When floods in China trapped Silk Road tourists from Hong Kong, leaving them without clean water or much food
- Rockfalls and floods in 1999 cut off a group of Hong Kong tourists in Taxkorgan on the Pamirs Plateau in Xinjiang in China’s far west
- Left without clean water and with little food, they declined an offer from China’s armed forces to airlift them to safety, and returned home safely a week later
“Eleven Hong Kong tourists trapped by rockfalls and floods for five days on the Silk Road may be airlifted to safety by the PLA,” the South China Morning Post reported on August 7, 1999.
“The travellers were stranded at a hotel in Taxkorgan on Pamirs Plateau, Xinjiang, after floods and falling rocks cut them off. One of them, Ma Wing-cheung, said the group was in fair condition but some members had fallen ill because of the poor water supply and the extreme climate.”
Ma, the only male member of the group, told the Post, “Water here is not very clean and the food supply is becoming scarce as the roads [are] all blocked. Some of us have suffered headaches and stomach aches.”
The report continued: “Two Australian passport holders left the town yesterday using an unblocked route to Pakistan but the Hong Kong residents, who travelled on home return permits, do not have passports to enter the country.”
On August 9, the Post reported that the “exhausted tourists arrived in the Xinjiang border town of Kashgar yesterday afternoon after travelling by horse, bus and foot, and said they would rest before deciding what to do next”.
An airlift rescue was ruled out because of the high cost, the Post reported.
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The August 10 issue of the Post quoted Ma as saying “the group would continue its journey before returning to the SAR on Saturday [August 14]”.
“We are excited and delighted to escape. We are in high spirits and want to continue our trip,” Ma said.
“The group was welcomed with a banquet by Kashgar government officials,” the report continued. “Mr Ma said nothing pleased them more than to sleep in warm beds and make phone calls to their families.”
