China Trip - Days 14, 15 and 16 - Turpan
Aug. 19th, 2018 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
niniane10/17 – Turpan
Woke up at a nice, reasonable time and started roaming the city. We started off by walking towards the museum, finding police officers literally everywhere. Going into a hotel involved showing your passport, putting your belongings through an x-ray machine, and walking through a metal detector. So did walking through stores. Police officers were literally everywhere. There weren't just the ubiquitous scans (in one store, we had to walk through two – one at the entrance of the building, another to get into the store), there were also groups of police officers walking around together with shields and batons.
It would all feel very police state like except...the police officers seemed to literally not give a shit. Like, one who saw our passports remarked, “Oh, hey, Americans!” and grinned like that was the most exciting thing he'd seen in years. (It probably was...) A couple of elderly female police officers were happily chatting by their x-ray machine (and sometimes knitting...). A group of younger officers was wandering around with their shields and batons while chatting animatedly about the latest gossip.
Near as I can tell, the Chinese government has decided that the best way to deal with the Uigher is to turn literally every unemployed person into a police officer. Need a job? Hey! Work in security! It might not be a great job, but you get to wear a nifty uniform and pull in a salary. (Seriously, there is legitimately no other reason for a police force that appears to total half the population...well, a quarter at least, seriously. It's pretty crazy.)
Anyway, we made it to the museum, which was quite impressive. They had some very nice fossils as well as mummified bodies from around 0 CE to the Qing dynasty, most wearing fancy outfits.
The most impressive part (to me, anyway) were the collection of artifacts from the silk road. There were grave goods from 2,000 to 3,000 BCE that included pottery, intricate bronze items (many pertaining to horses), and most amazingly of all, fabric! (Fabric preserves so poorly that this was amazing!)
My favorite was a piece of finely spun plaid in red, black and gold that was near prefectly preserved. The pattern looks like something modern and the fabric was so finely wove that I have no idea how someone even saw the threads to spin them! (Far less wove them on an unstable loom.) The blacks and reds were vivid – too vivid to be anything other than Kermes, I'd guess (for the red) and something spectacular for the black. It really showed how incredibly highly advanced the people on the steppes were. There were also cowry shells (clearly these people were trading far...), pottery with finely drawn wolves and deer, and other amazing things. It was quite extraordinary!
5,000 year old plaid. We were Scottish before anyone had made it to Scotland. (Or at least Indo-Europeans had made it there...)
Supposedly how people in the era of the plaid weaving dressed. I like to think they had less goofy expressions although THOSE HATS!
More 5,000 year old textiles. No sure how they've preserved...
A 4,000 year old painting of Fuxi and Nuwa, making them some of the oldest Gods out there. (Although the Queen Mother of the West was described in Banpo pottery, making her at least 7,000 years old. So I guess she's the oldest continuously worshiped deity out there. TAKE THAT EGYPTIANS. IF ONLY YOU STILL WORSHIPED ISIS!)
This embroidery is amazing...and also thousands of years old...
These boots are not all that ancient (like, Qing dynasty - so new!), but super sweet. I want them. Like, seriously...
We then went walking through endless vineyards (Turpan industry #2, after security – grapes!). They were quite lovely and we found a nice restaurant with kebabs and naan (said naan/nang – mianbao got a blank look, oh well...) as well as a delicious lemon mint soft drink. We then took a cab to the karez museum, where we got to see some of the super impressive underground aqueducts.
An above ground karez. People still are out there drawing water from these, washing clothes and dishes, etc.
Anyway, from about 2,000 years ago onward, the people of Xinjiang have been digging massive tunnels (over 100K km in their hay day) to transport water. They pop up above ground (we saw a woman washing her laundry in one during our walk), but mostly travel below to keep a constant slight decline in elevation as well as to reduce evaporation. The museum was fairly small, but neat in that it gave me a better appreciation for what a phenomenal engineering feat this was!
Of course in the museum, these were highlighted by colored lights, since why not?
A more natural part of the underground karez.
They're hard to get good pictures of, but REALLY AMAZING when you think about them. The air is even super cool in them due to the evaporation.
Xuanzhuang, as he's too important not to be mentioned literally everywhere. (I guess it's...important to translate things? IDK.)
