Visa. For the Vancouver office, go online to https://www.visaforchina.cn/YVR2_EN/. Go to Quick Access and fill out the visa application. Many questions but no downloads. When submitted, get a return airmail with the finished visa including the Confirmation Letter. Print off and sign.
1. In Canada, you must go to the Visa Service Centre (at 999 Broadway, Vancouver – 604 336 8888 9-3 daily) for fingerprints. Hours Mon-Fre: Drop off application 9-3, pick up visa 9-4. Processing time 4 business days. Rapid processing $100 in 2 business days.
2. Printed Confirmation Letter and Visa Application
3. Either a Letter of Invitation (download form on the website) or Flight and accommodation information.
4. Photo. The online application would not accept my photo (the background was too yellow) so I brought in a passport photo
5. Pay and come back 4 business days later to get your passport and visa
For me, this was rather onerous. I left home at 04:30 on Mon April 15, drove 110 km to BC Ferries at Departure Bay in Nanaimo, took the 06:15-07:55 ferry $20 to Horseshoe Bay, Bus 240 to Georgia, Canada Line to Broadway and bus to China Visa office. Returned the same way in the evening. Ferries were at and drove home arriving at .
6. I returned on Friday, April 19 (before my flight to St Vincent on April 20) to pick up my visa and sleep overnight in Vancouver.
Banking. Finding an ATM was a challenge. China Postal Bank and ABC wouldn’t accept my debit card. It was a long walk to the Bank of China before I found an ATM that worked.
SIM. I tried for an hour to get a SIM. China Telecom – my phone wound not support their SIM. Unicom would accept their SIM but couldn’t sell SIMs for short terms. China Mobile required a certified translation which was difficult and time-consuming to obtain. As a result, I was left having to rely on the internet where I was staying. Forget Google Translate and Maps to get around.
CHINA – XINJIANG – WEST (Aksu, Hotan, Kashgar, Kizilsu)
Day 1 Thur June 20
In Sost Pakistan, I was up at 7, booked my flight from Kashgar to Xining, and my hostel in Kashgar, bought cheap Pakistan cigarettes and exchanged all my rupees into RMB.
I went down to the NATCO office and waited till 9:30 to drive through Sost to Pakistan immigration. Because this was the day after Eid there weren’t many customers (may be up to 500) but it still wasn’t until 11:30 that we left.
The road followed a river in a canyon that got narrower. At the Kunjaro National Park border, the fee for foreigners was $40, for Chinese 40 RMB ($7) and for Pakistanis 500 PR ($2). The road hadn’t climbed much yet but after the park border climbed significantly.
The scenery was less impressive than I expected – lower mountains and a few higher snow-covered peaks surrounding a wide valley with yaks and pastures.
At the border, we passed through a large marble arch and drove about 2 km to immigration. It was a slow process as the luggage was thoroughly checked. All bags were emptied.
It was then 130 km to Tashkurgan. The scenery again was nothing special – through a wide valley with lower brown hills.
In Tashkurgan, we went to another immigration office to get a stamp in our passport and more security. The van from Sost stopped here and I had to get another ride to Kashgar.
I didn’t realize this and was looking for the Sost van. I met some guys from Hunza and joined them. Four were gem merchants (rubies and sapphires) and one was a student in Urumchi. All spoke Mandarin (in addition to 5 ethnic languages from Hunga).
We ate at a Chinese restaurant and started to Kashgar at 17:10 for the 4-hour drive. The 30-something driver was unbelievably slow and would not approach 80 km/hour the slow speed for such a good highway, often hovering around 70. When passing a truck, he wouldn’t accelerate, had to swerve in front of a truck and we almost died.
I finally reached Kashgar at 10:30 and got a taxi who let me off at the entrance to the old town Kashgar. It was a 500 m walk and luckily I ran into a Chinese guy going to the same hostel or I would never have found it as the address was in Mandarin.
I checked in and went to bed.
