Sunday, October 6, 2013

Latest Developments in the Aksai Chin

The website Chinamil.com.cn publishes a series of pictures of a Chinese 'post' in the Aksai Chin area, close to the Indian positions.
The Chinese troops are obviously better off than their Indian opponents in Depsang Plains or Daulat Beg Oldi.

The caption of the photo is: "The Heweitan sentry post of a frontier defense regiment of the Xinjiang Military Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), with an altitude of 5418 meters, tops the list of the PLA frontier defense sentry posts at high altitudes. The sentry post is situated at the middle section of the Karakorum Mountains, near the headstream of the Karakax [Karakash] River in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region." 
Where is the Karakash river located? 
Wikipedia says:
Heweitan area
The Karakash or Black Jade River, which flows in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, originates from the Aksai Chin region. The river has its source at 19,000 feet (5,800 m) about 11 km northeast of Galwan Kangri peak in the Aksai Chin.
It flows north to Sumnal (15,540 ft), then turns sharply eastwards (skirting just north of the Soda Plains of Aksai Chin) until just beyond Palong Karpo, when it turns sharply northwestwards, and crosses into Xinjiang proper. It flows past the towns of Sumgal, Fotash, Gulbashem, until it reaches Xaidulla.
The river then turns sharply northeastwards again near Xaidulla, and, after passing through Ali Nazar crosses the Kunlun mountain range near the Suget or Sanju Pass, passing east of Khotan, running parallel to the Yurungkash River, which it joins near Koxlax (some 200 km north of Khotan), from where it continues north as the Khotan River passing Piqanlik, and seasonally crossing the desert, joining the Tarim River at 42°29′N 80°56′E.
The Karakash River is famous for its white and greenish jade (nephrite) carried as river boulders and pebbles toward Khotan, as does the nearby Yurungkash (or 'White Jade') River. This river jade originates from eroded mountain deposits of which the most famous one is near Gulbashen, in southwestern Xinjiang. The Karakash Valley was also a caravan road for the north-south trade between Yarkand (China) and Leh over the Karakoram Pass in Leh District of Jammu and Kashmir.
Here are the photos of the Chinese 'post'. The captions are from the Chinese site.
Soldiers of the Heweitan frontier defense company are seen in the photo take in late September, 2013
The former site of the Heweitan sentry post
Two signalmen of the of the Heweitan frontier defense company are in operation
A group of soldiers of the Heweitan frontier defense company are on their way of patrol in the karakorum Mountains

Do you want to visit the Aksai Chin,
click on this video (from www.tibet.raize.ch)

2 comments:

RAJ47 said...

Has the new post been constructed at the same place as the old one?

Claude Arpi said...

It looks like