Panlong Ancient Road

Panlong Ancient Road

It was dark when I woke at 0800 so I continued sleeping till 0900.  China has only one time zone, so it really should be only 0600 if you go by Pakistan time just across the border.

We took the hotel buffet breakfast at 0935 before it closed at 1000 and readied ourselves for a little outing.

All I had planned for today was take a drive to the Panlong Ancient Road, a road well-known for numerous hairpin turns.

M turned up around 1145 and I tried to order a car on an app but to no avail.  We walked down to the road and eventually flagged down a taxi whose price was more than double the app price, which is fine for a return outing and some waiting.

I asked the driver to take us to the Panlong Ancient Road viewing platform.

There were some scenic spots along the way and Kim really wanted to make some photo stops.  With the driver’s Mandarin being so poor, I didn’t want to complicate the issue and said we could stop on the way back.

Incidentally, I saw the driver messaging with someone on the phone.  The messages were coming through in Chinese but he was replying in Uyghur (Arabic script).

After about an hour’s driving through windy roads, we got to the viewpoint which looked down at a stack of hairpin turns.  After a short stop, we continued to another viewpoint for another similar stack.  I learnt later that the windy road was built because the geology isn’t stable enough to allow the construction of tunnel.

Some people operated drones in the zone-permitted area at the viewpoints.

While we insisted on going back the same way, the driver vehemently refused and said there is nothing to see going back the way we came.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt going back the way he wanted, which is actually much further but less windy.  It turned out to be a scenic route that I had considered doing but thought was too hard to explain to any driver, given my poor Mandarin (or the driver’s poorer Mandarin).

The road was very bad due to roadworks but we had some scenic spots at a large artificial lake (or rather a blocked off river, forming a 21 km reservoir).

Text continues after this gallery.

Back in Tashkurgan

We got dropped off near a dumpling and noodle shop that I had found yesterday.  At first, we ordered some dumplings and noodles and M would share some of the dumplings.

But Kim was feeling hungry, so we ordered another so that we didn’t have to share with M and she could have her own.

Quite unusually, instead of 8 dumplings per serve (as per the photo), there were about 20.  M took the leftovers home for dinner but had to make some snide comments next day about how sick she was eating dumplings for lunch, dinner and breakfast.  She also had to add that street food was much cheaper and better.  Not very gracious, I thought.

After a rest, I took a walk to find Tashkurgan’s fort.  Google Maps had it nearby but it I couldn’t find it, since is notoriously unreliable.  It wasn’t showing at all on Amap.

I didn’t bother going to the other location where it might have been situated as it involved too much walking so that I could just see some ruins.  Instead, I had a wet shave at a local barber.

Walking around Tashkurgan, I noticed some old women will traditional pill-box hats with a thin scarf attached.  I hadn’t noticed this on my last visit to Xinjiang two years ago.

Due to the late lunch, we ate a one-dish dinner of tomato and egg around 2030 before retiring in our comfortable room and bed.