon himself to order everybody around. Some vehicles get stuck; then the bulldozer must drag them across with a cable. It takes an hour or two for the convoy to get through one such obstacle; then we all drive a km or so to the next wash-out, where the party begins again.

We make it to Kashgar a couple of hours before the 9:30 PM plane departs to Urumqi. We are met in Urumqi by an Uighur fellow named Ali from the Urumqi Astronomical Observatory. He drives us to the observatory (about 2 hours) and we arrive at about 1:30 AM. Professor Hu Jingyao and our other Chinese friends are waiting to greet us and are relieved to see that we actually made it. So are we; we go to bed immediately.

We visit the ruins of Jaiohe (transl.: confluence), an ancient city a few km outside of Turfan. It is a vast complex of decaying mud-brick buildings on a low plateau. 100-ft cliffs on either side look down on narrow green canyons where two rivers join, then vanish in the desert soon after. There are no artifacts in Jiaohe but it is fascinating all the same, mainly by virtue of its size. We walk around Jaiohe for a couple of hours in sweltering desert sun, marveling at what it must have been during the Tang Dynasty (ca. 750 AD), when it had a population of more than 30,000.

We also visit the Emin Minaret, one of the most picturesque monuments in the area. It's a mosque built by a rich man during the Qing dynasty (1778).

Still, Bezeklik is a very picturesque place, in a deep canyon below sea level, with substantial mountains on either side. After looking at the ruins, a few of us climb up the dunes. Just before leaving, I pay a guy $2 to mount a camel and pose for the photo at the top of this essay.

We try to visit another famous ruin near Turfan, Gaochang, but the road is washed out and our bus can't make it. So we head back to Turfan, stopping at a place called grape valley. There are many acres with arbors covered solidly with grapevines, so that you can't see the sky and the hot desert sun is transformed into a cool green light. We reach up and pick delicious green grapes from bunches hanging down everywhere. We also have a look at the ancient underground water channels. We sit down and taste the sweet white wine and eat delicious hami melons. We return to Turfan for one last photo, then get on the bus to Urumqi.  The new highway is now open, so the trip back to Urumqi is quite a bit faster than the trip to Turfan.

We arrive in Urumqi about 6 PM. It's raining hard. We go directly to a restaurant where we have a great buffet meal of all sorts of delicious things that we cook in a hot pot at our table. After dinner our hosts take us to the Observatory headquarters in Urumqi where we shower and rest a bit.