Turpan

Each stop has a local guide to tell us about the place. Guide for Turpan was Habib who was something of a comedian.
Whilst we were still in China, he was not at all Chinese and was Uighar. He pronounced it weghar and since thats where he came from, that will do.



Local traffic jam.


Habib in full flow.

First talk from him was of the symptoms of heatstroke and the need to drink, drink, drink even if we didnt think we needed to.
It was probably only 26 to 28 but must have been close to zero humidity. I got through my 600 ml in a hour quite easily.
Turpan is 508 feet below sea level, second lowest to the Dead Sea. Learn something every day dont you.


First excursion was to the Karez Irrigation System. Due to a happy geological circumstance, water which has seeped underground from the mountain ranges meets a bedrock which has a gradual slope all the way to Turpan.
The tunnels were made by a series of shafts dug to the bedrock, 10 m apart in the softer earth. There are over 11,000 channels and I gather they are still making more.
So Turpan is a rather large oasis in the middle of the desert thanks to this. There are a lot of grapes grown, some for wine. The wine is made in a "wine factory" which mat give a clue to its quality.



Next the long abandoned ancient city of Jiahoe. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and a feature, pointed out by Habib but not the tour guide books, is the number of CCTV cameras and even more microphones. They are partly to detect people walking where they shouldnt, but more importantly to detect night time digging thefts. Apparently a few years ago some Japanese did a midnight dig and found soemthing whch they sold for millions.




We went into this mosque. The Muslims in this area (and in Kazakstan and Uzbekistan) are not at all fanatical and are quite cross at the extremists giving it a bad name.



At this stage the Chinese/Han are about 50% of the population and the faces in the street and the meals we were given were changing to less vegies, more meat. And no chopsticks.
Despite some grumbles about the Chinese food, most recognised it was healthier than our usual Oz meal.



The end of the day saw us taking the bus 200k to Urumchi/Uramqi. Supposedly because it was quicker than the train but I took that with a grain of salt.
Check out where Uramchi is on your map then look at this highway. Its in the middle of the desert, a miilion miles from anywhere but its a divided highway, two lanes each way. Oz, get your act together.







From the hotel guide book. I really dont know why this wants to be sideways, but its worth reading..