Honkey Riding

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Not sure if it was a donkey or horse cart that we climbed upon to ride around the town this evening but it was a funny way to finish a very interesting but very hot day which apparently reached 46 degrees!

We started the day at 8am Beijing time which unofficially is 6am local time. The whole country is forced to operate on the one time zone which means the sun doesn’t go down here until around 10pm and it stays really hot right up until then. So first on our agenda was Tu Yu Gou a small traditional Uighur village (Western Chinese minority descendent from Turkish traders) built out of mud bricks and covered in grape vines and mulberry bushes to keep cool. It has long been a pilgrimage site for devout Muslims and is said that 7 trips here equal 1 to Mecca. It was also the site of thousand year old Buddhist caves but unfortunately they were closed for our visit. The small village was so peaceful to walk around and the view of the flaming Mountains was superb, it felt more like we were in a small Middle Eastern country forgotten by the world not modern day China.

Next stop, Bezklik Thousand Buddha Grottoes. A series of caves built into the cliffs between the Flaming Mountain and a beautiful clear river below once full of ancient Buddhist murals and statues but now mostly empty thanks to German explores who literally carved the art from its walls. From what remained we were still able to conjure up what would have been and actually saw some paintings in better condition than Mogao Caves, again with the high rise buildings of Eastern China left behind it looked like we could have been driving through Jordan on our way to Petra.

Before lunch as the heat of the day was fast approaching we made a stop at the infamous Flaming Mountains. Blazing red in the scorching desert heat the giant temperature gauge (measuring ground temperature) rose from 50 to 55 degrees in the very short time we were there. The main attraction here was the statues depicting the Journey to The West tale of how Monkey fought the Iron-Fan Princess and her husband the Bull-Demon King to put out the flames and allow the troupe to pass the mountains.

Seriously struggling with the sky high mercury it was time to head to Grape Valley for some lunch. Pretty self descriptive – a valley full of grapes, surprisingly cool and a very popular way to escape the heat. We had a long lunch resting on what was essentially a huge bed covered in Persian rugs with a low table in the middle stocked full of watermelon, grapes and tea.

Foolishly we had been a little fast with our touring early in the day and arrived at our last stop at the absolutely worst time of day, essentially 1pm local time. Jiaohe Ancient City ruins set on a huge plateau between 2 rivers, it is unique among ancient silk road cities because you can still make out the buildings and get a real feel for how the city would have been. Unfortunately the oven like air beaming out from the sky, the baked earth and open mud walls all around was just too much for me to handle, Dani however soldiered on and made it into the heart of the ruins where she clambered through the monastery and could make the Buddhist statues on the towers.

Now back to our Honkey ride, expecting to be taken through the dusty rural back streets of the village we instead ended up riding through the busiest section of town at a very slow trotting speed where we ourselves became Turpan’s latest attraction! For awhile we did feel like stupid tourists but then embraced it and gave a few royal waves and picked up a small entourage. First a small girl who ran along beside for at least 2 blocks until she arrived at her dad’s shop and then a man on his scooter with a sexy leopard print seat cover.

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