Michiel van Dijk: Cycle trip Berlin-Singapore (China)

Photos:

1. Karakoram Highway
Tashkurgan, Xinjiang, China.
(June 1999)

After the rough and wild mountain
scenery at the Pakistani side of
the Khunjerab Pass, the landscape
on the Chinese side is quite
different with the rounded Pamir
mountains, the wide and desert-like
valley through which the KKH follows
the Tashkurgan river. Sometimes you
bump into a camel-herd.




2. Sunday market
Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.
(July 1999)

Kashgar lies on the junction
of major trade-roads formerly
known as the Silk-route. Its
Sunday market is a major tourist
attraction, mainly because of all
the cattle and people. Xinjiang
is a large and autonomous Muslim
province with Central-asian back-
ground and increasingly being 
"occupied" by "normal" Han-Chinese.





3. Mountain roads
Yuanjiang, Yunnan, China.
(August 1999)

I went by bus and train around the
Taklamakan desert and to Chengdu,
a trip of around 6000km. There I
started cycling again through the
Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. The
landscape was very mountainous and 
green, the weather increasingly wetter
and the roads were worse than could be
expected from the very developed
Chinese cities. New roads however are
being made that run more smooth through
the mountains. The maze of valleys and
subsequent climbs and descends of 20-40km
were beautiful but tiring.




Go to:

Home: Index
BS: Index of cycle trip
Next: Laos