Known
as ¡°The Sea of Death - You go in but you never come
out¡±, the Taklamakan is situated in the Tarim Basin
in China¡¯s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Extending
more than 1400 kilometers east to west and as much as
560 kilometers north to south, covering 320,000 square
kilometers, this is the second largest desert on the
planet. Two thousand years ago, the ancient Han records
of China knew the Taklamakan as the Liu Sha, or ¡°Moving
Sands¡± , on account of the movements of its deep dunes
that are relentlessly in motion, driven by fierce winds,
shaping and forming the soft sand into an impenetrable
maze. Modern-day, our Chinese writers have referred
to it more starkly and dramatically as the ¡°Desert of
Death - You go in but you never come out¡±. There are
many legends and dark secrets surrounding ¡° the worst
and most dangerous desert in the world¡± as the young
Swedish explorer, Sven Hedin, described it after his
first venture into the Taklamakan in 1895 nearly cost
him his life. Two of his Uyghur camel drivers and seven
of his eight camels were less fortunate: they all perished
from thirst amongst the unforgiving dunes.
Sven
Hedin¡¯s experience served to fuel the evil reputation
of the desert. For centuries, the ancient trading route,
the ¡°Silk Road¡±, had skirted the edge of the desert by
hugging the line of isolated oases along the foothills
of the Tian Shan mountains and Kun Lun mountains. Even
so, many caravans of merchants, soldiers and pilgrims
lost their way between these oases and wandered off into
the desert, never to return.
More
often, tragedy befell travelers who were caught out in
the open by the dreaded karaburan, or black hurricane.
Another early European explorer of Central Asia, the German
Albert von. Le Coq, recordede a story of how an entire
caravan of horsemen perished after being hit by the karabura
whilst escorting a consignment of silver ingots in 1905:
¡° The sixty Chinese horsemen galled into the desert where
some of the sandstorm likes to burry its victims¡±. Von
Le Coq was to experience the karaburan at the first hand
during one of his journey:Quite
suddenly the sky grows dark ¡ a moment later the storm
bursts with appalling violence upon the caravan. Enormous
masses of sand, mixed with pebbles, are forcibly lifed
up, whirled round, and dashed down on man and beast; the
darkness increases and strong clashing noise mingle with
the roar and howl of the storm. The whole happening is
like hell let loose ¡ Any traveler overwhelm-ed by such
a storm must, in spite of the heat, entirely envelope
himself in felt to escape injury from the stones dashng
around with such mad force. Men and horses must lie down
and endure the rage of the hurricane which often lasts
for hours together
In
case of the serious natural circumstance of the biggest
desert in the world, there were a lot of explorers from
all over the World who tried to do the exploring in this
¡°Sea of Death - You go in but you never come out.¡± desert,
tried to find the lost cities from the mountainous sand
dunes, many of them lost their lives. But finally, this
formidable desert has been crossed end-to-end from West
to East, by an expeditionary team organized and led by
the British explorer, Charles Blackmore and the Chinese
explorer, Guo Jin Wei together in 1993.
As you know, now GPS has been used by expeditions, and
most explorers have done varied exploring in this ¡°Sea
of Death¡± in recent years. The golden color views of the
biggest desert in the planet attract more and more explorers
and tourists from all over the World. GAE can make your
dreams to Taklamakan coming true.
In
each routse, you will be able to visit the ruins of a
number of ancient towns and fortresses, abandoned for
a thousand years and dating from a time when the Taklamakan
was watered by great rivers which flowed into the desert
from the Kun Lun Mountains to the south. To provide a
fascinating taste of genuine desert travel, you propose
to undertake a south to north crossing of the desert,
linking together the normally dry river valleys of Kerriya
and Khotan. This is an extemely remote area and will involve
the use vehicles to take the group as far as the desert
villages which lies some 120 or 220 kilometres in the
middle of this desert. You may have many choices to march
your crossing in this desert, for instance, to reach the
Khotan River from a tribe village where we call Tonggusbasti,
the route will actually take you due westwards through
the heart of the Taklamakan, following (in reverse) a
part of the route taken by Charles Blackmore and Guo Jin
Wei¡¯s expedition. Accompanied by camels and their Uighur
drivers, you will cover a total distance of around 125
kilometers on foot. Or to reach the sand highway from
this tribe village, the route will take you eastwards
more than 150 kilometers through the heart of taklamakan,
following a part of the route taken by Charles Blackmor
and MR Guo Jin wei¡¯s expedition as well. But on the way,
you may stop for a day out of the famous Niya ancient
ruins and I am sure you will have a lot of new discoveries
what you are not expected; or to reach the Endere River
from another tribe village in the east to this new sand
highway, Charle Blackmore and Mr Guo Jin wei¡¯s route will
lead you to Endere ancient sites. The distance in this
part is about 100 kilometers eastward to the Endere River.
Whichever route you will take, is a remarkable journey
and an opportunity to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime
adventure travel experience.
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