26/8/25
To leave Kashgar and head south towards Tashkurgan required a ‘frontier permit’. Or so we understood. It was unclear. Having a visa for Tajikistan, or Pakistan for that matter, could hypothetically provide an exemption. But we weren’t going to test that theory. Another traveller who was headed to Pakistan told us he got checked a couple of days ago.
As we left the hotel we bumped into Asier and invited him to join us as we went to the permit office nearby. As we’d suspected, foreigners couldn’t get their permits so easily. The friendly police office sent us to Kashgar Financial Services next to the airport. Asier left us at this point and we took a taxi.
The building was actually labelled as the ‘Kashi City Immigration Service Center’. There was no queue. We were quickly served, and after a photo op received a small piece of paper. Strangely they also sold a variety of Vietnamese products including coffee and chocolate.
To the east of the ‘Old City’ in Kashgar was an area called the Gaotai residences. Previously, it had been an area of ruined old town that was off limits. Tourists would sneak in to catch a glimpse of what used to be. Now it was being redeveloped into yet another scenic spot. Eventually it would be ticketed. Most of the old buildings were renovated or rebuilt.
Once again the wattle and straw mixture applied over a plastic netting to hide the crude brickwork. There were ‘characteristic folk residences’ that one could visit. Right at the back was an exhibit of old buildings with a viewing platform. The rain had made much of the old clay look molten. Some of the buildings were propped up.
When we got back to the hotel we changed the bike chains. Somehow, in Chengdu, we’d managed to buy chains with pins rather than quick links. We didn’t know if this was a good or bad thing, but they were more of a faff to fit to the bikes. It took a couple of hours, especially after we spent time trying to make sure the chains weren’t fakes.
Eager to try and avoid walking we managed to unlock the electric mopeds that residents rode around on. Alipay actually made it very easy. We sped up to the street market again, but not without getting split up on the way. Frankie thought Jonathan was a little more risk taking than she was willing to be. When we arrived Jonathan realised he had no idea where the money wallet was. Panic ensued and he raced back to the hotel, where it was lying on the bed. Frankie had already used WeChat to buy some roasted gluten and bread. Jonathan bought an unnecessarily big bag of grapes, and we headed back to watch Destination X.
