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Man with instrument
No comment needed. The photo says it allÜrümqi and Turpan
On this trip in China I also went to Xinjiang Province for a few days. Xinjiang Province is in the far west of China and is largely an inhospitable place with large deserts and high mountains.
I have several reasons for visiting this part of China. One is sightseeing of course. I have for many years had a wish to visit the city Turpan not far from Ürümqi. But I also have another reason for visiting Xinjiang.
I have a colleague, named Zulhayat, who is from China and her former hometown is Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province. One of the things I am going to do on this trip is to visit her relatives. When I arrived in Ürümqi I went to a public telephone to place a call to a telephone number where I could reach one relative. This was a bit difficult task to perform though. The girl who was in charge of the public telephone spoke no English at all and I speak neither Uyghur nor Chinese. But I managed to explain to her that I wanted to make a phone call to the number I had on a piece of
Grape vines in Turpan
Grape vines are growing as a roof over the street Qingnian Lu in the middle of Turpan making the street look like a tunnel paper. Now came the next problem, I suspected that the person who was going to answer might not speak any English either. The telephone girl seemed to understand my dilemma and she called the number for me and started to explain that she had this tall white man who insisted that he wanted to call this number and that she had no clue as to whom I was or what I wanted to say. I listened to the conversation for a minute or so before I took the phone. I asked if the person on the other end spoke any English and got a long sentence in Uyghur in return which I took as a "no". So I said the name of my colleague and that did the trick. I could hear from the tone of the voice that she now knew who I was. I gave the phone back to the telephone girl and she and the woman I talked to agreed that I was going to wait right there and they would come and pick me up.
A while later a woman appeared and she took me to the home of another, a lot older, woman. The
Emin Mosque
The first place we went to see in Turpan was the Emin Mosque two women gave me food and had me sit and wait. None of them spoke any English so our conversation was mainly restricted to smiles. After an hour or so another woman came to the house. This woman could speak English and could now explain things for us. The woman who came and picked me up is Zulhayat's sister and the older woman is her mother. The English speaking woman is the daughter of a cousin. Now with a person who could interpret for us things were a lot easier and we could start talking to each other.
Later this day another sister to my colleague showed up and all four of us had dinner together and talked some more. After a while my colleague's mother showed me some photos. To my great surprise among the photos there was one of me. The photo was of all the staff at the school where I and Zulhayat work. So there I was in a totally strange home in Xinjiang Province in China looking at a photo of myself. I didn't expect that to ever happen to me...
When we had dinner we talked about what other plans I had
Emin Minaret
The only reason to go there is to see the spectacular minaret for my visit in Xinjiang. When I mentioned that I wanted to go to Turpan the cousin and one of the sisters said that they wanted to go with me there. So now I had both company and an interpreter/tour guide on my visit in Turpan.
Turpan is situated near the Taklamakan Desert. The climate is dry and in summer the temperatures can on a hot day reach more than 40 degrees centigrade. On the day we arrived in Turpan it was one of the hot days. So we decided to stay indoors a few hours around noon and begin our sightseeing later in the day. I funny detail is that the weather the second day we were in Turpan was less hot. I told the others that it was a rather cool day and that I felt it was quite pleasant. When I saw a thermometer it said 34 degrees...
The first place we went to see in Turpan was the Emin Mosque with its spectacular minaret. The interior of this mosque is of little interest so the only reason to go there is to see the minaret. The mosque is, like many buildings in this area,
Tunnel
Sorry. Found this "tunnel" in Emin Mosque. Just had to take a photo of it and publish it. Hope you forgive me for loving these "tunnel" photos... made from clay. Since it rains very little in Turpan and its surroundings it is possible to build houses out of clay.
Next place we went to was Jiaohe Ancient City. Also here the houses were all built from clay. This city was abandoned several hundred years ago and today all that remains are badly decayed ruins. In fact, the walls of the houses were so damaged that it was often hard to get an idea of how the houses actually used look.
