Irkeshtam Pass: Kyrgyzstan (Osh - Sary Tash) to China (Kashgar)

[sebhoff]

No - everyone on the Chinese side knew about it. Nobody questioned it. I didn’t have to explain or say anything about visa-free travel.
The Kyrgyz side may need some convincing - but I’m sure they would check with someone in the know and eventually let you through…

[Stacheldraht]

Hey folks! Does anybody want to share the ride from Sary Tash to the border on 14th May? Feel free to PM me

[alexchan]

Thanks to all those who have updated their recent experience with the border crossing.

I'm booked on a Pamir Highway 4WD trip from Dushanbe to Osh, finishing in Osh on Wed 31 July. My plan is to cross to Kashgar on Thu 01 August, using one of these two options:

(1) Take the weekly 5am bus on Thu 01 August from Osh to Kashgar and be fully "taken care of" in one ride.
(2) Ask my Pamir Highway 4WD to drop me off in Sary Tash on Wed 31 July and overnight. And next day, have someone like Shamurat from Sarysoul drive me to the border and then from there find my own way to Kashgar, with multiple rides.

(not sure if there's a possibility of joining the weekly bus in Sary Tash).

Having read all the recent accounts, I'm inclined to go with Option (2) because:

- Less backtracking and shorter travel time (despite the hassle of finding multiple rides).
- I'm travelling very lightly, can converse in Chinese, but of Malaysian Chinese origin so shouldn't arouse too much suspicion, I hope.
- Experienced independent traveller in unusual destinations and border crossings.

Appreciate additional insights, pros and cons, suggestions. Especially from mature travellers who are approaching their golden years.

PS. If anyone wishes to join me on that day, please PM me.

[sebhoff]

Yeah - since you are passing through Sary Tash anyway, I'd go for 2), too. Unless you really want to see Osh.

You just need to make sure that whoever drives you to the border has the necessary permits to take you all the way to the very last Kyrgyz border post. Transport up to Ulumqat/Wuqia/Irkeshtam Port will "find itself" - you'll be forced to take one of the official taxis. From there, it was easy to organise a shared taxi to Kashgar. The only open question might be how you would get from the customs check place to the bus station in town - not sure you can rely on the taxi driver to be as nice as mine and take you there for free. At the same time, I expect more tourist traffic in August than in mid-March. So I think you'll have no trouble at all.

[Tasurinchi]

Btw, the taxis between Kashgar and the border crossing, did you pay with AliPay or cash? (Or both?)

[sebhoff]

I paid cash for both the official and the shared taxi. I only set up WeChat/AliPay fully once I was in China and at that stage, I had not worked out everything yet.
However, my Chinese co-traveller paid for the taxi from the pass using a QR-code - not sure whether it was WeChat or AliPay. The shared taxi could definitely be paid using a QR-code.

[Tasurinchi]

Cool, I have friends from China here and they say that in the big cities nobody uses cash (they're from Shanghai and Xiamen), I wasn't sure if in more "smaller" cities (for Chinese standards) that is also the case.

[alexchan]

I was recently in China (Guangzhou and Hainan) and over 10 days didn't use cash or credit card for my travel expenses at all. WeChat Pay app is #1, Alipay app is #2 and UnionPay is hardly ever seen. The setup was problematic but once done it was a dream to use. Didi Rideshare setup failed for me but the sub-app within WeChat worked like a dream.

I hope that my previous setup will carry over to my next trip in August. But I'll definitely carry cash (CNY) for the border crossing in case of technology or phone signal issues.

[wanderers]

We crossed on the Chinese bus, on Wednesday 4/17

Short version
1. The Chinese bus theoretically goes twice a week.
Pro: easy, cheapest option for a single traveler.
Con: long, schedule erratic
2. There is a Kyrgyz bus.
3. Taxi to the Kyrgyz border should be $!00.

Long version
We (55 female, Chinese, US passport + 66 male, American, US passport) midway in our trip decided to go into Xinjiang as a part of our tour of Central Asia, as we are on the last year of our 10-year China visa, though I had much trepidation about whether I was going to be granted entry.

