Southern Silk Road

The Southern Silk Road, as the route along the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert from Kashgar to Yarkand to Hotan to Cherchen to Charklik to Dunhuang is called, is famous not only for being the most historically significant route into China from the west, but also for its rugged difficulty. Although many travelers consider traveling along the Southern Silk Road, it is an option that few tourists end up choosing, given that there are few major, easily accessible sites en route and that the modern expressways and railway from Kashgar to Dunhuang follow the “northern” route through Kuqa, Korla, Turpan and Hami.

We were also interested in traveling this southern route, and did the route research, including by enlisting a Chinese friend to read through Chinese language websites for transportation/sightseeing options. We were surprised to discover that the route was not only doable but not even very hard, with regular daily transport connecting the key towns. The roads are remote, yes, but arrival in one piece without being stranded or having to pay for expensive private transport seemed guaranteed. We definitely wanted to go from Kashgar as far as Hotan, with its wonderful Sunday market, but hadn’t made up our mind, when we set off from Kashgar, whether we would take the southern route the entire way to Dunhuang.

We decided not to, for many reasons. First, when we found out that it wasn’t so hard, it lost a bit of the appeal–what adventure is there really in getting on a series of long bus rides? Second, while Yarkand is in places quite rustic and Hotan a great place to see a modern Uyghur city in full swing (especially at the Sunday market or nightly food market), the central parts of these towns were, quite surprisingly to us, like “any other Chinese city,” as we had expected of Kashgar. Despite their extremely remote locations, the infrastructure, the economic development, the architecture, etc., made the cities, at least in their central areas, indistinguishable from, say, a poorer part of Shenzhen. I certainly didn’t see the need to “rough it” to see something that looks like Shenzhen. Finally, and perhaps the most important factor, we realized that the guidebooks weren’t kidding when they talked about sandstorms. For almost the whole time we were in Hotan visibility was horrible and fine sand was blowing about, making it unpleasant to be outside. If we could barely bear being outside, and it was impossible to take pictures, we didn’t really see the point in continuing. We took the 20-hour overnight bus ride across the Taklamakan Desert to Urumqi and continued east on the “northern” route.

We really did enjoy Yarkand and Hotan, however, and encourage others to do what we did rather than going more directly between Urumqi and Kashgar. The cross-desert bus ride really isn’t so bad. Or follow the whole “southern silk road,” especially if you are traveling in winter when we are told that the weather is clearer. A few photographs from Hotan:

Jade store, Hotan. Hotan has been famous for jade for thousands of years, and the industry is still going strong, especially as Chinese, growing ever wealthier, are willing to pay higher and higher prices for such luxury goods.

Local men selling discovered jade to dealers, Hotan

Melon for sale at night market, Hotan

It could be Shenzhen!

One of the reasons I wanted to do this post is to promote www.centralasiatraveler.com, a website I found describing the route and the cities of the southern silk road in incredible detail. As things in China are in a constant state of change, some of the information on the site is not totally up-to-date, but it is perhaps one of the most detailed guides to anywhere that I’ve ever seen (and certainly better than the paragraph in Lonely Planet on this route).