Stirring up the Chinese: Markit (麦盖提)

Xiu yi xiar in Markit, the city on the outskirts of the Taklamakan Desert.

Our only reason to go to Markit was to see the desert and sleep under an open sky. We found a crazy, young and naive taxi driver who wanted to show us the desert for 30 Yuan. Yet, the directions which were given to him by a construction worker led us to this camel (shown below).
We were supposed to ask a guy with a mustache for directions, yet this detailed description of such person led us to the first farmer cawe could see. He jumped on his motorcycle in order to get a friend. Afterwards they wanted to hook us up with four camels for 100 kuai each. We wanted a price of 80 kuai which they neglected. Our taxi driver was aware of such good deals he could now make with us willing foreigners spending money to see sand and thought he could encounter the battle of his 35 hp vehicle Suzuki Changan versus the uncertainties of Taklamakan's quicksand-like topology.

Climbing resistance? Running start and the mountain peak was passed!

...until the front-wheel driven Offroader finally had to be tuned in order to output 2 hp more!

Back in Markit. This young gentleman arranged us a jeep...

...which departed at 11.45 pm so that I turned 24 in the backseat with three more people drinking the local brew and eating Nan bread

Unfortunately, our new driver featured amateur offroad experience so that he dug the jeep into the sand, only 10 meters further where our taxi surrendered!

I have to admit, he was only driven with rear wheel drive. As the differential went on strike, he tried to use the metal rod in vain!

Well, the shoveling started, driver gave to much gas, further digging into the sand until the bottom plate of the car rested ontop of the ground!

Then, it was time for us four engineers who have watched the miserable attempts from the distance before. Our commando demanded to fully dig the rear wheels free, put the carpets underneath the wheels and guarantee traction with as many rods and branches we could find. Then, Markus tenderly drove backwards with us four pushing from the front until the car had grip, then with maximum power he drove the truck out of the hole! One attempt, one victory;)