ON Tiancheng International Youth Hostel (Kashgar Ancient City Branch)
Wusitang Boyi Street Wusitang Boyi Road Community Wusitang Boyi Road No.71, Kashgar, Xinjiang, China
Day 2 Fri June 21
I had not renewed Lets VPN for $6.95 for one month. I used Firefox as my browser. I was able to renew it on my phone which was great. Surprisingly, Chrome worked and I didn’t have to use an unfamiliar browser. See banking and SIM above to see those difficulties.
I was chatting with the owner of the hostel, a sweet woman with good English. She asked when my flight was. “13:55”. She said I was late. I had not thought of the time and even though I was on the same longitude as Pakistan, it was 3 hours earlier and 13:05. I cancelled my flight and made a new one for the 22nd. It cost $125 half the normal fare. A real rookie mistake.
Trying to buy milk was another adventure. No large containers of UHT milk could be found, only the tiny packets.
ON Tiancheng International Youth Hostel.
Day 3 Sat June 22
Flight. West Air. Kashgar to Xining @13:55-16:50. The flight was an hour late. Shuttle buses take you into the city about 20 km away. It was a short taxi ride to my hostel.
CHINA – QINGHAI – EAST (Haibei, Hainan, Huangnan, Xining)
XINING is the capital of Qinghai Province and the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau. The city was a commercial hub along the Northern Silk Road’s Hexi Corridor caravan route to Tibet for over 2000 years and was a stronghold of the Han, Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties’ resistance against nomadic attacks from the west. It is of religious significance to Muslims and Buddhists (Dongguan Mosque and Ta’er Monastery).
It is connected by the Qinghai–Tibet railway to Lhasa, Tibet and connected by a high-speed railway to Lanzhou, Gansu and Ürümqi, Xinjiang.
History. It handled timber, wool and salt in ancient times. In the late 16th century, the Kumbum Monastery was built 19 km to the southeast, establishing Xining as an important religious center for the Gelug School of Buddhists.
A major 7.6 earthquake in 1927 resulted in 40,000 deaths. Aerial bombardment by the Japanese in 1941 spurred all ethnicities in Qinghai including the local Mongols and Tibetans, against the Japanese.
Economy. Woollen mills since before 1957, leather, salt from the Qaidam region and iron and steelworks.
Geography. Xining is on the eastern edge of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau on the upper reaches of the Huangshui River at an altitude of 2,200 metres (7,200 ft). Xining was an important link in the Silk Road. between the Central Plains and the western part of China and continues to be an important rail and road link to the hinterlands of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.
Climate. Xining has also been dubbed the Summer Resort Capital of China owing to its cool summer and borderline cold semi-arid climate. Nights are cold or cool throughout the year. Average temperatures range from −7.3 °C in January to 17.4 °C in July. Rainfall falls mainly from May to September. Snow cover is very sparse due to the dry winters.
Airports: Xining (XNN)
At the hostel was a nice guy from England. We went out for dinner and lucked into some good dishes from the picture menu. He taught English all over the world, was a smart guy and was easy to talk to. We grabbed at the restaurant till 11:30.
ON Sheng 45 Hostel. $8.
Day 4 Sun June 23
I had no energy to search out the few NM sites and stayed in the hostel working on the book.
ON Sheng 45
Day 5 Mon June 24
I hung around the hostel as long as I could as my flight was not till 19:30
Flight. Loong Air Xining – Wuhand 1’30’ layover – Wenzhou@19:30-00:35+1
ON
Airports: Xining (XNN)
New Guanjiao Tunnel
Qinghai Province Museum
House and Biographical Museums: Ma Bufang Mansion
Kumbum Monastery
Qinghai Science and Technology Museum
Tibetan Medicine Museum of China
DARE Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Tentative WHS: Qinghai Lake
Roads, Road Bridges and Tunnels: Tunnel – Qinghai – New Guanjiao Tunnel
Art Museums: Ledu district: Liuwan Museum of Ancient Painted Pottery is a ceramics museum with 37,925 objects, many from the Neolithic period from Liwan tombs.[1] It is the largest painted pottery museum in China.
World of Nature: Qinghaihu National Nature Reserve
New Guanjiao Tunnel
Qinghai Province Museum
House and Biographical Museums: Ma Bufang Mansion
Kumbum Monastery
Qinghai Science and Technology Museum
Tibetan Medicine Museum of China