Monday 4/15
Thanks to the Chinese bus photo from this thread, I got in touch with them on Wechat a couple of weeks ago. I got added to their mailing list and was getting updates from them. Buses were leaving mostly on schedule, that is until we got to Osh. As soon as we arrived in Osh on Monday 4/15, we rushed to the ticket office. "There is no bus this Thursday. There might be a bus on Wednesday, but there probably are no more seats." The young woman in the office couldn't get in touch with her boss to confirm and I stopped getting replies from the Wechat account.

Tuesday 4/16
Tuesday morning we visited the bus office first thing in the morning - there may or may not be a bus this week. We started to investigate alternatives.

The young Krygyz woman in the bus office found us a driver for $100 Osh to the border. The driver claims to have all the permits.

Also I got in touch with Shamurat from this thread . He started at $130 Osh to the border. Upon learning there are only two of us. He came down to $100. He stressed that he does have a permit. Since he is based on Sary Tash, he would need time to come to Osh the night before in order to leave at 6am in the morning.

Additionally, the price we got from drivers under the bridge is 8000 som per car from Osh to the border. I'm sure they don't have permits, which means you would be left 16 kilometers from the border. There must be long lines of trucks all the time. Hitching a ride at the front of the line would not be a problem.

We visited the CBT. Their 4-wheel drive costs $280 Osh to the border. There was not a second price. We were shown their permit. I took a photo. They suggested that we get in touch with a UK traveler, Max, that's coming to Osh from Kashgar. We bonded with Max over what would be an epic journey.

In the meantime, our homestay, which we selected solely based on its walking distance to the bus, kept losing power. We finally decided to move, very reluctantly, to the Pekin Hotel. I hate smoky, poorly maintained Chinese hotels. The manager of the Pekin Hotel turned out to be a really nice person. He confirmed that a car to the border would cost $100. In the meantime he would ask around for rides and/or travelers for sharing rides. In fact, while we were talking he called a tour bus driver that was supposed to arrive that day and return to China the next day - the bus couldn't come.

Later that evening the manager knocked on our door with a minivan driver. The driver just delivered some passengers today. He could take us and two other people in another room on his Wednesday return trip, same price as the bus. At that point we still were not sure whether there would be a bus on Wednesday or Thursday. Max reported he is on the Thursday Kashgar-Osh bus. We were a little hopeful that we might be able to meet in person Wednesday night in Kashgar..

Wednesday 4/17
Wednesday morning our well engineered plans all fell apart. Our driver heard from the office back home. His car is needed on the Kyrgyz side. He would not be returning today. Our fellow passengers started to scramble. We could wait a day. They didn't want to wait. Max reported his bus has been changed from Thursday to today. Our fellow passengers found out from the bus office - the bus will be running today.

The source of misery began to reveal itself, at least told by the Chinese. There is a Kyrgyz Osh-Kashgar bus, an old sleeper bus (CBT didn't mention this bus to us - they only mentioned the Chinese bus), supposedly owned by some border official. The Krygyz bus couldn't compete with the Chinese bus. Border control is giving Chinese buses a hard time, blocking entries on some technicality. This also explains why the other bus couldn't get to Osh either.

The solution is to get two marshrutka vans to take us to the border, change places with Max and company that came on the Chinese bus - hostage exchange style, except we did get to meet Max with handshakes, hugs, and chats. I suspect this will be the situation for the bus until enough wheels can be greased.

Normally the bus leaves Osh at 7 BJ time. We didn't leave until 13, and got to our Kashgar hotel room at 3am. In Wuqia (Ulugchat) we were put into smaller cars to continue to Kashgar, as big buses are not allowed after 1 or 1:30. The rest was business as usual, lots of waiting around, countless passport checks, fewer (still too many) bag checks. Entering China, I had expected an interrogation. Instead, I had a very warm chat with the officer. The only question that was remotely challenging was - what do you know about minorities? After I mentioned our Tibet visit, he decided we are harmless. We didn't have to open computers/phones. One bag was unzipped for a fraction of a second. It felt very welcoming. BTW, the border officially stops processing passengers at 20 (though we didn't pull out until 21) and is open for trucks until midnight.

[Tasurinchi]

Thanks a lot for the detailed report, I'm planning to do the opposite way in June, hopefully it will be less erratic, yet I won't be taking the bus from Kasghar anyway