Excellent post Tim. I made the trip from Kashgar to Gilgit in June and found the details of the journey to be more or less exactly the same as you describe.
One small detail to add to your post - about 20 yards away from the entrance to the Traffic Hotel in Tashkorgan is a building with a public shower, and you can have a hot shower here for about 4 yuan. This sorts out the problem of there being no showers in the Traffic Hotel itself.
Giora
Extremely helpful report. A thousand thanks timdog. Much appreciated.
I hope your return trip will be equally exciting.
Nice trip.
{quote:title=timdog wrote:}{quote}
Firstly, the rumour that "foreigners aren't allowed on public transport on the Chinese side of the KKH" is totally, entirely false, and after talking to people in Kashgar, and people who have made the trip in recent months I can assure all that this has NEVER been the case. Throughout this summer a modest trickle of foreign tourists have been taking the bus from Kashgar to Pakistan without difficulties.
The source of this rumour, which is being bandied about by some people as "fact", may be a garbled third-hand report about some+ people having trouble getting through Chinese customs without a Pakistan visa in advance. It may possibly have been encouraged by unscrupulous tour operators in Kashgar looking to rent expensive private transport; but i think the most likely explanation is simple confusion. Tourists travelling beyond Tashkurgan but +not+ crossing to Pakistan have +never been allowed to use public transport (though you can hire a jeep to visit the pass as a day trip and then return to Kashgar/Tashkurgan), but if you are heading for Pakistan you are free to use the bus - as you always have been...
With respect, I have to challenge your assertion here and suggest that you are misrepresenting the issue with your first statement in that paragraph. When I travelled through Kashgar in September the question was whether foreigners, especially travellers NOT on scheduled public transport, were being stopped en route to Tashkurgan. It was very much a live and unresolved issue then.
In Aug 2009, a poster offered a similar account and reported the experiences of people he'd met (see message 34):
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?messageID=16119880#16119880
In the end, neither he on his bicycle nor I in my shared rented jeep had a problem passing that particular check post. However, I respectfully submit that you are going over the top when accusing people of bandying about rumours without having been there. The confusion is understandable in the context of changing security measures and the circumstances are/were very fluid.
As for the stories about the Chinese being reluctant to let people through without a Pakistan visa - they reported no problems, and though I had my visa, at Tashkurgan and at the other checkposts beyond no one checked my passport for a Pakistani visa, only for my Chinese exit stamp.
Again, none of the people on my bus who needed visas on arrival had any problems with Chinese immigration on 15 Sep 2009, but I think there is enough anecdotal evidence on this site and elsewhere to demonstrate that this was a problem in the past. The website for Northern Areas tourism even has a warning on this in the news ticker on some of its pages. See:
www.visitnorthernareas.gov.pk/aboutus.htm</a>
On a related matter, I've tried to contact that office to get clear advice on the date the Khunjerab Pass closes, but the listed phone numbers do not work and no one has responded to the email I sent last week. I've also tried to find information from PTDC but their website ( www.tourism.gov.pk</a> ) is down and the phone number for the PTDC Motel in Sost (which allegedly closes on 15 Nov each year) that I found online doesn't work. I've resorted to emailing the MD of PTDC at an address found on a Pak government portal, but I'm not optimistic.
Anyone with a better idea or better access, please feel free to pursue this.
Apparently NATCO also runs transport between Sost and Tashkurgan every day, so if there is no bus from Kashgar and you can get to Tashkurgan you should still be able to get to Pakistan the next day. The problem is, however, that the daily Tashkurgan bus leaves before the scheduled departure of the Pakistan bus from Kashgar. Waiting in Kashgar is probably the better option - a bus will leave eventually!
Or share a jeep from Kashgar's western bus station to Tashkurgan to join the next day's bus from there. Depending on your negotiating skills and how keen the driver is for the business, the total cost of a jeep will range from 300-400 yuan. But then you will still need to pay 225 yuan to get the bus to Sost.
Cross-posted on the China branch
I'll do likewise with this response.
Thanks for going to the trouble to provide the update.
Just did this trip on October 20 and can confirm that all Tim's details are spot on.
One thing to add - the Chinese road workers don't work to a timetable and are currently blasting the road between exit of the national park and Sost.
For us this meant what seemed like a whole mountain of rocks covering the road. Luckily for us we tried our luck scrambling over and got a lift to Sost on the other side but all the local people on the bus couldn't leave all their gear so they spent the night in the bus. The bus could move again after about an 18 hour wait for the road to clear. So maybe take a bit more food than you think you may need because chances are you may have to spend a day/night on the bus in the freezing weather.
Great post.
I've just came back from KKH and had wonderful time there.
I crossed Khunjerab from China to Pakistan by NATCO bus with no problem.