Mar 25 2008
The routes to China
There are 3 main routes from Europe to China:
- Northern route (Russia and Mongolia)
- Central Asia route (Russia and Kazakhstan, possibly Kyrgyzstan)
- Southern route (Middle East and India)
Click on a route to see more information:
My initial plan was to spend more time in Russia and stop in St Petersburg to learn the language for a couple of months but as I explained in this post, the new visa regulations wouldn’t give me enough time to then cycle to Mongolia.
I finally decided on the Central Asia route for various reasons:
- Russian is still widely spoken through Kazakhstan, this gives me only one language to babble in until China.
- A route slightly more varied than 3000km of flat Siberia.
- The ship cemetery in the disappearing Aral sea
- The 3 months visa for Kazakhstan is supposedly much easier to obtain than the equivalent Russian visa (wait & see!)
- Possibility to cross into China from Kyrgyzstan via the Irkeshtam pass.
My aim is now to enter China from Kyrgyzstan and head South to Tibet and Lhasa. Not a great timing, I know… Hopefully the situation will be less tense in the coming months.
