Category: Western China
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Where I Slept: Dunhuang, China – Lhasa, Tibet
Dunhuang, China – Lhasa, Tibet | 18 October, 2006 | $31.41 ($12.41 overnight sleeper bus, $19 train) A year ago this site was hacked and the Where I Slept series went on hiatus. I’ve decided to resurrect it where I left off last year, on my way across China into Tibet. After a nearly sleepless…
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Where I Slept: Urumqi-Dunhuang, China
Urumqi – Dunhuang, China | 16 October, 2006 | $10.51 (over night hard seat train) Although I waited around for a sleeper train for a few days this leg was totally full. I finally gave up and decided it was time to have my hard seat overnight experience in China. I sat at a table…
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Where I Slept: Urumqi, China
Urumqi, China | 15 October, 2006 | $0 (couchsurfing) I met David first back in Mongolia but the first time I came through town he was somewhere in Western Mongolia. This time around our schedules matched up and I took a bus over to his apartment next to Xinjiang University. After four months on the…
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Where I Slept: Urumqi, China
Urumqi, China | 13 October, 2006 | $12.36 This is the same hotel I stayed in the first time I was in Urumqi and I thought it was easiest to go there since I knew where it was and what the rooms went for. After the rough travel I put myself through in Central Asia…
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Where I Slept: Kashgar – Urumqi, China
Kashgar – Urumqi, China | 11 October, 2006 | $42.65 (high speed sleeper train) This was my second time on this train and this time it was almost totally empty. I shared my 4-bed compartment with a middle-aged woman was quiet and courteous. She noticed I had a cold and insisted I take a few…
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Where I Slept: Osh, Kyrgyzstan – Kashgar, China
Osh, Kyrgyzstan – Kashgar, China | 8 October, 2006 | $50 (overnight sleeper bus) This would be my third time traveling between Osh and Sary Tash on this trip and this time I decided to go by bus. The first time was in a large China Aid truck after my accident and the second time…
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Where I Slept: Urumqi, China
Urumqi, China | 31 July, 2006 | $11.63 USD When I first arrived in Urumqi I was traveling with the Taiwanese woman I met in Jiayuguan. The first hotel that we tried was full and calling around it seemed that most of the tourist-grade hotels were booked. We took suggestions from a few European travelers…
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Where I Slept: Turpan, China
Turpan, China | 25 July, 2006 | $3.71 USD This was a nice hotel, really, but the woman I was traveling with and I asked what cheaper options they had. The staff in the fancy reception area hesitated and finally revealed that they did have cheaper rooms in a building out back but they were…
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Where I Slept: Dunhuang-Turpan, China
Dunhuang-Turpan, China (overnight train) | 23 July, 2006 | $23.98 USD (train ticket) This sleeper train took us from a town about two hours outside of Dunhuang to a town about one hour outside of Turpan. The train line wasn’t laid down in the most convenient route for tourists but its relatively easy to find…
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Where I Slept: Lanzhou, China
Lanzhou, China | 19 July, 2006 | $5.69 USD Lanzhou is one of those places that you don’t really want to go to but you end up passing through because its a rail hub. I ended up stuck here in 2004 and can confirm that, even in 2006, McDonalds did not come this far Northwest.…
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Where I Slept: Hohhot-Yinchuan, China
Hohhot-Yinchuan, China (overnight sleeper bus) | 18 July, 2006 | $17.92 (bus fare) Getting to Lanzhou from Hohhot proved to be difficult. I believe I was on an indirect train line and, even then, the trains were sold out and only ran every other day. I ended up booking an overnight sleeper bus from Hohhot…
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Where I Slept: Hohhot, China
Hohhot, China | 16 July, 2006 | $4.94 I stayed in this hotel three nights, this is the view from the other side of the room. I can usually find something fun to watch on Chinese TV?either a warrior drama or CCTV news in English. It took me three weeks to travel across the Silk…
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Where I Slept: Hohhot, China
Hohhot, China | 15 July, 2006 | $4.94 I arrived in Hohhot after 10pm and, when searching for the hotel I chose out of my guidebook, discovered that an entire block had been torn down. There weren’t a lot of obvious options so I followed a woman through some lively alleys and up 6 flights…
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Home Sweet Home: Urumqi
Backtracking again, I took the fast train (25 hours) from Kashgar to Urumqi and found it just as nice as the first time. Maybe it was because the national holiday just ended, but I have never seen a Chinese train so empty—none of the hard sleeper compartments had more than two people in them. My…
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Crossing into China
After sitting around in Osh, Daniel (the Australian thrid of Team America—the name they made up for our three-person travel group in Tajikistan), flew into town and in a whirlwind I was on a bus to Kashgar. Because there was an actual bus we were pretty sure that the border was open. We never got…
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Tracking a Megan
Could it be? There’s new maps up! Okay, the Mongolian flag sucks and there’s no data for NW China or Kyrgyz but it’s something. If it makes you feel any better, I took a ton of souvenir and sketchbook photos for the relevent sections but haven’t gotten around to writing the code and resizing the…
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Crashing Into Central Asia
I woke up the next morning inside the cab of a Chinese truck. It was a bright morning and I lifted my head to see that I was surrounded by snowy peaks. I felt tired and my neck was sore—I could barely move it—but my only thought was “this must be Sary Tash. I should…
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Getting Out
Kashgar is an interesting place, but like most interesting places in China I have stayed far too long. I have been in town for five days (at least two days too long) and am ready to move on to Central Asia. The Monday bus to Osh, Kyrgyzstan was sold out and I have gotten no…
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Almost Out of China
Today is my third day in Kashgar and it’s gotten pretty hot. The old town is amazing with winding streets with mud houses and interesting residents. An old man invited me into his house for tea and I sat there for an hour with his wife and mother drinking tea and showing them my family…
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Kyrgyz Consulate Revealed!
—————————————————————————- EDIT July, 2009 If you’re looking for the embassy make sure to read the comments on this post for other reader’s tips. Here’s a first-hand account from June 29, 2009 from Wendy: The prices I was quoted were 455RMB for processing in five business days (meaning if you hand it in on Monday then…