Turpan used to be a very important town on the Silk Road. When the caravans passed the area they could find shelter and food in Turpan. The area doesn't usually get enough rain to support a town. But already over 2000 years ago people found a way to get water to Turpan. 100 kilometres from Turpan there are mountains where there is plenty of water. The problem is getting this water to Turpan. The desert area between the mountains and Turpan is so hot and dry in summer that a simple aqueduct would not work. All the water would evaporate on the way. What the people did was to dig tunnels from the mountains all
Ruins of Jiaohe Ancient City
In Jiaohe Ancient Citythe houses were all built from clay. the way to Turpan. By leading the water underground the evaporation becomes negligible and the water can reach the fields on the other side of the desert.
This underground water supply system is known locally as Karez. Each Karez is often as much as 100 kilometres long and the total length of the entire Karez system is around 3000 kilometres. If you add that all of this was dug by hand with the use of only very simple equipment and that all the work was done in very narrow tunnels deep under ground you probably realise that this is one of the great wonders of ancient China. It is a pity that all of it is under several meters of desert sand so that you can not really see any of it.
The Karez make it possible to grow many kinds of fruits and vegetables in Turpan with the most common being grapes. Fields with grapes can be seen in many places. In fact they even grapes growing as a roof over the street Qingnian Lu in the middle of the city. The grapes are harvested in August and September and much of the crop is then dried.
Ruin of Jiaohe Ancient City
The walls of the houses were so damaged that it was often hard to get an idea of how the houses actually used look All across the countryside there are specially designed houses used for drying grapes.
One of the tourist sites in Turpan is a place called Grape Valley. It's a scenic spot and it is so popular that they charge an entrance fee from people who wish to go there. We decided to visit another similar valley, Toyuk Valley.
In the valley there is a small village that can exist there because there is a small creek running through it. In Toyuk Valley they grow grapes on fields near the creek. Further away there is barren desert, making it very obvious how important water really is. The houses are built in the traditional way using clay and straw. What I can't understand is how they in these houses cope with the weather in the winter. Temperatures then often go down to 10 degrees below zero centigrade. From what I could see the houses are not really insulated and I doubt that clay is the best material available if you want to keep it warm and nice indoors. I know what winter is like in Sweden and I don't like it. But I live in a country where the houses are
Model of the Karez
By leading the water underground the evaporation becomes negligible so the people dug tunnels from the mountains to Turpan insulated and where we have central heating so indoors it is always nice and warm. I don't want to try to survive a winter in Toyuk Valley.
In Xinjiang Province the dominating religion used to be Buddhism. In many places in the region there are so called Thousand Buddha Caves. They are areas where the local people used either existing caves or made their own caves where they painted Buddha picture on the walls and erected Buddha statues and other shrines. They are called Thousand Buddha Caves because the largest caves can have more than 1000 Buddha pictures in them.
The various Thousand Buddha Caves in Xinjiang Province have often suffered greatly from various kinds of vandalism over the years. They have been looted by European and Japanese "archaeologists" and "explorers". However, I prefer to call them treasure hunters because what they did was to go into the caves and strip the walls off their paintings by cutting out entire pieces of rock and sent them to their home countries together with every statue they could lay their hands on. Later the little that was left in the caves was damaged by Muslims who could not tolerate symbols
Karez from the air
The karez are under several meters of desert sand so that you can not see much of it unless you take areal photos. from other religions than Islam. Ironically these caves were pretty much saved from the systematic destruction of cultural heritage that went on during the Cultural Revolution. Sadly that was only because there was nothing left to destroy.
We visited Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves. Just like in the other sites the caves here are badly destroyed and you really have to use your imagination to see what they once looked like. I was not allowed to take any photos in the caves but from the description you realise that there really wasn't anything to take photos of.
