6. Kapitel: Reiseführer Turkestan/Xinjiang

DER WEG IST DAS ZIEL ...
Seidenstraße
6. TEIL: CHINA - TURKESTAN
Tipps für eine Überlandreise entlang der Seidenstraße von
Europa durch die Türkei und den Iran nach Pakistan und
weiter nach China oder Indien.
www.geocities.com/gerald_fimberger
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Disclaimer
D
ieser Reiseführer ist als Einführung zur Planung einer Überlandreise von Europa entlang der Seidenstraße nach China gedacht. Er
ersetzt auf keinen Fall kommerzielle
Reiseführer, sondern soll vielmehr
eine erste Orientierungshilfe unter
der verwirrenden Vielzahl an Möglichkeiten bieten. Das Buch richtet
sich hauptsächlich an Rucksackreisende, die einen Trip von Europa
durch die Türkei und den Iran nach
Pakistan und weiter nach China und/
oder Indien planen. D.h., es enthält
weder Informationen über die Transsibirische Eisenbahn oder die Route
durch die zentralasiatischen Republiken noch autofahrerspezifische In-
formationen über Carnet etc.
Nach einer kurzen Beschreibung
der Reiseroute gibt es detailliertere
Informationen über die Länder und
Sehenswürdigkeiten, die im wesentlichen von Lonely Planet und The
Rough Guide stammen, gepaart mit
einigen Einsichten von „No Shitting
in the Toilet - The guide for when
you've really lost it“. Noch mehr Informationen gibt es auf deren Websites (www.lonelyplanet.com, www.
ro ughguid es.com bzw. www.
petermoore.net). Die Texte sind alle
auf Englisch, was aber kein Problem
sein sollte und auf jeden Fall ein gutes Training ist, für das, was Euch
unterwegs erwartet ;-)
Copyright © Gerald Fimberger. Alle Rechte und Irrtümer vorbehalten.
Fanpost, Geldspenden und Heiratsanträge an [email protected]
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Inhalt
3
1 Einleitung
Dauer
5
3 Türkei
Edirne - Dogubayazit
8
7 Tibet
Golmud - Mt. Everest
Reisezeit
Kosten
4 Iran
Money, Money, Money
The Great Visa Chase
Sehenswürdigkeiten
Täbriz - Zahedan
5 Pakistan
Kunming - Kanton
Quetta - Sust
10 Ex-Kolonien
Europa - Istanbul
Ungarn: Budapest
Xining - Hangzhou
9 Südwest-China
Why?
2 Balkan Express
8 Große Städte
6 China - Turkestan
Rumänien:
Oradea - Bukarest
China
Bulgarien:
Veliko Tarnovo - Sozopol
Turkestan:
Tashkurgan - Dunhuang
Macao - Hongkong
Guidebooks The blind following the blind
10
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www.geocities.com/gerald_fimberger
China
Hinter der Großen Mauer wartet ein eigener Kontinent darauf entdeckt zu
werden.
W
er von Pakistan nach China
kommt, dem wird auffallen
wie geordnet und vergleichsweise
grau das Leben nach dem farbenfrohen Chaos des Subkontinents ist.
Hat man das Visum für China
schon zu Hause beantragt, sollte
man beachten, dass man spätestens
drei Monate nach Ausstellungsdatum tatsächlich auch ins Land einreisen muss, weil sonst das Visum
verfällt. Also ganz kurz vor Abfahrt
beantragen oder erst in Islamabad.
Das sollte kein Problem sein, so
lange man keine verdächtig langen
Aufenthalte in Indien (Exil des Dalai Lama!) im Pass hat.
Eine definitive Reiseroute durch
das riesige Land anzugeben, ist ein
ziemlich hoffnungsloses Unterfangen. Die Standardroute führt entlang der Seidenstraße nach Beijing
und dann auf der für Erstbesucher „empfohlenen“ Strecke über
den Osten in den Süden des Landes: Kashgar – Urumqi - Turfan –
Dunhuang – Lanzhou - Xiahe – Xian – Beijing/Peking – Qingdao Shanghai – Suzhou – Hangzhou –
Guilin – Guangzhou/Kanton –
Hongkong. Das ist zudem die logischste Route ohne viel Zickzack,
die sich auch gut in drei Monaten
schaffen lässt. Nachteil ist jedoch,
dass sie ab Lanzhou praktisch nur
durch Städte führt, die zudem ziemlich teuer sind.
