We left the yurt, and the Tajik family, and had a 2 hour drive over a little bit of highway, and a lot of badly degraded unsealed road, and reached a small Uighur town called Tashkurgan.
It is very high, at 3600m, and surrounded by the "stans"
The Afghanistan border is only 6 kilometers away. To the NW is Tajikistan, and also around are Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and India.
We visited the remains of an old stone city, originally built in 7 AD.
Some scenes from "The Kite Runner" were filmed here.
The surrounding countryside is typical of this region.
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| Here is what is left of the old city. |
Then off to the markets/country fair. It was a Chinese National Holiday so everyone was at the fairgrounds.
I think that country shows or fairs the world over share certain characteristics.
A crowd had gathered to listen to music, and watch National Dancing, but the performers were having trouble with their equipment, so it ground to a halt!
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| The crowd gathered for the music and dancing to start. |
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| With a trial run, no sound was amplified! Back to the drawing board! |
The women were dressed beautifully in their national dress.
The colours were vibrant, in sharp contrast to the rocky, dun coloured terrain of the area.
Tents and yurts were being erected, to serve as food stations later in the day.
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| Many hands make light work, and of course, there has to be an overseer! |
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| It did not take long for the yurt to be completed. |
There were lots of men cooking kebabs over open coals.
But we enjoyed kebabs, and local bread, washed down with yaks milk tea, in another of the food tents.
We had a very enjoyable time in this village, which is the most Western habitation in China.
You didn't mention the open air toilets! they were nearly as exciting as the yak competition ;)
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the open-air toilets. A trench dug in the earth, where we squatted, all four of us, in an unique bonding exercise!!! That will be in my memory bank FOREVER!
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