Yo Yo!
I'm back from my 20 day trip to Xinjiang. Here's a quick summary
Urumqi
Niftty metropolitian city with a large dose of central asian people. Its more of the Muslim capital of China where plenty of halal food and muslim people abound. But there are large populations of Han chinese too actually but they respect the area by not having pork in the chinese restaurants. Their dumplings are usually mutton or chicken. So cool huh.
Urumqi
The city has been ambushed by several branches of the French Carrefour and can be rather touristy. After a day we went on a 3N4D tour to Kanas Lake way up north of Xinjiang, near this little town called Buerjin. We had to take a local tour and had to face the idiosyncracies of the locals to name a few bad/annoying habits was spitting, trying to get out of paying for tickets, talkeing really loudly, not being punctual we waited up to 1hr for some of them, being plain rude, smoking in the dining area and many loud complains. Of course some were nice and friendly.
Kanas Lake wasnt impressive but the park that led up to it was beautiful, its hard to remember that you are in China, the developing country full of construction and demolition. It was like a beautiful countryside view of Switzerland/New Zealand and Alaska. So breathtaking!
On the way to Kanas Lake with Mongolian Yurt
Kanas Lake from the Top
Kashgar
From Urumqi we took an overnight train to Kashgar. Even the hardsleeper (2nd class) (has cushion lar and quite comfy... dont be mistaken by the name) is better than the Indian trains. Clean and the food on the train was not too bad and cheap!
Kashgar had a stronger muslim influence with buildings of Pakistani-Indian-Turkish designs. Still citylike, no carrefour but its developing pretty fast. Some of the best sites here are the IdKah mosque and the food! Lamb kebabs and my favourite Polo which is like briani without the yellowness of rice and curry. Food is cheap too! Unlike Turkey where Muslim restaurants still serve alcohol, the muslim population here is pretty strict. The women are beautiful, with fair skin and central asian/chinese features.
Kashgar
Mutton Seller along the street
The famous Sunday Market was somewhat of a letdown, it has modernized good for them i guess..... Gone are the shops off the donkey carts and mud encrusted walkways. Its was replaced by a huge sheltered market and concrete paths. Nothing very exciting to buy except bales of clothes, souveniors and local household tools etc, lots of spices and dried fruit.The Livestock market was a cool site with goats and cows lined up directly infront of kebab stalls!
Hami Melons! Xinjiang is famous for their rock melons and grapes and pears. All sweet and super juicy!
Turpan
HOT! It was about 40 degrees celsius! But we visited the best sites here. Tuyoq a little muslim village, Flaming mountains (Journey to the West), Jiaohe ruins (desert city ruins with historic value), Karez (ancient irrigation system which is ingenious!). We basically had every single meal at John's Cafe.
Tuyoq
Urumqi(Tien Chi)
Abt 2hrs away from the city was a Heavenly Lake. We stayed overnight at a Mongolian Yurt by the lake, far from civilization and had authentic homecooked meals. I has one of my best sleeps there and the stars were amazing! The lake was ultra gorgeous. Took tonnes of shots.
Tienchi
Mongolian Yurt by the lake where we stayed
Guangzhou
Boring place. Definitely not a shopping mecca. Food aint great no matter what the comparison is to Hongkong.
Will show you more pics next time!
Cheerios!
