Many foreign travelers coming through Cherchen are headed for Dunhuang, Xining or Golmud and onward to Lhasa through Qinghai Province. A 4WD vehicle is needed for just one leg of this trip, between Karghilik 350km east of Cherchen and Shimiankuang, QH, 241km past that. This means, if you are taking a private tour, you have 4WD vehicles the entire way from Kashgar or Khotan or wherever you begin, so travel agents tell you the whole thing is a 4WD track. But you can go by bus, independently, on great roads, for every other leg, and take a 4WD public car, which leaves every morning from the Karghilik bus station to Shimiankuang. Northern Xinjiang was only opened to foreign visitors during the 1980s, but much of southern Xinjiang was still closed, except with special permission, into the 1990s. Prior to 1996, the roads to Cherchen were indeed in poor shape. Fewer buses took much longer to reach it, with frequent delays, the journey was less comfortable, and the accommodations, once one arrived, were limited. Today, however, there are daily long-distance buses east and west, including a daily bus to and from Hotan. The roads,now well-paved asphalt highways, are in good shape, both west to Niya / Minfeng and Khotan and east to Karghilik and, from there, north to Korla. One can also fly here.
