Blogs from Turpan, Xinjiang, China, Asia - page 2

31 March 2013 Sunday. Our driver was waiting for us at 9 am and drove us to the Dunhuang’s new train station, in time to catch the 9:45 am train to Jiayuguan, which arrived there at 2:45 pm. This leg of the trip was backtracking to the northern Silk Road, but we didn’t want to miss Dunhuang, which was probably our favorite stop along the road. Jiayuguan was an important stop on the Silk Road…the end of the Ming Dynasty Great Wall and the final outpost, beyond which was the barbarian lands of empty desert. The fortress there was built in 1372 and expanded in 1539. Those exiled by the emperor for some infraction were taken to the gate facing west, and then kicked out of China. Exiles would toss a stone against the Wall to ... read more

Hello Everyone! Thanks for the replies! The cabin thing was safe as could be I guess. I am trying to figure out how to add photos to this thing. I really do not like this blog website. Difficult to use and often doesn't work. Refreshes itself unexpectedly, blah blah blah. Enough on that. Yesterday was a fun day. I travelled to the town of Turpan that is famous for having several old ruins around it. I saw some of the oldest and best preserved ancient ruins in the world. The ancient towns that flourished in the Silk Road days. Very very cool places (but also hot; damn hot!) There was a giant thermometer like the one they have in Las Vegas set up next to the highway in the desert. It sits in the sun and ... read more

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 ... read more

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 ... read more

TURPAN 150m below sea level 14/8/10: We caught the bus back to Urumqi at 11:00am. It was going to be another 24+hour hot and sweaty bus journey back to Urumqi, the bus companies are too tight too use the A.C. We both listened to audio books. 15/8/10: We arrived at Urumqi around 12:00 midday. We quickly brought another bus ticket to Turpan getting on the bus within minutes. The bus took two hours to reach Turpan. Straight off the bus we were approached by a guy that runs day trips. We took a card anyway uninterested in the day trip that cost 80yuan each for a full day. We tried to get a room in the Turpan hotel, this was supposed to be the cheapest option. We asked how much a room was, knowing that another ... read more