That's some great Photoshopping.

Wait...you mean that's real?

One more place to visit before I die, I guess.

This place looks like that fortress of Taliban prisoners revolt, where American taliban John Walker got caught.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1680506.stm

American, stay clear those fortress and muslim fighter. They might make into another `taliban fighter' ;p

I can't really find a point of reference for its size. About how tall and wide was it?

Looks great regardless. Good photo.

@Tiako: If you look at the front of the fortress, there are a few telephone/electric poles which should give you an idea of the scale. I'd say the length of the Stone City is around maybe 200 meters, but that's just a guess.

That city inspires me to return to China for a visit along the border.

I was there in early October, but your photo is awesome!

That's really cool. Maybe if I decide to make the move to Xinjiang next year I'll take a trip out that way.

can you go inside the stone city? is it a tourist trap now? do people still live in there?

@dezza: You can walk around and climb up onto the Stone City. It's surrounded by a wall and barbed wire fence, but there are plenty of gaps and no one seemed to be collecting an entrance fee even at the front gate. My friends and I were the only people visiting all day, although I'm sure there's more visitors in the Summer. So, no, it's not a tourist trap.

No one lives in what is essentially a big piles of mud and rocks, but the Stone City is located right on the northeastern corner of the modern town of Taxkorgan, about a 15 minute walk from the center.

By the way, if any of you are fans of the "Kite Runner" movie, you can see a lot of the shooting locations within a hundred meters of the Stone City. Everything else is located in the old parts of Kashgar.

Hey how do we know this isn't a postcard you bought up there? Come clean Manning. Did you use any photoshop tools on this photo or pay some poor Tajik a few kuai to claim the rights to his photo? Where's the signature head shot of M&M in front of the scene?

@ouyang:

In his book, News from Tartary, Peter Fleming talks a little about the history of Tashkurgan. Fleming waxes lyrical about it, but when I visted some 66 years later, I wasn't impressed with the place.

@Richard H: Sure, there's a modern little Chinese town in Taxkorgan with some typical Chinese flavor, but how could you not like the place? It's surrounded by surrealistic jagged snow-capped peaks and the fortress lies smack in the middle of a valley straight out of 'Lord of the Rings'? I thought the place was great... although the food was meh.

What were you expecting?

How long did it take you to get there from Kashgar?
Did you hire a driver? How much?

@Danny:

The bus from Kashgar short-distance station (duantu keyin zhan) costs 51 yuan to get to Taxkorgan and takes about 6 hours... don't forget to bring your passport to get through the checkpoint! The return bus, oddly, is about 60 yuan.

There are long-distance taxis available that cost somewhere between 80 and 100 yuan for the trip and probably get there in about 4 hours. I'm not sure how much a roundtrip tourist trip leaving Kashgar in the morning and returning by evening would cost... probably somewhere around 1,000 to 1,500 yuan would be my guess.

Wow. That is awesome. With the mountains in the back. And I am shocked someone is not making money of entry fees of that place. Guess not enough people go out there...yet?

Hi! Good article.
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