THE decision having been reached to send me to Sinkiang, the question arose as to how I was to get there. Urumchi can be reached from three directions ; from Kashmir in India across the Himalaya, Karakoram and Pamir to Kashgar, and thence a further journey of near a thousand miles through Eastern Turkistan to Urumchi ; from China across the Gobi desert to Hami and thence on across the T'ien Shan range to Urumchi ; and via the Trans-Siberian and Turkistan-Siberian railways through Russian Central Asia to the Chinese frontier town of Chuguchak (Ta-ch'eng) and thence by cart or motor truck across the Dzungarian steppe to Urumchi.