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Hi all
this week we took a long and hard drive up to the north of Xinjiang (look at the map). it is a very unique area in the boarder of china, Russia and Mongolia because it is the only place in China that have a Siberian taiga Eco-system. . the park is not so new but the tourist infrastructure is all from the past year. it is mainly built for Chinese tourists and we saw no Western people for the whole 4 days there.

To get there we took a Chinese tour group. we asked to get a tour with a English speaking guide. all we asked for is that the guide have basic English so we can know where and when to go, eat, sleep. instead we got one that not only did not talk English, he was too embarrassed to even try to communicate with us! luckily there was a girl there that knew some English. she came with her family and was not interested in the tour to really know what was happening but it was enough for us to get by with here help.

Being on a Chinese tour was an interesting way to see closely how Chinese visit places. First, they never leave the tour bus farther then 50m. it can be very frustrating for backpackers to tour this way. second, they carry their lunches all day. the lunches are big pots of rice, noodles, vegetables and meat sausages and they carry them in palstic bags every time they leave the bus. you never know when you will be hungry we guess. Unfortunately the Chinese are not very environmentally friendly and not educated about how to travel and the trough their garbage out the windows even inside the park.

After 1hr in the park the group voted (without us since we don't speak their language) to
visit "another place in the park" for an extra 20USD p/p. we could not understand where but
we decided to go along to we did not loose the group. unfortunately when we got to the start of the road there the group leader told us (after talking to the guard) that we are not allowed to go and we should wait for the group 3.5hr!!! we were left stranded. we tried to understand where the group will go tomorrow (so we don't go to the same places) but all we understood is that and they left. it seemed strange. but many things here are strange so we smiled and said "OK"

actualy at first we were so mad! but then realized we are free to ourselves! so we walked for 4hr in the park and it was such a refreshing walk in un-touristic nature without the group. we had good luck since the "other place" as a small river that is the Chinese - Kazakhstan boarder. we saw pictures. we missed nothing and earned a nice walk in the park

on the second day in the park we were lucky to attend a festival of the local people that live in the park - the Tuwa people. there are only 2000 of the tribe and most of them were in the festival. it was a beautiful day of chanting, praying dancing and singing. Some scholars hold the view that Tuwa people are offspring of the old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers left by Genghis khan when he led his troops to attack the West. But Tuwa elders said that their ancestors migrated from Siberia 500 years ago, and that they are the same ethnic group as the Tuwa people of the Tuwa Republic of Russia. Tuwa people keep their unique custom and language.

One remake on road repair in china - when the road is in repair (even 1 meter of the road) the the whole section is closed and the bus needs to ride in the fields to detour. there are NEVER any signs to show the way and the detour in not parallel to the road. the bus needs to ride well into the fields/desert/mountains to find a way in dusty roads. usually, the main road is not visible since it is kilometers away. the driver will also never stop to ask for directions and will try his best to find a path back to the main road. somehow it always works

to conclude -we had fun, saw nice things and are hopeful it will continue this way

Hagit and Yaron

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