Crossing the Taklamakan Desert by Bus
Why cross the Taklamakan desert by bus?
When I first saw a map of China I was fascinated by the huge brown blob of nothingness filling a big portion of the far west of the country, resembling an enormous Martian crater. Hemmed in between the Tianshan mountains to the north and the Kunlun mountains to the south, it looked a wild and foreboding place. This is the Taklamakan desert. It has a reputation of being a brutal place that swallowed up any foolish traveller that dared enter.
It was feared so much that the ancient Silk Road split in two at Kashgar to avoid it. From here travellers would take the northern route via Kuqa and Korla, or the southern route to Hotan and Kargilik. Those who would attempt to cross it would do so at their peril! We decided to cross the Taklamakan desert by bus!
Fast forward to the 21st century. The Chinese government have gone to great expense to tame the wild lands of the west. They are creating new trade routes by developing the transport infrastructure so they can tap into new markets and improve the economy. A brand new highway has been built that runs right across this wild desert. This make it now possible to cross it without suffering the hardships earlier travellers encountered. There are now even sleeper buses making the 24 hour journey from Urumqi to Hotan.
What a fantastic opportunity to see this incredible landscape from the comfort of a sleeper bus. We had to go there…
Not quite luxury as we know it
We booked a ticket on a luxury sleeper bus. It cost 370 Yuan for a top bunk and 390 Yuan for the more desirable bottom bunk. Slightly more expensive than the train that takes a longer route around the desert, but we thought it would be well worth it. We turned up at 1.15 pm for a 2 o’clock departure from Urumqi and were ushered straight onto our waiting bus. I’m not sure what the hurry was. W didn’t leave until almost 3 o’clock, once they’d got a few passengers onboard.
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Calling it luxury was stretching it a little bit. Sure, we had individual bunks, 3 rows stretching across the width of the bus, but they were pretty small and in bad shape. Mine had bits of the structure missing and a big hole where the head support should have been. I bogged it up with a spare quilt. The mattresses were old and frayed. I’m not sure how fresh the linen was but I’ve seen a lot worse in my travels.
The best bit for me was getting the top bunk at the front. I was getting a grandstand view the whole way. Mandy was below and happy to make her nest and tuck into a good book. The locals all seemed quite content and so were we. We all left in great spirits to cross the Taklamakan desert by bus.
The other dozen or so passengers onboard were all Uyghurs. The Muslim descendants of the Turkic people that arrived here millenia ago on the Silk Road. For years they have been the dominant race in Xinjiang province but are now slowly being outnumbered by the influx of migrating Han Chinese.
Who are the Frugal Travellers?
On the road
We followed an avenue of wind generators out of Ürümqi. Thousands of these windmills stretch for miles across the barren desert landscape for miles around and climb the dry, rocky hills. Snow capped mountains lay to the north. The first police checkpoint was 3 hours into the journey.
‘China Police’ the other passengers muttered as they shuffled out. It’s a fact of life here. They treated us politely but were very thorough with our documents, making sure everything was in order and sending off our details before we were allowed to pass.
One of the many police checkpoints en route. We continued south west, descending through an incredible gorge of near vertical rocky cliffs with huge sand dunes attempting to engulf them. It flattened to a wide plane eventually with jagged mountains in the distance. It was all very stark and startlingly beautiful.
Horror toilets
We stopped at a ragged outdoor roadside cafe where we decided it best not to eat. The toilets were very basic, with the females’ being relatively clean (the photo below), but the males’ toilets were vile, definitely making my Worst 3 Toilets Ever list! All part of the Taklamakan desert by bus experience!
At a petrol station we were told to get off and walk around to the boom gates on the opposite side as the bus was only allowed in with no passengers. The guards on the gates had ‘explosion proof’ vests on. I took a few steps back!
At another police checkpoint we were watched over by a machine gun toting SWAT team. I wasn’t sure whether to feel secure or nervous by this. They weren’t smiling.
A night of checkpoints
The sun set in dramatic fashion as they tend to over deserts. The lights dimmed on the bus and we all settled down to a night’s sleep as we rolled on under the desert sky. The sleep was somewhat disturbed by two more checkpoints, each involving quite some time being interrogated about the details of our trip in the police station while the unfortunate locals waited patiently for us on the bus.
Sunrise bought amazing views of the desert proper as sand dunes surrounded us on all sides. I was frustrated as to not being able to capture the real beauty of it all because of the dirty windows on the bus and the bumpy road surface making photography difficult. So I lay back instead and enjoyed the desert views while listening to the hauntingly atmospheric Uyghur music being played by the driver.
A strip of hardy desert bushes had been planted either side of the road to keep the moving dunes at bay. They were the only colour in this landscape other than the brown sand which reached the horizon on both sides.
That scenery of rolling sand dunes stayed with us for the next 6 hours. We thought we’d be arriving in Hotan at 2pm but we were still in the middle of the desert then, and after checking my camera’s GPS we realised that we still had a very long way to go!
