Tim Boelter

It's been a while since we have been able to send any form of communication. In part this is due to our remoteness and lack of Internet access via the satellite phone, and the other reason is another story for another dispatch. But first I need to bring you up to date on the events that have taken place since departing Hotan.

On May 19th we awoke in that dusty town of Hotan. The sun was out but the haze and dust blocked most of the atmospheric penetrating rays from reaching the ground. It was windy and with the wind came the unrelenting dust. Sand blew everywhere and with it an unbearable fine powdery dust that penetrated every orifice of the body, every unsealed part on the vehicle, and eventually the focus and zoom rings on the camera I was shooting with. So with each act of focusing or zooming, I would hear the grinding of sand particles in the camera.

Before we left Hotan we attempted to shop for jade and film at the market. But because the persistent dust storm continued we called it quits and headed out of town and continued our journey eastward along the southern Silk Road. Most guidebooks don't cover the towns or the roads we were traveling on now, and it was quite apparent by the long stares that folks around these parts rarely see foreigners.

Just outside Hotan we stopped at an abandoned silk factory in Lop where we talked with one of the old workers. In its hay day it manufactured silk in bulk, but because they could no longer compete with the big mass producers the company had to close its doors. Another reason for the factory closing was the destruction of local mulberry trees, which is the staple food for the silk worm here.

We continued east past Qira and then onto Yutian. All these towns are literally oases in the desert. It's amazing to be traveling in a vast emptiness of sand where quite honestly there is nothing as far as the eye can see. Then in the distance a tree line appears and the road enters through it into this island like environment within an ocean of sand. The green foliage is such a contrast to the surrounding desert that the vivid color is almost unnatural looking.

Just as we started to leave Yutian and head back out into the desert, I couldn't help to notice how dark and ominous the sky looked ahead of us. At first I thought it was just the way the clouds looked because the sun was behind us. But then I realized we were entering what turned out to be the worst sand storm we've experienced the whole trip.

The winds picked up to a full gale force and the visibility dropped to a few feet. We had to stop dead in our tracks at least four times due to the lack of visibility. The sky turned a dark orange and suddenly I felt as though we entered another world, perhaps Mars. Sand made its way into the vehicle and soon the taste of dust plastered our mouths. Even with all the windows rolled up and the vents turned off, the interior of the vehicle became foggy with dust. It was absolutely incredible to be experiencing this. And while I interviewed Lao Wang at the wheel, out of nowhere, a young boy appears right in front of our parked car sitting on top of this huge camel. He had a young camel in tow and was struggling to get the animal across the road. Here we are in this raging sand storm, sitting in our vehicle trying to stay cutoff from the elements and this surreal sight of a boy on a camel appears like a ghost in the storm. As I film him he actually smiles and waves at me as though it was just another day in the desert form him. This was certainly one of those sights I will never forget, simply because it was so incredibly real yet so much like a scene right out of a movie.

The storm lasted for the next 100 kilometers and by the time we reached Minfeng it dissipated. We continued to the town of Qiemo where we arrived at a hotel around 11:00 p.m. On the 19th we drove 500 kilometers.

The next morning, May 20th, we had the privilege of visiting the Zaqanlak grave. This grave is actually a tomb located just outside of town in the desert. Back in 1996 a farmer digging a well accidentally unearthed fourteen well-preserved corpses (mummies) here. We drove further out into the desert to an ancient dried up riverbed where broken pottery dating 3,000 years old was found. The pottery was spread out 30 kilometers wide by 60 kilometers long. No one really understands why this is, but research is being conducted. We will have more information about this later.

After visiting the tombs in Qiemo we headed out into the desert void once again. Today our journey would take us approximately 700 kilometers east into the Qinghai Province. This part of the journey was definitely taking us into an area of China where possibly no other foreigners have traveled. The entire Qinghai Province lies at altitudes ranging from 2,500 meters to 3,500 meters in height.

We climbed out of the desert and traveled through a remarkable gorge on a road that shouldn't even be classified a highway because at best it was a rough two track over scree and boulders. Yet this piece of road was officially a highway called G315. We eventually climbed to an altitude of 3,888 meters just in time to reach the high pass at sundown. The views were breathtaking as the sky and mountaintops were painted in evening pastel colors. We took photos and I shot HD footage, but I must admit after being in the heat of the desert for the past three weeks the icy temperatures at altitude were getting the best of all of us. After our photos, we continued driving late into the night before finally reaching an oil town called Huatugou.

We spent about an hour and half looking for a place to stay but every hotel was booked with oil workers returning from the fields for Saturday night. Eventually we ended up staying in a real hole of a place. It was so bad that we all slept in our clothes for fear of getting some type of bed bug or who knows what. The next morning we woke early and bee lined out of the building, which I later learned was the local bus station.

Our journey continues on across the Qinghai Province, and I will write about this tomorrow. It is currently 3:00 am and I need to get to sleep. We have averaged about 4 hours a night for the last four weeks, so bare with my tiredness.

Cheers from Xian,
Tim Boelter

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