A place I did take photos in was an adjacent site confusingly also called Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves. This is one of the worst tourist traps I have ever been to. It is some kind of theme park vaguely based on the nearby historical site. But there was no activity there, no signs explaining things. There was very little on display and I never understood the point with anything of it. A bit ironic that I have not less than three pictures uploaded on the blog on a place that I hated...
The last place we visited on this homemade tour
Inside the Karez
Underground the karez don't look very spectacular. Still, with the length of 3000 kilometres and that they were dug by hand they are one of the great wonders of ancient China was a sand treatment clinic. Right on the edge of the desert there is a clinic that offers a treatment that is said to cure various illnesses. The treatment is simply that the patients get partly buried in the hot desert sand. We saw it but we were surprised by a sand storm just before we arrived. Therefore we didn't see any patients being treated, hence no photos on the blog. I do have a photo of the oncoming sand storm though.
The day after we came back to Ürümqi, from Turpan, I took a tour to an area called Baiyangguo. It is a region of Xinjiang that is elevated. The proper description is probably "mountains" but I don't want to call it that because it was not so much than mountains rather rolling hills with forests and large pastures. Anyway, it was a nice place to visit and I am sure the tour is popular among locals living in Ürümqi. The green lush vegetation is very different from the deserts in other areas in Xinjiang Province.
One place I wanted to visit but couldn't was Tianchi. It is a lake situated in a mountainous area near Ürümqi.
Toyuk Valley
The houses are built using clay and straw. How do they cope with the weather in the winter? Temperatures then often go down to 10 degrees below zero centigrade. A few days before I wanted to visit Tianchi there was a devastating rain there that caused the road to and from the lake to be washed away. The road was out for a week so I was unable to visit the lake. That's a pity because that trip is supposed to be a lot better than the one to Baiyangguo.
To be honest the city Ürümqi has very little in terms of tourist attractions. Well, you may argue that the geographical position of Ürümqi makes it an attraction in itself. Ürümqi happens to be the major city in the world that is furthest away from the ocean. There are two towns north of Ürümqi that are even further from the ocean but no major city anywhere has longer distance to the coast that Ürümqi has.
But of the few tourist attractions there are in Ürümqi I would like to mention two of them here: the Science and Technology Museum and Hongshan Park.
One day when I was in Ürümqi it rained and I thought that I could visit the Science and Technology Museum. It wasn't mentioned in my guidebook and when I had walked around there
Toyuk Valley
In Toyuk Valley they grow grapes on fields near the creek. Further away there is barren desert, making it very obvious how important water really is for a while I realised why. It was created for Chinese children not for me. But it was a rainy day and I had nothing better to do so I walked around there. I am happy I did that because in one room they had displays on meteorology. One of the items they showed was something I have only heard rumours of - a rocket launcher that can create rain. It works in the way that the rocket is launched against a cloud. When the rocket explodes it sprays chemicals in the cloud. These chemicals make the water form raindrops and it starts to rain. To all of you reading this blog entry that was probably one of the least interesting things you have read today. But I actually found that rocket to be interesting.
Hongshan Park is a park in the north of Ürümqi. This park is partly a green oasis in the city and partly an amusement park. It does also have one attraction of historical value - a pagoda from the 18th century.
I am 197 cm tall and that makes me pretty tall with European standards. Not very tall, but far taller than average.
Grape drying house
In and around Turpan they grow lots of grapes. The grapes are dried in houses like this But in China people taller that 190 cm are almost unheard of. So whenever I visit China people are fascinated by my length. Sometimes when they see me they say "Yao Ming".
Yao Ming is a Chinese basketball player who plays in NBA in the United States. Yao Ming is known all over China for being incredibly tall. He is 229 cm tall so comparing me with Yao Ming is not fair. I am very short compared to him.
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Harvey Follender
non-member comment
Jiaohe Ancient City
Your blog of Turpan is wonderful (as usual). Your inclusion of Jiaohe Ancient City shows me that you will also like to visit Khiva, a similar ancient city in Uzbekistan, that is very well preserved. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfMAQq8SuDs Best wishes, Harvey