The Beetle recently spent a couple of weeks staying with her friend Nicola in a beautiful village outside Philadelphia. Nicola wrote this article about a trip to China in 2005 that was both work and leisure related. In this article, Nicola reflects on the conditions and people she met with and gives us a fascinating insight into China's geopolitics from a travel and work perspective.

China's rising thirst for oil has long caused consternation in the geeky circles of the oil industry, as most recognized some time ago that the growing band of Shanghainese abandoning bicycles for BMW's would mean a sharp rise in global petrol demand. With the world now well aware of this dilemma, the oil industry is pondering where it will find sufficient oil to meet China's needs.

On its western border, China is flanked by the oil rich nations of the Caspian Sea – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan – and most have assumed that these countries will export to China. Beijing's attempts to cosy up to its neighbours has been eyed warily by American, European and Japanese leaders who would also like to get their hands on Caspian Sea oil. Historians have noted that similarities with the 19^th century Great Game, a land grab between the Russian and English Empires.

For its part, China has pointed out that its energy position isn't as precarious as the outside world likes to think, that it in fact has vast untapped oil and gas resources in the Tarim Basin of it's far west Xinjiang Province. As is often the case in China, the easiest way to verify claims is to go see it!

Unfortunately, 270,000 km² of the Tarim Basin is covered by the Taklamakan Desert, a vast inhospitable shifting sand desert long the preserve of adventurers and eccentrics. Culturally a part of central Asia (one of our translators planned to marry a woman from nearby Tajikistan), the majority Uighur population of the region have an uneasy relationship with the Han Chinese. Younger Uighurs are clearly torn between the economic opportunities (such as rare non-agricultural jobs) that the Han Chinese offer and the security that traditional village leaderships represent. There are also signs of rising religious tensions, for instance, in Islamic graffiti on the walls of ancient Buddhist caves.

Most journeys into the desert begin in Urumqi, a modern city indistinguishable from any other second tier Chinese city. Though it formed part of the original Silk Road, a journey through the desert was long considered a death sentence, and it wasn't until 1995 that a highway was erected. Though the highway allows access to the amenities of the region's cities to the tiniest desert village, some villages chose to remain closed and the highway was evidently rerouted and the villages excluded from maps to accommodate this. Ironically, those who put great store in recreating ancient methods of traversing the desert (donkey, rickshaw, et al) also rely heavily on the “shamo gonglu” highway.

The five-day long drive through the desert is punctuated by the odd wild camel-sighting, sand storms, and stops at oasis towns. As in much of the Islamic world, the centre of patronage in each village is the mosque and the hub of activity is the market place. There you can see dried snakes curled around washing lines at a medicine stall (see photo entitled Market), super sweet unleavened cookies at another, and mounds of ripe watermelons. With colourfully festooned donkeys still the primary mode of transport, the towns have a medieval air.

There are also plentiful cultural activities along the route, including the remains of the “lost city” of Subashi, well-maintained mosques, and little visited museums – we had to wake the curator from a lunchtime nap to ask him to turn the lights on for us in one.

Lodging is, naturally, pretty basic, in an area where running water and electricity remain rare, and most families live with their animals in small brick and wattle courtyard houses. Camping in the desert was icy cold at night, but glorious sun rises over the dunes more than compensated.

Even for those lacking a focus for their trip (and yes, there were oil wells aplenty), the Taklamakan Desert is a fascinating journey, a great place to challenge your assumptions about the influence of the modern on ancient cultures and to feign life as an adventurer for a little while.

About the author: Nicola Kerslake has travelled and worked in Asia, Europe and the US, and has written extensively on China's oil industry. If you would like to get in touch with Nicola, the Beetle will pass across any messages.