Wenn ich dagegen die zehn Orte,
die Rough Guide als „Best of China“ bezeichnet, aneinander reihe,
kommt eine völlig andere Route
heraus: Kashgar – Lhasa – Xian –
Beijing/Peking – Shanghai - Lijiang – Dali - Xishuangbanna – Guilin – Hongkong. Nach insgesamt
acht Monaten in China würde ich
sagen, dass diese Orte, nicht unbedingt die Auswahl der Sehenswürdigkeiten, auch ganz gut mit meinen
Favoriten übereinstimmt. Lässt sich
das aber praktisch auch verwirklichen?
Kashgar – Lhasa wäre eine
Traumroute entlang des Himalayas,
doch leider ist die Straße nach
Westtibet für Einzelreisende gesperrt. Die kürzeste Alternative ist
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Kashgar – Dunhuang – Golmud –
Lhasa. Mit der neuen Eisenbahn
sind die rund 2.000 km von Kashgar nach Dunhuang relativ flott zu
zurückgelegt. Von Dunhuang geht
es dann per Bus durch die Halbwüste nach Golmud und von dort weiter über 5.000 m hohe Pässe nach
Lhasa. Die völlig überteuerte Busfahrt ist zugleich auch die politisch
stabilste Route nach Tibet.
Nach einer kleinen Rundreise
durch das Dach der Welt kehrt man
entweder per Bus wieder nach Gol-
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mud zurück oder man fliegt nach
Chengdu oder Xian. Wer den Landweg nimmt, kann über Xining nach
Xiahe zum schön gelegenen Labrang Kloster fahren. Abenteuerlustige schlagen sich von dort über die
Seen des Naturreservats Jiuzhaigou
Richtung Süden nach Chengdu
durch. Die Standardroute führt dagegen über Lanzhou nach Xian.
Xian – Beijing – Shanghai ist ohnehin problemlos, wobei ich auch
noch zusätzlich Suzhou und Hangzhou besuchen würde. Todesmutige
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können dann eine rund dreitägige
Marathonzugsfahrt nach Kunming
machen, der Rest wird den Flieger
in die Hauptstadt Yunnans nehmen.
Wer mehr Zeit hat, kann auf dem
Yangtsekiang mit Schiffen bis Leshan in Sichuan fahren. Zu bedenken
ist jedoch, dass die rund eineinhalbwöchige Fahrt bis auf die kurze
Strecke durch die 3 Schluchten
ziemlich uninteressant ist.
Von Kunming macht man eine
kleine Rundreise durch das nördliche Yunnan nach Lijiang und Dali,
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von wo es Richtung Süden nach
Jinghong, der Hauptstadt von Xishuangbanna geht. Von dort kann
man sich entweder direkt mit Bussen entlang der laotischen Grenze
Richtung Liuzhou und Yangshuo
durchschlagen. Oder man fährt wieder nach Kunming hinauf und versucht, einen Zug nach Liuzhou oder
Guilin zu bekommen. Wer doch
wieder auf Busse ausweichen muss,
sollte auf jedem Fall den Huangguoshu Wasserfall in Guizhou besuchen.
Von Yangshuo nimmt man dann
die letzte Etappe nach Hongkong in
www.geocities.com/gerald_fimberger
Angriff, wobei ich auch in Guangzhou und Macao stoppen würde.
Insgesamt wird man für diese Strecke rund vier Monate brauchen,
womit man zumindestens einmal
das Visum verlängern lassen muss.
Wer damit Probleme hat, kann auch
auf dem Weg von Hangzhou nach
Kunming in Hongkong vorbeischauen und dort ein neues Visum
beantragen.
Nachteil dieser Route ist, dass
man sich teilweise ziemlich im Zickzack-Kurs durch das Reich der Mitte bewegt. So summieren sich die
Entfernungen zu rund 17.000 km
auf, was fast 6.000 km länger als bei
der zuerst beschriebenen Strecke ist.
Klimatisch ist zu beachten, dass
man möglichst früh in Europa startet, weil es Ende Oktober im nördlichen Yunnan schon kalt zu werden
beginnt. Die Einreise nach China
sollte zwischen Anfang Juli und Anfang August liegen, was eine Abfahrt von zu Hause kurz nach Ostern bedeuten würde.
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LONELY PLANET
China
C
hina isn't a country - it's a different world. From shop-tillyou-drop metropolises to the epic
grasslands of Inner Mongolia - with
deserts, sacred peaks, astounding
caves, and imperial ruins - it's a land
of cultural and geographic schisms.