Returned to the hotel fairly late, ate a noodle dinner, and opened a bottle of Turpan wine. It was surprisingly good – not the best I've ever had, but rich and flavorful, without the insipid dryness of the ones I had in Jiayuguan and Dunhuang. I will have to try more!
10/18 – Turpan
We got up bright and early to make it to the hotel breakfast. It was a bit pricey for this part of the world ($4 a person – I know, the horror!) but pretty tasty. It was all you could eat fried eggs, noodles with chicken, naan (and yes, it's nang out here, not mianbao), vegetables, fried rice, and other stuff that I didn't think was interesting enough to try. (Mostly I just liked the naan and eggs. Mmmm...eggs! Weirdly, all the convenience stores around here have stacks of them...like carton after carton stacked up. Kind of weird, really...but hey, eggs!)
Yesterday I'd somehow booked a tour in my broken Mandarin, so we got into an SUV around 9:30 and headed out to Qocho (Gaochang), an ancient Uigher capital that's east of Turpan. It was pretty amazing. While the over 2,000 year old city isn't in perfect shape, it's still clearly a city, with exanct walls, a Buddhist pagoda (complete with niches for Buddhas), houses, cave for sleeping in, etc. Our driver thought I was cute (or pretty, as he remarked later when I chatted with him a bit in Mandarin – the Uigher may not be native speakers of Mandarin, but they're better than that than they are in English, near as I can tell), so he took us off road a bit to show us some of his favorite caves, which was rather interesting. It was a really lovely city, in remarkable shape and of an incredible age. While it might not be – quite – the equal of Rome in its heyday, it was an impressive place none the less.
For a 3,000 year old city, this is one INTACT city wall!
I'm forgetting what building this is, but it's so freaking intact! I guess adobe lasts forever (or thousands of years anyway...) in the desert.
A Buddhist stupa, as it's Buddhist era now!
I loved the (comparatively) modern mosque peaking behind the ancient city.
It seriously still looks like a city...
I have no idea how this is still intact after over 2,000 years...
The main Buddhist stupa, along with cubbyholes for statues.
Amusingly, our tour guide (we had one driver who took us around...there was really no other way to see the city...) decided I was cute so led us to all these small houses that we walked through. (That were clearly the places the locals partied while drinking illicit, illicit Baijiu.) It was kind of hilarious, especially as he flat out stated that this was why he was taking us there. (Although my parents couldn't understand language-wise, anyway.)
Next we went to the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha caves, which were....kind of sad, actually. They're considered one of the top four Buddhist grottos in China (along with Mogao and the ones we saw in Lanzhou and the Tianshui...depending on the source. I think these were rather Gansu centric, but so be it...) as well as the best of the ones detailing Buddhism among the Uigher people. But they were...not so impressive. Mostly everything on them, virtually, had either been ripped out, severely degraded, or defaced. Stein (the same guy who took many of the manuscripts from the Mogao grottos) had taken some of the best murals, showing Uigher princes and princesses (to the left and the right, as always...weird how consistent that is) and dragged them to England, where they remain in perfect condition. Most of the rest had either been deliberately destroyed or defaced. (The communists seemed to like scratching out the Buddha's faces and/or eyes.) There were a few amazing murals left. One showed the western heaven with a wide variety of races playing guitar like instruments and pipes. Another showed all the races (including Indians, whites with bushy red beards, Chinese, etc.) all happily watching the sleeping/dead Buddha ascend to Nirvana. The few bits of murals that remained were fantastic...but far too few.
The monastery,
Both the sheep and the shepherd have REALLY good footing!
Around the monastery or maybe the Flaming Mountains (it all looked kind of similar). Supposedly the Monkey King set the mountains aflame or something like that, so there's a lot of Monkey King stuff out here.
More monastery.
Remains of a mural. Note that the flute player is clearly European, because BUDDHA LOVES US ALL AND WANTS EVERYONE IN THE WORLD TO CONVERT.
Some of the 10,000 Buddhas. note that they're defaced. In particular, the Communists scratched out their eyes to show their disdain for religion. :(
The area itself was also amazing. There was almost no plant life and the hills were red. It was like being on Mars. (Even the sky was faintly pink.) On one of the hills were a group of goats that were being slowly coaxed down by a goatherd. (The goats clearly did not want to move...) And at the bottom of the mountains was a lush, riparian paradise of green trees and a small stream. Lovely, if severe.