End of the desert but not the journey
Eventually we popped out on a junction to a busier road, the G315. Grassland appeared on both sides and the sight of horses and sheep grazing around small ponds told us our desert experience was over. It was awesome to witness it but was quite a relief to know we’d soon be back in civilisation. At the next checkpoint we stopped to eat and had the most amazing cooked lamb from an outdoor oven with flatbread. A group of Uyghur men were playing a traditional stringed instrument nearby. It felt like a very authentic experience. We were now in the Uyghur heartland.
We were on the southern section of the Silk Road here which meant more towns to pass through and more police checkpoints. By the time we were through Checkpoint #8 it was getting dark and we were 7 hours past our expected arrival time. We were getting worried. Our plan had been to arrive in the early afternoon in Hotan and have a leisurely look around, stay the night then get the train to Kashgar the following day. It didn’t quite work out that way for us!
No room at the inn
We had finally crossed the Taklamakan desert by bus!! We made it to Hotan, on the southern reaches of the Taklamakan at just before midnight after going through the 10th checkpoint. It’s never ideal arriving in a strange new town at that time of night with nowhere to stay. Especially a town that is locked down with police checkpoints on every busy road and street corner.
We got unceremoniously dropped off on a dark street, so jumped in a taxi to the only cheap hotel we knew of that is licensed to accept foreigners here, (very few do). We found the doors to be locked, and whilst banging on their gates a group of patrolling police rocked up. They took us to another hotel who wouldn’t accept us and then put us in a taxi to another hotel who said they were full. It was going to be one of those nights!
Time for Plan B
We realised it was going to be too difficult finding a hotel that would take us, so we decided to while away the night until we could take the morning train to Kashgar. We installed ourselves into a late night restaurant and ate a much needed meal… slowly. They very politely advised they were closing at 2.45am, so we took a chance and caught a taxi to the railway station, hoping to sit out the last few hours until sunrise there. Bad call!
The group of armed police at the station were horrified to see us. The last thing they wanted was to babysit westerners all night. They called in their superiors and at one stage we had 7 SWAT cops in heated debate over what to do with us.
Homeless for the night
Their solution – hotel… Our response was a polite but firm ‘no way’. With the help of Google Translate we explained that it was impossible for us to find a hotel that would take us. Also it was not worth it for only 3 hours. Finally, after much negotiation with the officer in charge, we came to an agreement. He’d put us in a taxi back to town to a 24 hour restaurant. There we could wait out the night. Deal!
We arrived at the great Uyghur restaurant right next to the heavily guarded main square at 4am. The staff were friendly and relaxed. They were happy to have us sit and drink tea for the next 3 hours. Tea always comes free with food here and as we were full from our 2am dinner we ordered take away food instead for our train journey. They not only served us an amazing halal lamb and pilau to go but insisted on giving us a free breakfast of handmade noodle soup. Wonderful people, the Uyghurs. They had football on the TV as well!
End of a long night
We took our 5th taxi of the night back to the station as the sun rose at 7am. We then managed to score tickets on the 8.12am slow train to Kashgar. A 6 hour trip for only 28Y (US$4.30). We were so glad to have seen the night out safely and to be on our way. Not surprisingly we slept a lot of that ride although we did get distracted by the magnificent views of the Karakoram mountains to our south.
So that wraps up quite an epic journey across the Taklamakan desert by bus and on the southern Silk Road to Kashgar
- 50 hours in total
- 34 hours from Urumqi to Hotan by bus
- 8 hour overnight adventure in Hotan
- 8 hours by train, then local bus No# 20 to our hostel in Kashgar
- The only time in China we caught taxis, and it ended up being 5 in one night!
Would we do it again? Probably not. It was a tough one but the travels that don’t go to plan are normally the most memorable ones. We won’t forget this one in a hurry!
More blog stories and information on China
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6 thoughts on “Across the Taklamakan Desert – an epic journey by bus and train”
This is a trip that I had wanted to do for many years and it’s wonderful to read your account of it before going on it in 3 months, solo.
We are glad you enjoyed the post and hope you have a great time crossing the Taklamakan. It’s an amazing part of the country. We’d love to hear how you get on so please give us some feedback after you make the journey. We recommend that you take snacks and water along with you because you can go a long time without access to food or drink. Happy travels!
I’d like to do the Taklamakan at some point in my travels. It’s tucked away in my mind to start in Mongolia, make my way across the Taklamakan and into India or perhaps into some of the stans. Anyway I came across your site and will be reading more. Enjoy your travels.
Sounds like an incredible trip you have planned, there Andy. You could cross south into Pakistan down the Karakoram highway or head into Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan from Kashgar. We absolutely loved our journey through Central Asia after China and have written many other blog posts about it. If you have any other questions about the region please don’t hesitate to ask. Happy travels!
Fantástico viaje. Taklamakan es una de esas últimas fronteras que vale la pena visitar.
Gracias por ese relato tan ameno.
Saludos desde Colombia!
Gracias Ricardo. Estamos feliz que disfrutaste nuestro blog sobre el Taklamakan. De verdad que es una frontera muy enigmatica. Es duro viajar ahi pero muy vale la pena hacerlo.
Saludos Lee and Mandy