Turpan -- Uyghur oasis

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At 500 feet below sea level Turpan is the second lowest place on the planet. It is also reportedly the hottest place in China, although the heat this year is much less intense than it has been recently, according to the locals. But the desert blooms here and has done so for centuries, thanks to the 2000-year-old waterworks, or karets, that run from moutain springs over many miles in covered tunnels, to the grape vineyards and orchards of this large oasis. Turpan attracts some level of Chinese and foregin tourism, and it has a busy central area reminiscent of a small city. But it's mainly a Uyghur town, a great place to experience the friendliness and great food of the Uyghurs, think about all the Slik Road travellers that passed through here, as well as to sample delicious Hami melons, grapes of several different varieties, raisins made from those grapes, and of course Uyghur pulled noodles, lamb skewers, "hot pockets" of lamb and onions wrapped in bread, and of course, the distinctive and amazingly wonderful Uyghur nan, or flatbread cooked on the inside of the hot Uyghur pot-shaped oven and eaten as soon as they are pulled out.

I will let these photos tell the story for now, since I don't have much more time that I can use this computer. Besides just enjoying the market and the people of the town, our time in Turpan was spent visiting ruins in the surrponding area, observing grape harvest throughout the osasis area, finally figuring out that the many buildings and house appendages with the permeable walls were for drying the grapes into raisins, and cycling on the flat roads in the countryside to do some of this. As in Tibet, we found that it really helps to be able to greet the local people in their own language, so we, or at least Kathy and Jacob, learned to say "hello" in Uyghur, which was a great ice breaker and led to much friendlier inteactions in Chinese than would have happened without that effort.

More on some of the difficulties in Xinjiang in a later post, but for now, I will leave this brief description of our great visit to Turpan with our many pleasant memories of these wonderful people and their wonderful way of life in this remote (to us) corner of the world.

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Photos

Negotiating Hami melon purchase.
They are the yellow ones. You have never tasted a better melon.

Three types of Uyghur noodles.
Is it possible that Marco Polo ate here and decided to bring spaghetti back to Italy? (No, but his father and uncle did pass through Turpan on an earlier trip.)