Blogs from Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, Asia

Timezones This was now day three of our tour. We had started to get familiar with police checks, covid checks, long drives and late arrivals at our accommodation. This province is a long way west of Beijing. China time is based on Beijing and the country does not recognise internal time zones. So according to our clocks the sun was rising about 8 am and not setting until 10pm. Everything runs later here. Office workers start at 9am or even later. Many people were just going out for their evening meals at 9 pm when we were all ready for bed. Therefore to the tour guide and driver there was nothing strange in arriving at the hotel at 10 pm at night. To us it was an issue as our body clocks were saying that we ... read more

Travel Day This day was a travel day, memorable for very little other than getting from Hefei, where I currently live, to Urumqi where I was to meet my companions and join the tour. The flight was a direct flight about 4 hours long. The airline food was not spectacular. Out of the window I could see lots of dry arid land. The normal signs of human habitation, roads and buildings, small towns. At one stage a series of what I took to be wind power generators and oil fields. On the approach into Urumqi there were snow capped mountains. (It is currently the height of summer). Back on the ground I was first off the plane, called out by the airline staff while the other passengers waited. It was my first introduction to the local ... read more

Discover the "Beautiful Pasture" Are you tired of having holidays near the sea? Or do you refuse to travel to most visited places just only because you are a nonconformist? If yes, then this blog about magnificent Urumqi city is just for you! Urumqi is a capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China... The population is about 3,112, 559...blah...blah...blah...and other information that can be found in Wikipedia... The only catchy information for me from the Internet is that Urumqi is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the city farthest from any ocean or sea. The most exciting place for me in Urumqi is HongShan Park. The park is named HongShan, which means Red Hill, because there is a hill in the center of the city with a red brick pagoda calleb Zhen ... read more

My last day in Urumqi was spent wandering around the city. On the onset, Urumqi looks like any other Chinese city. A city that has been pumping up development, especially in the last few years and is relatively young. According to wikipedia it used to be a major part of the silk route and since the 1990's has been developed economically and is a transport node. It is the gateway into China from the West. More than anything else, Urumqi's unique location and its influence on the city, can be understood by taking a closer look at its demography. As I mentioned in a post before this,'The other side of China', there is a 75.3 % population of the Han chinese, 12% Uighers and others, Mongols, Kazhaks, Uzbeks, Russians, Tibetian, Manchu among others make the rest. ... read more

I could have stayed longer in Urumuqi eating amazing sweet Uyghur pastries, devouring more meat dishes, strolling through the Uyghur area a bit more, taking more pictures of the lively streets and enjoying the comfort of Becky’s home… But Becky had to go back to work in Beijing and I had to get back on the road. And what a road! To go south, I had 2 choices: I could either take the smooth road through Turpan (expressway) or what looked like the shorter way through the mountains on a smaller road. Because we had already visited Turpan, I chose the road through the Tian Shan Mountains. Becky’s Mom had warned me it would go up and down and the riding would probably be difficult (like many people from the city, she has never taken this ... read more