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 overwhelmed 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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