Zharkent, Kazakhstan to Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

Our plan for the day is to take a shared taxi from Zharkent to Shonzhy, then a shared taxi to Kegen, then a shared taxi to the Kazah-Kyrgyz border. At the border we would either hire a taxi or hitch a ride to Karakol. It'll be around a total of 300 km.

When we arrived at the shared taxi stand, at this Plus Code location: "5273+WX9 Zharkent, Kazakhstan", there was already a man waiting to go to Shonzhy. However, after 45 minutes no one else showed up. The driver offered leave with just the three of us if we all paid more. Off we went.





In Shonzhy we were delivered right to the Shonzhy-Kegen shared taxi stand (1st below), except there were no other passengers. When we offered to pay for all four seats, one of the drivers readily accepted our offer. Off we went.











When we arrived in Kegen, none of the drivers were willing to take us to the border at our price, but our Shonzy driver was game. In fact he seemed to be so happy with our business, he even bought us each a piece of chocolate when he stopped to get cigarettes. He dropped us off at the border and immediately turned right around to head back to Shonzhy.











The border formalities, getting stamped out of Kazakhstan and into Kryigstan, took no time. No man's land was only a few meters long. There was no taxi to be hired, so we proceeded to wait. In the next two hours, exactly two cars came through. Neither had room for the two of us. China is only 100km to the east. Even though borders are only political, it is amply clear that this side is run by pastoralists, and the China side agriculturalists. It's open country with snow capped mountains in the distance. It wasn't a bad place to wait at 6500 feet above sea level. We had warm clothes, and there was an outhouse a few hundred meters up the road.







Finally a number of cars came through. We were picked up by a German 6-person team in two SUVs. The rest of the way to Karakol was even more scenic, with hundreds of horses grazing in spots. It was like being in a National Geographic documentary.

Yining, China to Zharkent, Kazakhstan

From Yining, China, we began a somewhat difficult two-day journey to Karakol, Kyrgyzstan via Zharkent, Kazakhstan. The easy route would have been Yining->Almaty->Bishkek->Karakol, but since we ultimately need to end up in Almaty for our flight back home; i.e. backtracking, we opted for adventure over inelegance.

Yining to the border was relatively easy. I even managed to buy the Yining-Horgos (border town) bus ticket online the night before. During the Chinese exit formalities at the border, there was quite a bit of questioning about our sojourn in Xinjiang, but all rather friendly. John adds: "At one point I handed my phone over to them so they could browse through my photos to verify that we were engaged only in touristic activities while in Xinjiang."

Thirty miles into Kazakhstan lies the town of Zharkent. This region had been alternatively under the influence of China and Russia. The well-restored Chinese styled mosque is an amazing work of art.

Note to fellow travelers: It took a bit of work to locate the shared taxi stand to Shonzhy, the first leg of the route to the Kyrgyz border. It's one block east of the market, one block south of the main road at this Plus Code location: "5273+WX9 Zharkent, Kazakhstan". The price per person was 2000 Tenga (about $4.500 US) in May 2024. You can also try to find a car near the bus station but these cars/drivers are NOT the normal shared taxi to Shonzy, and they charge much more. First below is us sitting in the shared taxi at Zharkent waiting for one more person. Second below is the same car at the petrol station.





On the bus to the border. The road signs are in both Chinese characters and the Uyghur Arabic alphabet. Snow-capped mountains are always in the distance.








The Kazakh bus that will take us from just inside the Chinese border to Zharkent. The bus dropped us off, and we walked under a very impressive "gate" to get to the "exit formalities" building. And the same bus, with a mix of Kazakhs, and Chinese tourists, picked us up on the Kazakh side and took us to Zharkent.








Welcome to Kazakhstan.


At a control point on the Kazakh side we spot some windmill sections.


Some shots from the bus window on the way to Zharkent. First below: View from the bus back towards China, from just inside Kazakhstan. Second: Trucks lined up on the Kazakh side, waiting to enter China,




Walking from the Bus Station (Auto Vauxhall), and passing the Central Mosque, on our way to our hotel in Zharkent.


The Zharkent Mosque was built in 1886 in Chinese Style. In addition to the prayer hall, there is a minaret, museum, and an impressive front gate. We spent about an hour roaming around.






















And some final shots of Zharkent in the evening.

Xinjiang: Yining (Yili)

From Urumqi we continued west to Yining on our way to Kazakhstan. The train was full as it's the start of the 5-day May 1st holiday. This time it was on the fast train, not smoky, for a change. In fact, there were constant announcements threatening that the train would come to a complete stop if cigarette smoke was detected. I was highly skeptical, but certainly kept it to myself.

Until the Qing Dynasty of China took control of Xinjiang in the middle of the 18th century, Yining area had been mostly claimed by nomadic people, from Indo-Iranian to Turkic and Mongol. Also, at that time Russia was also asserting its interest in the region. 

As a result, the artifacts around town are not particularly old, certainly not by Chinese standards. There was the old Uighur town with brightly painted houses, and the 1930s planned hexagonal community. Since it was the May Day holiday, there were a lot of Chinese tourists. It was rather festive.

We were not motivated to take a 120km ride to see the alpine Lake Sayram.

On the High Speed Train from Urumqi to Yining. Check out the colorful seat coverings and the spiffy airline-like attendant uniforms. Checkout the guy(below) with the megaphone, who drove me crazy with endless announcements: Safety slogans, "no smoking" threats, and travel tips says SL.




The landscape was all desert for the first 3 hours. Sun-Ling and I dozed off. Then, after passing through several long tunnels, we entered the Yili Valley with green fields, grazing animals, and several huge solar farms. SL continued to doze.






1600+ passengers disembarked at Yinning, the terminal station (1st below). The line at the taxi rank was very long so we walked out the main road where there were still a lot of people hailing or waiting for taxis. But in 5 minutes we were rolling towards the HULEJIA Hotel (2nd below) and its neo-1950's architectural style.




Just 3 minutes from the hotel we found a restaurant and had a nice meal of wonton dumplings with Spring greens inside, and a liang pi noodle variation, and soon after a granilla bubble tea and iced coffee at out fav drink shop Mixue Ice Cream and Tea.






After dinner we walked up to the Kazanqi Folk Tourism Area; that is, the Old Town. Many tour groups were walking around, some taking horse cart rides. The












Many of the buildings had Russian or Eastern European architectural influences.






The next we walked up the New Garden Hexagonal City, laid out in 1934 in a hexagonal plan. See the map (first below). Lots of tourists and more Russian and Eastern European influenced architecture. Not to mention the Eastern Orthodox Church (2nd below)










One of the highlights of the hexagonal city is the Accordion Museum. They also had a collection of pump harmoniums, brought overland from Europe I suspect.


In the evening we walked south through the Night Market (1st below), where I tried a cold yogurt drink, to the crowded Han (Chinese) Street Bazaar, a huge building with hundreds of food stalls, but nothing vegetarian worth trying.










Some final mosque shots.