Western China Airfields

[Mister Geezer]

Can anyone share any information on Kashi and/or Hotan airfield?

I have flown through this area many times on the Himalayan route through PURPA but last night going westbound, was a little different with some of the usual larger airfields (Urumqi and Lanzhou) being closed for work in progress. It made me think that if we needed to divert into Kashi or Hotan in a emergency, then would there at least be a controller in the tower? The weather report for Kashi that we got via ACARS was a AUTO observation which you don't often see in China, which only added to my suspicion.

The Chinese AIP is rather vague with it stating that ATS services are provided during the hours of scheduled operations and also on request. Both airports have scheduled flights during the day time only, so it leaves me wondering if ATS services are on request outside this time?

[autoflight]

I needed info re an en-route airfield in Malaysia, so I just called tower and asked, making it clear that this was info only, not intending to divert. The tower op was an Aussie so we had a nice informative chat.
I assume you have local F/O. If you have one who really understands what you want to know, perhaps he could call and get your info. On the other hand that could turn out to be politically difficult.

[Mister Geezer]

I don't work for a Chinese company so there are no 'local crew' on board.

We were within VHF range but the terrain would have shielded any transmissions to and from Kashi based on our position and level, so repeatedly trying to call them would be futile from our closest position to them.

Perhaps I may need to dig a little deeper!