Shigar Valley, Skardu, Pakistan

Postcard PK-3925 from Pakistan shows a bird-eye view of the Shigar Valley in northern Pakistan that is associated with the Shigar River. A gateway to the high mountains of the Karakoram, the valley stretches about 170 km from Skardu to Askole in a remote and largely inaccessible area. There are several villages in the valley: the town of Shigar being the largest and Askole being the last settlement that is closest to yet still quite far from the high mountains. The Shigar Valley is known for mining a variety of gemstones.

Taxkorgan, the Stone Fortress

Postcard CN-1385641 from China is a postal stamped card by China Post, showing the 2000-year-old hill fortress in Taxkorgan (塔什库尔干), meaning Stone Fortress, seat of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang, China. It had been a strategically important junction on the historical Silk Road, as major caravan routes converged here leading to Kashgar in the north, Karghalik to the east, Badakhshan and Wakhan to the west, and Chitral and Hunza to the southwest in Gilgit Baltistan of today's Pakistan. Today, as the last town in China 120 kilometers or 75 miles from the border with Pakistan, Taxkorgan is on the Karakoram Highway that follows the old Silk Road route from China to Pakistan.