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WHO'S EATING GILBERT'S GRAPES?
AT CULVERT OF KAREZ, ANCIENT IRRIGATION SYSTEM Left Kashgar and stopped by a Knife factory along the way to the Taklamakan desert, which is the 2nd largest desert in the world. A number of us bought souvenir knives, they are good quality and the price decent. Then another stop to a town called Yokand to visit a mosque. A bit more of travelling we found ourselves a place to camp for the night just on the southern side of the vast taklamakan. No sooner than we had our tents and cooking equipments set up the locals came in droves, in bikes on foot curious about us. It's like them watching a telenovela on TV watching our every move, some of us entertained the crowd while me, Kit and Ameena prepare supper. It's was tough as the sand is blowing everywhere, and lots of locals wathcing your every move makes you feel like a celebrity, they probably have not seen tourists much in their area much less a big orange truck full of white people, well except me of course. We cooked chop suey and noodles, evrybody had their fill I hope. The locals stayed until Clive said goodnight to them and everyone left at that instant, he
CULVERT OF KAREZ
ANGUS WANTS TO EAT MY GRAPES?? was probably the only one they care to talk to. Anyway the wind was blowing the whole night and our tent was full of sand when we got up in the morning. It was beautiful morning no fogs just yet and we can see in the horizon the gorgeous scenery of the Kunlun Tian range. It is another long dayfor us stopping briefly at a silk factory, and a carpet factory in the town of Hotan. It was in my opinion not as impressive as the one in Fergana, Uzbekistan but Geoff found his carpet here. Trying to cover some distance as much as we can and make it to Mingfeng a small town we stayed just for the night, there was a sandstorm and visibility is poor, sand all over I was coughinh profusely, the fine dirt is really creeping into everything, all our nooks and crannies. We found our hotel for the night and had dinner there, delicious mix of meat and veggies, great service and we were able to practice our Chinese that our guide John had taught us earlier in the truck. I roomed with Geoff, Angus, and Chris and apparently our late night dorm talk
was overheard by our next door neighbor John, Kit and Tony. The walls are paper thin, you just cant get any privacy here! So we continued on another lovely drive on the desert, we cut across it the sand dunes are gorgeous, they look like waves in the ocean, we stopped a few times for pee and just photos, after a very long day we found a bush camp infested by mosquitoes, not fun at all but that'll have to make do, John and Chris concocted a delicious stew of beans and veggies.The next morning we drove again long distance to get to Turpan where we will stay for 2 nights. It apparently is the lowest town on earth, below sea level. The drive to highway 314 way spectacular the terrain is peculiar and we also drove through the periphery of Moon Lake, the road is fairly new surprisingly good roads in this remote area of China, for lunch we stopped at a small town and we jusr asid serve us whatever, then came the food, a sumptuous chicken with spices, delicious as usual, only for 80 yuan, approx 12 dollars, food good for 5 people. The town of Turpan
is very hoT!
We did a city tour starting trom the ImIn mosque, hundreds of school kids ar doing a school excursion and they follow us wherever we go, they are very curious about foreigners and shouts of hello everywhere can be overwhelming but fun. The place is made of clay, and since it hardly rains here they are not so worried about the structure turning into mush anytime soon. Then off to the Old city of Jiao He, this place is very interesting, located up the island like hill structure it is thei natural barrier. The complex is huge, in the heat of the sun we wilted fairly quickly. We stopped by a traditional Uyghur house then to the Culvert of Karez, an ancient underground irrigation system , totally impressive on how they can come up with ways to irrigate their land during ancient times. Lots of grapes in this region it is one of the major crops that comes out of Turpan which is in a basin, it is below sea level and the temperature can be unforgiving in both summer and winter months.
Left Turpan and along the way visited the Gaocheng ruins, it way
a huge complex but most of it were already washed out by time and conquest.The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha caves was next, the area is gorgeous, sand dunes, caves in the mountains with ancient Buddhist paintings but only a dew are open, then drove some more to find a decnt bush camp around Hami, passed through the impressive Celestial Mountain range, at the camp we admired the beautiful play of colors among the clouds at sunset.
TURPAN:
(toor'pän') or Turfan (toor'fän') , town and oasis (1994 est. pop. 64,300), in the Turpan depression (c.5,000 sq mi/12,950 sq km), E Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. It is an agricultural center producing cotton and cotton textiles, silk, wheat, grapes, dried fruit, and wine. Oil is in the area. Turpan is the chief town of the Turpan depression, the lowest point (505 ft/154 m below sea level) in China.
The depression was the center (A.D. 200-400) of a flourishing civilization in which Indian and Persian elements were combined. This civilization was later absorbed by the Uigurs, who had their capital at nearby Gaochang (9th-13th cent.). Also nearby are the ruins of the ancient city of Jiaohe and the Bezeklik cave
temples. Archaeological finds made in the early 20th cent. include much Nestorian literature and the bulk of the extant Manichaean literature.
In summer it’s pretty hot in this major tourist city of Xinjiang. The city of Turpan is situated in Turpan Basin, the lowest point on the mainland of China. The local people have developed karez, an irrigation system composed of wells connected by underground channels, to counter the heat and drought of the place. at the foot of the Flaming Mountain east of Turpan lies and Grape Gully (nickname: Green Pearl City), an oasis where the scorching sun is shut off by luxuriant tree foliages and grapevine trellises that cover 220 hectares and are crisscrossed by irrigation ditches. No place in China is hotter in summer than the Flaming Mountain in Turpan, a mountain made famous by the classical Chinese mythological novel, Journey to the West. Xinjiang's largest ancient pagoda, Dorbiljin (Emin) Pagoda, (also called Sugong Pagoda) stands 2 km east of downtown Turpan. To the east lies Gaochang, which until the early Ming was a thriving town on the Silk Road; today it has been reduced to a 2 million-square-meter stretch of broken walls and deserted fields.
The inexorable pace of history is even more keenly felt at Jiaohe, another ancient city that was deserted during the early Ming, leaving a pile of ruins west of Turpan.
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