A couple of interesting links about Xinjiang today, including a weird timeline of contradicting news reports about some Russian hikers in Xinjiang’s mountains and a disappointing trip that one traveler had to Kashgar this past October holiday:

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First, I was tipped off to this odd series of events by a reader who sent in a few news clips.  The story starts off in early September when a group of seven Russian climbers, including one “World class athlete”, began a month-long climb up Xinjiang’s Kunlun Mountains near Minfeng.  On October 16th at around 1pm Xinhua reported that, thanks to an emergency satellite phone call (made to either a Xinjiang Chinese guide or a Shanghai contact – Xinhua gives contradicting accounts in two articles),  a search and rescue operation had begun in the Hotan prefecture for the seven hikers who were allegedly missing, but “no trace of the hikers was found”.  Oddly, 10 hours later that same day Xinhua posted a similar story, this time going into great details about how the hikers “did not get approval from the Chinese authorities for the trip” – an important detail left out of the first story.  Finally, on October 17th a story was posted saying all of the hikers had all of the sudden been found and there is no mention of discipline.

End of story, right?  Not quite.  Russian news releases a story completely contradicting Xinhua, saying that not only were these hikers never lost, but they were in constant communication via the satellite phone they brought with them.  Said the head of the Federation’s mountaineering commission, “Why searching for them if their whereabouts have been known and they just have to be fetched?”  The entire team will leave today from Urumqi to head back to Russia.  Why are there such contradicting stories here?

As a final twist to this story, these Russians were aided by an interpreter named Zhang Hong, who is an unregistered tour guide in Urumqi.  Another minor detail on his resume: he was the guide for the four Russian tourist who died in a canoe trip in those same mountains in September 2007.  Coincidence?  Who knows, but I think he needs to start thinking about changing careers.

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Finally, I’d like to point you to the story of a traveler who recently made his way to the Silk Road city of Kashgar, experiencing numerous brushes with police which are the norm here.  Considering last week’s post about safety in Xinjiang and yesterday’s post about the changes that have taken place, here’s the personal story of the minor headaches Graham had to endure to see the sights around Kashgar.

Read the rest of Graham’s story on his website, grahamwoodring.com