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As of January 2012, you must get your Passport Exit Stamp approximately 160 km East of the China border. The city is called “Wuqia” and you must go through the Exit/Entry Station. This is for cyclists crossing FROM China to Kyrgyzstan.
If you arrive at the border without your Exit stamp, there is NO alternative but to return the 160km. The roads have been reported as patchy but I would report that they are some of the worst road conditions I have experienced. This was late winter/early spring with snow, morning ice, mud, iced mud, and roads being flooded out because of the melt. They are currently “working” on a new highway. When I say “working” it means everything has been torn up and some patches completed but I didn’t see ONE PERSON working on it during the week out there.
Wonderful camping opportunities, safe, and sparse population…and hundreds of wild camels.
Please pass this information along to others and repost on as many sites as possible.
The crossing is also closed on the weekends and there is very little to purchase in regards to supplies at the border. I suggest that you stock up on 7 days worth of supplies in Wuqia. This should get you to Sary-Tash Kyrgyzstan if the weather is GOOD. If the weather is bad, the Tajik truck drivers coming from Sary-Tash will give you breads, cookies, cans of tuna, or whatever they have in their truck. You won’t starve…but BE PREPARED.
Thanks for the detailed visa info…very useful since we’ll be headed that way next year.
We had similar problems on the Brazil-Bolivia border at San Matias in the remote Patanal region.
The exit stamp from Brazil had to be obtained in the last city about 100 kilometers BEFORE the actual border.
Naturally, nobody at the many military checkpoints bothered to inform us so what a surprise when we got to Bolivia and couldn’t be stamped in without an official exit from Brazil.
There was no choice but to backtrack.
Thanks for the detailed visa info…very useful since we’ll be headed that way next year.
We had similar problems on the Brazil-Bolivia border at San Matias in the remote Patanal region.
The exit stamp from Brazil had to be obtained in the last city about 100 kilometers BEFORE the actual border.
Naturally, nobody at the many military checkpoints bothered to inform us so what a surprise when we got to Bolivia and couldn’t be stamped in without an official exit from Brazil.
There was no choice but to backtrack.
Thanks for all those information Ellen!
Thanks for all those information Ellen!
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Real superb information can be found on this web site.