China was in the peak of its SARS epidemic in 2003 when everyone was leaving the country or getting blocked in or quarantined with nowhere to go. I had just embarked on a Silk Road expedition from Beijing to cover a few different places along the way which included Beijing-Xian-Dunhuang-.Turpan-Urumqi-Heavenly Lake-Minfeng-Korla-Hotan-Kashi. We were lucky in being able to hop on a train to take us to Xian, along with my co-expeditioners as I would like to refer to them. I was their Leader incharge to embark on a Silk road odyssey for the next 21 days. We heard in Xi'an the following day that Beijing had closed off its borders to contain the SARS epidemic. Breathing a sigh of relief that we were no longer in a place of potential disease .This was only temporary a respite as the Beijing closure meant that this was a precursor for other cities to follow the same course of action to not allow people from leaving or arriving.
A detailed travelogue of my escape from SARS will follow in the next few reports detailing the ordeals we had to go through in order to reach Kashi in the end.
