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Published: August 24th 2008
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As I was starting to say last entry ... we are in Turpan for four days and have the chance to have a good look around. Security is a lot tighter in this region - petrol stations have guards on them and we are stopped at a lot more police checkpoints. There is also a greater army presence in the streets. We had to visit the long distance bus station before checking into the hotel in order to scan our bags. We were hot and dirty and just hanging out for a shower.
Turpan itself seems a world away from the rest of China. There are the Han Chinese people there but the Uighur people have their own language (so 'Shair Shair' had to be replaced with 'Rakmed', and 'Nihao' with 'Asalum Alekum' ... apologies on the spelling!) China is one time zone and official business is on Beijing time ... the rest of the region works on Uighur time - two hours behind. The people look more Russian and Central Asian in build ... a lot of head scarves and panty hose on women (as well as sequinned bling in the dresses!) even though it is the hottest part
of China. The first day we were there it was early 40'C but the rest of the time was cool 30's (I am sure that the Melbourne people are dreaming of those type of temperatures right now!)
Back to what we did in Turpan .... The first day we headed out to the Jiaohe Ruins and the Irrigation Channels of Karez. ' During the Han Dynasty,
Jiaohe was established by the Chinese as a garrison town. It had around 6,500 residents' It was a peninsula so they didn't need to build a wall (yes I have pinched a Lonely Planet book to put in a bit of detail here). We was-lked around the ruins which were over a 1000 years old. Not much left to them - but it was interesting to wander around with not many other people out there.
Karez was the system of irrigation channels that they set up in the region 2000 years ago. It is desert all around so they set up a system of head wells and unerground irrigation channels that sent the water from the snow capped Tian Shian Mountains down into the villages. There are a lot of grape
vines in the region (nice grapes but only a little supply of wine). Very tacky display village that basically had sculptures of people digging wells - pictures on the walls and then you go underground to see the water flowing ... but then lots of shops selling rabbit fur stoles - and matching hats- Jade sculptures and other stuff with Uighur girls in traditional costume offering to be photographed for a price ... funnily enough I don't think I took a single photo there! It was interesting but my short attention span didn't keep me captivated very long.
The afternoon was stinking hot. We spent the afternoon in John's cafe - under the grape vines - eating banana pancakes and drinking pijou (beer) ... a tough day at the office!
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