Next we went to the “flaming mountains” (well, technically everywhere we'd been so far was there...) which seemed to be mostly a tourist trap to show off the mountains and do things like ride camels and celebrate the Journey to the West (the monk had passed Gao Chang, and possibly other areas, and in the book the Monkey had lit the hills on fire or some such). We just took a few pictures and left
Last on the list was Jiaohe, another ancient city. It dates back from about the 4th century BC and is the largest city without walls (because it was built on a mesa, so doesn't need them...) as well as the largest ancient city made of packed Earth. It's a UNESCO heritage site and quite impressive. We climbed a hill at first to overlook it and it's..well, it's a pretty phenomenal ancient city.
Jiaohe is still clearly a city despite being 2,000-3,000 years old. Amazing!
It is also very defensible, seeing as it is on a cliff.
Some of the ruins.
It's amazingly intact!
The main street, ending that the Grand Buddhist Temple.
Close up of the Buddhist temple, along with niches for idols.
Goats don't care much about history...
The whole city was laid out in a North to South alignment on the mesa, with the south gate sloping towards the ground then rising sharply. Most of the city (2/3) is dedicated to Buddhist temples, which dominate the city, the largest being at the north end with a massive tower in the center and small cubbies for the Buddhas. There are additional temples surrounding it as well as government buildings and other impressive structures. There was also a well which must be exceedingly deep.
We returned back from that adventure around 5 and started looking for food. But while Turpan may be overabundant in police officers (yep, sometimes we had to go through security twice to get into these exhibits, since why not? EMPLOYMENT!!!!), it was rather deficient in restaurants. We went to the bazaar...which had a burger joint. Then wandered the streets for a bit, which sold...noodles and burgers. But really, it was weird...I think I counted more “dress up and get your picture taken” shops (to be fair, this is China...) than restaurants (then again, the Chinese love food, so what gives?). We eventually found a street with maybe six restaurants (most of which sold noodles or burgers...why noodles and burgers?), but no Uigher food. (Which is freaking delicious, and renouned through China!!!! What gives?!!!) and gave up and just ate naan from a bakery and meat on a stick (still delicious, but not exactly typical...)
I'm now understanding why the travel wiki for Turpan recommended the burgers. THIS IS LITERALLY ALL THERE IS TO EAT HERE. This is especially weird in that this is a touristy city...a touristy city that seems to employ half their people in security and none of their people in restaurants. This is a weird freaking tourist destination. Just saying.
Bonus pictures:
A market with flags EVERYWHERE. Most of China does not have so many flags.
I suspect this is not approved by Disney...(although could be wrong)
Pretty lights!
10/19 – Turpan
Wandered around a bit today. I decided to head towards the desert botanical garden (not so much because I care about what grows in deserts – I lived in California – I know! - but as a way of having something to do). I mistakenly thought that it was to the south west vs. south east, so headed in that direction to a part of town where there were no sidewalks.
Within a very short period of time, a police officer started following me and asked what I was doing.
“Looking at grapes,” I said. “They are very pretty.”
“You like to eat grapes?”
“And look at them. And walk near them.”
This went on for a bit, until I think they got frustrated enough with my halting Mandarin that they gave up. I walked a bit farther until I realized that I wasn't getting anywhere, at which I turned around and walked back to the city.
Along the way were many murals of the Uighers as happy Chinese citizens.
Quite a number were in their traditional ethnic outfits. (As far as those go. I get the feeling part of this is traditional - ancient sources discuss women with five braids (some made of yak fur) - and probably the patterns originated here as does the rough look of "long skirt, shirt, vest, pill box hat, maybe veil - but some is probably similar to the "traditional European costumes" that were pretty much entirely made up. Peasants tend to wear what's available, not what's "ethnic".)
More flags down an alley.
Next I headed east, towards the Muslim quarter. I only realized I'd passed it when I made it to a karez museum (something pointed further down the way). So that, too, was uneventful, although I did pass a rather pretty (if small) green mosque.
I headed west next and made it to the Emin Minaret, which was a rather pretty building with a small mosque inside and not much else. It was built in 1777 to commemerate a brave Uigher general (the plaque went on and on about how he was so great in fighting separatist forces, but also how his sons inherited after him, so...IDK. Not sure how that worked.)
