Hong Kong Highland Exploration Team 2006 Author：Jasmine Ma Picture： 莫炳亮及Hong Kong Highland Exploration Team

　

1st to 4th August
Naqu , Ge'ermu , Huatugou , to Xinjiang

Tanggula Mountains was the meeting point of Xinjiang and Qinghai Province. As long as we left Tibet , we didn’t have to bear a bleeding nose .(it was too dry in Tibet no matter how much water we took , our noses always bleeded….) As long as we left Tibet , we could break loose of the dirty hands from the wild kids…

Tibet was permeated with beautiful scenery and magnificent mountains , however , those beggars , those polluted kids , those dirty and untidy stuffs spoiled the whole fascinating creature… Things changed a lot and we had a rough review the Tibet journey, we were disappointed.

We moved on along Toutouhe (Toutou River-the source of Yangtze River ) to Kekexili (a no man’s land) . That recalled me of a movie I saw last year named “Kekexili” and it was about the slaughtering of Tibetan antelopes which were nearly extinct. Our cars kept on forwarding to the place only with animals and wild grasses , we could see many crows which were even larger than eagles flying around up in the sky , the running antelopes etc. We had a special feeling to switch the scenario from watching TV documentaries to real life…

A very vast piece of no man’s land of 200 sq Km linked up the Kunlun Mountains Each mountain was half covered by snow . The desolate environment gave the famous Kunlun Mountains a feeling of loneliness.

We drove on Motorway 315 to Xinjiang. The Motorway lasted for more than 1,000 km . We had a terrible ordeal in driving on the road today. In fact , that Motorway could not be considered as “Road” . We were just driving at the bottom of the valleys. When we took a look at the top , we noticed we were escaping under an extreme steep cliff where landslides might happen at anytime. We were also threatened by floodwater and stones falling from the cliffs above. We just prayed to move on safely without hitting by stones. It was really a crucible driving on that tough roads , we had to steer left and right to evade from the falling stones all the time. Eventually , we had heard from the radio ahead that they had found a proper motorway.

We wondered why we still had such kind of bad roads nowadays in the country ? We kept on moving on the roads in the desert. We had sands blowing from both sides . My father’s mobile phone rang and we had regards from friends talking about the car accidents. In the desert , we could hardly move on in a straight line and the rear tires were shifting left and right frequently. Our cars were also entered the eyes of the tornados which we have encountered many times. It was quite funny to have that kind of experience . The tornado lifted our cars up a bit and we needed to steer into position when touched the ground again.

5th to 8th August
Yutian , Daliyabuyi , Hetian

We arrived Yutian , the outside temperature was above 50 degrees Celsius and we were shocked to learn about that and what city was that ? We’d got sand everywhere even inside our mouths , noses and eyes. The whole city was covered with yellow sands and even the hotel lobbies. The local people told us 300 days out of a year were in that condition.

In the old city area of Yutian , we had found there was a blue plate for each and every House at the front door illustrating : Good wife , Good Grand mother , Low income etc to describe their living standard and conditions.

We had also found the difference between the southern and northern Uigur . The Uigur in the south didn’t like to communicate with foreigners nor to take photos together. We had much interest in Xizang people. They were very beautiful and some of them looked like European , some looked like people in the Middle East . The kids looked like dolls. Whenever I attempted to take photos of them , they didn’t have any eye expressions and I didn’t wish to press the shutter as I just felt I was not welcome there.

The main purpose of going to Yutian was to enter the “Sea of Death”. It was the hinterland of The Taklamakan Desert which the distance of 220 km . In Uigur , Taklamakan meant “one could get in but not out” , and no one could escape from the desert. Daliyabuyi was the only supernatural oasis of the world’s second largest wavy desert.

There were around 1,300 Keliya people living in that place. As Keliya River dried up gradually ,therefore Daliyabuyi became one of the most isolated and lonely place in the world. In order to complete that desert trip successfully , we unloaded all the stuffs from our cars except water and hand tools . In the past , there was not any car fleet that -could enter that small town successful . The sands in the desert were as soft as water . Our cars had to rush forward or they would sink into the sand. The place we stopped got to be very accurate . Never stop onto the sands that looked gold and beautiful . The darker colour of the sand would be more rigid and with less chance to get sank. Also , never stop near water. The cars would be swept away by sand drift along with water flowing down from the snow mountain. General speaking , the cars got to rush through bravely with sharp eyesight and strong legs to press the accelerators hard .The sunshine was very strong and it was very very hot there in the desert. Our cars got stuck in the sands when we first started . All of us had to get out of the cars to remove the sand from the wheels . That was not tough enough. The worse scenario was the local guides . They were all looked slack-jawed and without any facial expressions. They asked us to go to different directions individually at the same time and we didn’t know what to do. We moved in the desert blindly for many circles and we were scared .It was already midnight , we speculated what those local people were thinking about ? Would they forget how to get home ? At last we had to cross a river running down from Kunlun Mountain before we reached the next point. The small river was quite wide with swift flow water of about one meter in depth. We were the only car fleet that completed the whole journey in that desert. We had learned many of the car fleets were given up in middle or with technical problems of the cars and they didn’t have a perfect ending so far until we had the breakthrough. Our cars used part of the vehicle modification techniques and specifications of the “Paris-Dakar” race . Apart from front and rear differential locks , our cars equipped with a 270 liter fuel tank and 40 liter water tank and that enabled us to complete the desert journey successfully.

My mother had an interview with the local village people . They were very friendly and they mentioned how much they loved Daliyabuyi and they would never leave their home town and wouldn’t care what might happen in the outside world.

The next morning , we saw the desert was entirely changed . The river water flushed a large piece of desert land away ! We could only use our intuition to get out of the yellow sea without any clues .

We said goodbye to the desert and rushed to Hetian for the “Black and White Hand Pick Rice” and to buy Hetian Jade . “Hand Pick Rice” was rice with lamb meat , a really delicious dish we wished to try again and again. When we arrived our hotel , the head of the tribe presented us with a letter certifying we were the first fleet ever succeeded to get in and out of the desert. We were all laugh and excited to have the certifacte.

　

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