Arriving in Ruoqiang we have reached the most eastern town on the southern silk road in Xinjiang. From here the road continues either north to Korla or south via Qinghai to either Dunhuang, Golmud or Lhasa.

Ruoqiang is a clean and pleasant oasis town. The areas all around the city is full of ancient and interesting sites but still the city mainly serves as a transportation hub for travellers.  There are several famous ancient cities such sa Loulan and Miran, tombs such as Xiaohe, wild camel reserves, mountain parks etc in the area but all except the two cities are forbidden to access and the two ancient cities too expensive for foreigners to make it worth it (quoted 10,000 and 1000). The mountain nature reserve also seemed to not be accessible when inquiring about it.

Asking for info in the hotel we were introduced to a guy responsible for ruoqiang’s museum. We got a private tour of the small collection of things they had in a room on the third floor of a governmental building. Especially famous is the ancient city if Loulan, discovered by Sven Hedin, a Swedish(!) explorer, in the very early 1900.

A bit tired after long bus rides recently we took it easy and enjoyed the clean hotel room and english speaking movie channels such as hallmark.

Tags: ruoqiang