Emin Minraet is very pretty on the outside.
It's also fairly pretty on the inside.
Be that as it may, I ran out sidewalk again, so pretty much gave up. Apparently the walkable parts of Turpan are small indeed!
I went back to the museum to take pictures of all of the 4,000-5,000 year old fabric (amazing!) and saw the mummy from about the same period of a shaman. Most of his grave goods had been taken from him, although it mentioned that he had all kinds of nice things including a good stash of marijuana for the afterlife. (Weirdly, despite the heavy police presence, there was the smell of weed pretty frequently. I guess they don't care? Or stoners just don't worry about being caught? Unsure.)
Along the way, I did get to witness a rather loud procession. It started with a number of police cars blaring sirens. Then there were maybe 3-4 Strykers, then another 3-4 military convoys, followed by more police cars. Some of the people halting traffic for the procession were SWAT officers who had actual guns (rather than the big sticks that 90% of the security officers carried). They wound around Turpan a few times (probably for a few hours), then dispersed, so I'd still see Strykers from time to time, just alone, moving slowly down the street with sirens blaring. It was rather interesting.
Part of the daily military "parade".
I also got to see the same police group of maybe 6 or so men and women walking around town essentially all day. They were led by a guy with a riot shield, the followed by another 6 or so people with large sticks. They were mostly just walking single file and occasionally chatting. They didn't seem especially threatening and it felt like more make work. (Although really miserable make work in the summer or winter I have to think. Maybe they lessen the patrols then? Or let them chill inside?)
Found the bus station, too, which looked like a large parking lot by the bazaar with a bunch of minibuses in it, most of which weren't labeled, and no ticket office. I gave up on any hope of figuring out which was which and decided that maybe it would be best to take a taxi to the train station.
Met up with my parents and went out to dinner on the one street with restaurants. We went to a Malaysian chicken place that had been mentioned in Travelwiki as literally the only places to eat in Turpan were burger joints, the Malaysian chicken place, and noodles. So...there we go.
Woke up at a nice, reasonable time and started roaming the city. We started off by walking towards the museum, finding police officers literally everywhere. Going into a hotel involved showing your passport, putting your belongings through an x-ray machine, and walking through a metal detector. So did walking through stores. Police officers were literally everywhere. There weren't just the ubiquitous scans (in one store, we had to walk through two – one at the entrance of the building, another to get into the store), there were also groups of police officers walking around together with shields and batons.
It would all feel very police state like except...the police officers seemed to literally not give a shit. Like, one who saw our passports remarked, “Oh, hey, Americans!” and grinned like that was the most exciting thing he'd seen in years. (It probably was...) A couple of elderly female police officers were happily chatting by their x-ray machine (and sometimes knitting...). A group of younger officers was wandering around with their shields and batons while chatting animatedly about the latest gossip.
Near as I can tell, the Chinese government has decided that the best way to deal with the Uigher is to turn literally every unemployed person into a police officer. Need a job? Hey! Work in security! It might not be a great job, but you get to wear a nifty uniform and pull in a salary. (Seriously, there is legitimately no other reason for a police force that appears to total half the population...well, a quarter at least, seriously. It's pretty crazy.)
Anyway, we made it to the museum, which was quite impressive. They had some very nice fossils as well as mummified bodies from around 0 CE to the Qing dynasty, most wearing fancy outfits.
The most impressive part (to me, anyway) were the collection of artifacts from the silk road. There were grave goods from 2,000 to 3,000 BCE that included pottery, intricate bronze items (many pertaining to horses), and most amazingly of all, fabric! (Fabric preserves so poorly that this was amazing!)
My favorite was a piece of finely spun plaid in red, black and gold that was near prefectly preserved. The pattern looks like something modern and the fabric was so finely wove that I have no idea how someone even saw the threads to spin them! (Far less wove them on an unstable loom.) The blacks and reds were vivid – too vivid to be anything other than Kermes, I'd guess (for the red) and something spectacular for the black. It really showed how incredibly highly advanced the people on the steppes were. There were also cowry shells (clearly these people were trading far...), pottery with finely drawn wolves and deer, and other amazing things. It was quite extraordinary!