It's not that China has completely
done away with its Maoist past - it's
more that the yin of revolutionary
zeal is being balanced by the yang of
economic pragmatism, and the oldguard communists are giving way to
the new wave entrepreneurs.
It's a land of towering mountains
and epic landscapes - background
scenery to the fall of dynasties, the
rise of emperors and the turning of
the revolutionary wheel. Unless you
have a couple of years and unlimited patience, it's best to follow a
loose itinerary here, such as Beijing
to Tibet via Xi'an's terracotta warriors, following the Silk Road route,
sailing down the Yangzi River, or
exploring the Dr Seuss landscape of
Guangxi Province.
When to Go
Spring (March-April) and autumn
(September-October) are the best
times to visit China. Daytime temperatures range from 20°C to 30°C
in these seasons, but nights can be
bitterly cold and it can be wet and
miserable. Major public holidays, in
particular Chinese New Year, are
best avoided as it's difficult to get
around and/or find accommodation.
Facts for the Traveler
Visas: Visas are required by all foreigners entering mainland China
although, at this stage, visas are not
required by Western nationals visiting Hong Kong and Macau. Travel-
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Unterwegs
ers in transit can stay in China visafree for up to 24 hours as long as
they have an onward air ticket for a
flight from China to another destination departing within that time
period. Visas are available from
Chinese embassies and consulates in
most countries.
Getting Around
Now that private carriers have been
allowed to set up operations in
China, CAAC has assumed the role
of `umbrella organisation' over airlines including China Eastern, China
Southern, China Northern, Great
Wall, Yunnan Airlines and several
others. There is no such thing as a
discount, no matter where you buy
your ticket and you'll usually be
slugged with an agents commissioning fee. There is an airport tax of
Y50 payable on all domestic flights.
Long-distance buses are one of
the best means of getting around on
the ground; they're frequent and
cheap (which also translates as
crowded and stuffy) but there's extensive services, passable roads and
interesting towns and villages en
route. An even better mode is the
train, which reaches into every
province (apart from Tibet) along a
52,000-km network. It's cheap, relatively fast and a safer proposition
than buses; the only dangers on the
trains is getting your luggage
pinched or dying from shock at the
state of the toilets.
As land transport improves, the
romantic days of domestic boat
travel are fading. But there are still a
number of popular boat trips to be
had between Hong Kong and the
mainland. The best known river trip
is the three-day cruise along the
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BEIJING / PEKING
Qiao Yuan Hotel
Yangzi River from Chongqing to
Wuhan.
Taxis don't cruise the streets except in the largest of cities, and
while most cabs have meters they
usually only get switched on by accident. Motorcycle taxis, motortricycles and/or pedicabs hunt in
packs around most major train and
bus stations. They're a motley
bunch, but they're cheap and useful
if you don't mind sudden trafficinduced adrenalin rushes. But really,
once you've settled in somewhere,
the best way to get around is by
renting a bike and joining the pedalling throng.
Money & Costs
Currency: Renminbi (RMB). The
basic unit is the yuan
Relative Costs:
Meals
► Budget: US$1-2
► Mid-range: US$5-10
► Top-end: US$ 10 and upwards
Lodging
► Budget: US$25-35 (eastern
China), US$5-12 (western China)
► Mid-range: US$35-100
► Top-end: US$100 and upwards
Generally, eastern China is much
more expensive than the western
part of the country. Visitors to eastern China could budget around US
$50 a day, but it would be a challenge. Budget travellers in western
China should be able to keep costs
down to US$25 per day. The main
drain on savings tends to be long
train journeys. Food is cheap
throughout China, and if you're
careful you won't have to spend
much more than US$7 a day on
meals. However, the bottom line is
that you'll be charged the 'tourist
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XIAN
Nachtmarkt
price' a lot of the time - it's a practice encouraged by the government.
Foreign currency and travellers'
cheques can be changed at the main
branches of the Bank of China, the
tourist hotels, Friendship Stores and
some department stores. Hotels
usually charge the official rate. You
will need to keep your exchange receipts if you want to change any of
your remaining RMB at the end of
your trip. Travellers' cheques are
useful because the exchange rate is
more favourable than that for cash;
Thomas Cook, American Express
and Visa are most commonly accepted.
