Great RR and story looking forward to the Xinjiang part.

On a side note you mentioned "In one day we made it 500 kms from Aksu to Kashgar, and we had to take time to stop and shelter from a short-but-intense mid-afternoon hail-squall."

To give another perspective Xinjiang roads are either really good or really bad and it can change overnight.I can drive from my home town to Urumqi in about one and half hours on the toll road/highway if I take the main back road it is a good three hours if I take the scenic back road(all dirt road) along the base of the Tian shans it's a good five hours.Admittedly that's stopping and checking things out along the way.