The eastern Pamirs, in the far south-west corner of Xinjiang along the borders with Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, is high, dry and cold, and the villages in its river valleys grow apricots as their main fruit crop. The trees flower for a short window in spring - usually from late March into the middle of April, depending on the year and the altitude - and for those two or three weeks the valley floors turn white and pink against the bare rock and the snow above. It is a working agricultural landscape rather than a festival, and it is almost unknown outside China.
What the season is like
The villages of the Taxkorgan valley and its side valleys are Tajik, with flat-roofed stone and mud houses built against the hillsides, poplar and willow windbreaks along the irrigation channels, and terraced plots of barley, peas and apricot. In blossom time the whole household is in the orchards, and the local spring festivals coincide with the flowering, with music, dancing and a good deal of sharing of food between households. The orchards are also where the dried apricots for which the region is known are produced later in the year. Above the villages the Pamir plateau continues towards the Karakul lake and the Khunjerab pass, with the Muztagh Ata massif to the north.
Getting there
The road from Kashgar to Taxkorgan is the Karakoram Highway, running south through the gorge of the Gez River and up onto the plateau; it takes about six to eight hours by car, and travellers are usually advised to break the journey at Karakul Lake. Permits are required for foreign visitors to enter the Taxkorgan region, arranged through an agency with the border authorities, and passports are checked at a checkpoint on the way. There is no railway and no practical public transport for a visitor, so the trip is made by hired car with a driver.
Practical notes
The timing of the blossom shifts by a week or two each year, and the villages sit between three thousand and three thousand five hundred metres, so spring arrives later than in the lowlands: ask locally or check with a Kashgar agency before committing to dates. Nights are well below freezing in March and April even when days are mild. The tourist season proper starts in May, so a blossom trip means few other visitors but also limited accommodation, and it is worth booking rooms in advance. Bring warm clothing, sun protection and cash, since banking and mobile coverage in the valleys is patchy.