Credit cards are gaining ground in
China, with Visa, MasterCard,
American Express (branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen), JCB and Diners Club the
most common. Cards can be used
in most mid to top-range hotels,
Friendship and department stores,
but cannot be used to finance your
transportation costs. Cash advances
can be made at head branches of
the Bank of China (4% commission). Tipping is not really expected
in mainland China - but bargaining
is definitely OK. You can bargain in
shops, street stalls, and hotels - but
not in large stores.
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XINJIANG /
Turkestan
T
ashkurgan ist ein eher uninteressanter Grenzort zu Pakistan mit
einer Festung. Wer auf dem Weg
nach Kashgar ein paar Tage am Karakul See bleiben möchte, braucht
unter Umständen ein Alien’s Travel
Permit vom Public Security Bureau
(PSB) in Tashkurgan. Der See liegt
malerisch zwischen den weißen
Gipfeln des 7.546 m hohen Muztagh Ata und dem 7.719 m hohen
Kongur.
Kashgar ist wahrscheinlich die Stadt
mit dem meisten orientalischen
Flair in China und einem beliebten
Sonntagsmarkt. Wer von Pakistan
kommt, wird, wie ich, alles ein bisschen grau und zahm finden. Doch
als ich auf einer späteren Reise von
Osten kam, hat mir die Stadt wesentlich besser gefallen.
Die 2.000 km von Kashgar nach
Dunhuang lassen sich in zwei Tagen
relativ flott mit der neuen Eisenbahn zurücklegen (in Korla oder
Urumqi umsteigen). Die nahegele-
genen Mogao Grotten sind die
größten und am besten erhaltenen
buddhistischen Höhlentempel in
Nordwestchina. Von hier kann man
entweder direkt nach Lanzhou und
Xian zu den großen Städten im Osten weiterfahren, wenn man eine
Sitzplatzreservierung bekommt, oder man macht einen Abstecher
nach Tibet.
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nach Dunhuang
Kashgar
Karakul See
Khunjerab Paß
Karakoram Highway
© LONELY PLANET. This highway over the Khunjerab Pass (4800m) is the gateway to Pakistan and was
used for centuries by caravans plodding down the Silk
Road. Khunjerab means 'valley of blood', a reference to
local bandits who took advantage of the terrain to plunder caravans and slaughter the merchants. Nearly 20
years were required to plan, push, blast and level the present road between Islamabad and Kashgar; over 400
road-builders died. Facilities en-route are being steadily
improved, but take warm clothing, food and drink on
board with you. Even if you don't wish to cross into
Pakistan, it's worth doing the trip up to Tashkurgan
from Kashgar because the scenery is stunning: high
mountain pastures nibbled by camels and yaks tended by
yurt-dwelling Tajiks.
Tashkurgan
© ROUGH GUIDES. The last town before the Pakistani border, Tashkurgan, lies 280km southeast of
Kashgar, and about 220km north of the Pakistani town
of Sust. Its primary importance for travellers is as a staging post between Kashgar and Sust, and all travellers
passing through, in either direction, must stay the night
here. It’s a tiny place, comprising a couple of tree-lined
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Karakul See
streets, with the bus station and a
couple of budget hotels at the western end. Chinese customs and immigration are located a few minutes
round the corner from the bus station.
The town boasts a long history as
well as fantastic mountain scenery.
Today, Tashkurgan has a peculiar
atmosphere. The native population
is mainly Tadjik, but there are also
groups of melancholy Han Chinese,
thousands of miles from home, as
well as intrepid Pakistanis setting up
shop outside their country – plus,
incredibly, a minor entertainment
industry involving sex and alcohol
for Pakistani tourists. Few travellers
bother to stop for a day, but you
could pleasantly rest up here for 24
hours. If you decide to linger here,
there’s a brown, crumbling, mudbrick fort, at least six hundred years
old, still standing on the only hill for
miles around at the edge of town,
which is worth a look, especially at
sunset.
Lake Karakul
© ROUGH GUIDES. Southwest
of Kashgar, the road soon leaves
the valley, with its mud-brick buildings and irrigated wheat and rice
plantations, behind. Climbing
through river gorges strewn with
giant boulders, it creeps into a land
of treeless, bare dunes of sand and
gravel, interspersed with pastures
scattered with grazing yaks and
camels. The sudden appearance of
Lake Karakul by the roadside, some
200km out of Kashgar, is dramatic.
Right under the feet of the Pamir
Mountains and the magnificent
7546-metre Mount Muztagata,
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ABAKH HOJA MAUSOLEUM
Kashgar
whose vast snowy flanks have been
split open by colossal glaciers, the
waters of the lake are a luminous
blue. The opportunities for hiking
over the surrounding green pasture
are virtually limitless, especially if
you are equipped with a tent and
warm clothing; at 3800m, the
weather can be extremely cold even
in summer, with snow showers normal well into June. It’s possible to
walk round the lake in a day, in
which case you will almost certainly
encounter some friendly Kirgyzi
yurt-dwellers on the way – you may
well be able to stay with them if you
can communicate your meaning
(not easy). Otherwise, if you are
without your own tent, you can stay
at a rather muddy and not particularly enticing tour-group yurt site
just off the road, with its own restaurant and local attendants.
Kashgar
© ROUGH GUIDES. A large part
of the excitement of Kashgar lies in
the experience of reaching it. From
eastern China it is fantastically remote: as the crow flies, it’s more
than 4000km from Beijing, of which
the thousand-plus kilometres from
Ürümqi is for the most part sheer
desert. As recently as the 1930s, the
journey time to and from Beijing
ran to a number of months. And yet
Kashgar today, an oasis 1200m
above sea level, is a remarkably
prosperous and pleasant place, despite remaining, in part, an essentially medieval city. Coming from
the west, Kashgar is the first point
of arrival on the ancient overland
routes from Pakistan and Kirgyzstan.
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More than any city in Xinjiang,
Kashgar is a bastion of old Chinese
Turkestan. The population is nearly
ninety percent Muslim, a fact you
can hardly fail to notice with the
great Id Kah Mosque dominating
the central square, and the Uigur
bazaars and tea shops, the smell of
grilled lamb and, above all, the faces
of the Turkic people around you.
Kashgar’s extraordinary Sunday
market, for which half of Central
Asia seems to converge on the city,
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is as exotic to the average Han Chinese as to the foreign tourist.
The history of Kashgar is dominated by its strategic position, first
as a critical junction on the Silk
Road, and more recently as the
meeting point of three empires –
Chinese, Soviet and British. Both
Britain and the Soviet Union maintained consulates in Kashgar until
1949: the British with an eye to their
interests across the frontier in India,
the Soviets (so everyone assumed)
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with the long-term intention of absorbing Xinjiang into their Central
Asian orbit. The conspiracies of this
period are brilliantly evoked in Peter
Fleming’s News from Tartary and
Ella Maillart’s Forbidden Journey.
At the time of Fleming’s visit, in
1935, the city was in effect run by
the Soviets, who had brought their
rail line to within two days of
Kashgar. During World War II,
however, Kashgar swung back under Chinese control; and with the
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DURCH DIE WÜSTE
Taklamakan
break in Sino-Soviet relations in the
early 1960s, the Soviet border (and
influence) firmly closed. It is only
now, in the wake of the break-up of
the Soviet Union, that Kashgar
seems set to resume its status as one
of the great travel crossroads of
Asia.
Dunhuang
© ROUGH GUIDES. An oasis
town perched right on the outer periphery of old Chinese Turkestan,
Dunhuang has always been literally
on the edge of the desert – from
downtown you can see giant, spectacular sand dunes at the bottom of
the street. Today, though, increasing
numbers of tourists, both from
China and abroad, are coming to
Dunhuang to view the astonishing
art work at the nearby Mogao
Caves, and in consequence the town
has become something of a desert
resort with inexpensive hotels, lots
of English-language menus in the
restaurants and friendly people.
The Mogao Caves, 25km southeast of Dunhuang, are one of the
great sites – and archaeological discovery stories – of the East. The
first known Buddhist temples
within the boundaries of the Chinese empire, supposedly established
in 366 AD by a monk called Lie
Zun, they were a centre of culture
on the Silk Road right up until the
fourteenth century, and today contain religious art works spanning a
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MOGAO HÖHLEN
Dunhuang
thousand years of history. Chinese
Buddhism radiated out to the whole
Han empire from these wild desert
cliffs, and with it – gradually adapting to a Chinese context – came the
artistic influences of Central Asia,
India, Persia and the West.
Of the original thousand or more
caves, 492 survive in recognizable
form, but many are off-limits, either
considered no longer of significant
interest or else containing Tantric
murals which the Chinese reckon
are too sexually explicit for visitors.
Of the thirty main caves open to
the public, you are likely to manage
only around fifteen in a single day.
►
Das 7. Kapitel führt über 5.000
m hohe Pässe hinauf nach Tibet,
dem sagenumwobenen ShangriLa zwischen chinesischer Besatzung und lamaistischer Tradition.