5,000 year old plaid. We were Scottish before anyone had made it to Scotland. (Or at least Indo-Europeans had made it there...)
Supposedly how people in the era of the plaid weaving dressed. I like to think they had less goofy expressions although THOSE HATS!
More 5,000 year old textiles. No sure how they've preserved...
A 4,000 year old painting of Fuxi and Nuwa, making them some of the oldest Gods out there. (Although the Queen Mother of the West was described in Banpo pottery, making her at least 7,000 years old. So I guess she's the oldest continuously worshiped deity out there. TAKE THAT EGYPTIANS. IF ONLY YOU STILL WORSHIPED ISIS!)
This embroidery is amazing...and also thousands of years old...
These boots are not all that ancient (like, Qing dynasty - so new!), but super sweet. I want them. Like, seriously...
We then went walking through endless vineyards (Turpan industry #2, after security – grapes!). They were quite lovely and we found a nice restaurant with kebabs and naan (said naan/nang – mianbao got a blank look, oh well...) as well as a delicious lemon mint soft drink. We then took a cab to the karez museum, where we got to see some of the super impressive underground aqueducts.
An above ground karez. People still are out there drawing water from these, washing clothes and dishes, etc.
Anyway, from about 2,000 years ago onward, the people of Xinjiang have been digging massive tunnels (over 100K km in their hay day) to transport water. They pop up above ground (we saw a woman washing her laundry in one during our walk), but mostly travel below to keep a constant slight decline in elevation as well as to reduce evaporation. The museum was fairly small, but neat in that it gave me a better appreciation for what a phenomenal engineering feat this was!
Of course in the museum, these were highlighted by colored lights, since why not?
A more natural part of the underground karez.
They're hard to get good pictures of, but REALLY AMAZING when you think about them. The air is even super cool in them due to the evaporation.
Xuanzhuang, as he's too important not to be mentioned literally everywhere. (I guess it's...important to translate things? IDK.)
Returned to the hotel fairly late, ate a noodle dinner, and opened a bottle of Turpan wine. It was surprisingly good – not the best I've ever had, but rich and flavorful, without the insipid dryness of the ones I had in Jiayuguan and Dunhuang. I will have to try more!
10/18 – Turpan
We got up bright and early to make it to the hotel breakfast. It was a bit pricey for this part of the world ($4 a person – I know, the horror!) but pretty tasty. It was all you could eat fried eggs, noodles with chicken, naan (and yes, it's nang out here, not mianbao), vegetables, fried rice, and other stuff that I didn't think was interesting enough to try. (Mostly I just liked the naan and eggs. Mmmm...eggs! Weirdly, all the convenience stores around here have stacks of them...like carton after carton stacked up. Kind of weird, really...but hey, eggs!)
Yesterday I'd somehow booked a tour in my broken Mandarin, so we got into an SUV around 9:30 and headed out to Qocho (Gaochang), an ancient Uigher capital that's east of Turpan. It was pretty amazing. While the over 2,000 year old city isn't in perfect shape, it's still clearly a city, with exanct walls, a Buddhist pagoda (complete with niches for Buddhas), houses, cave for sleeping in, etc. Our driver thought I was cute (or pretty, as he remarked later when I chatted with him a bit in Mandarin – the Uigher may not be native speakers of Mandarin, but they're better than that than they are in English, near as I can tell), so he took us off road a bit to show us some of his favorite caves, which was rather interesting. It was a really lovely city, in remarkable shape and of an incredible age. While it might not be – quite – the equal of Rome in its heyday, it was an impressive place none the less.
For a 3,000 year old city, this is one INTACT city wall!
I'm forgetting what building this is, but it's so freaking intact! I guess adobe lasts forever (or thousands of years anyway...) in the desert.
A Buddhist stupa, as it's Buddhist era now!
I loved the (comparatively) modern mosque peaking behind the ancient city.
It seriously still looks like a city...
I have no idea how this is still intact after over 2,000 years...
The main Buddhist stupa, along with cubbyholes for statues.
Amusingly, our tour guide (we had one driver who took us around...there was really no other way to see the city...) decided I was cute so led us to all these small houses that we walked through. (That were clearly the places the locals partied while drinking illicit, illicit Baijiu.) It was kind of hilarious, especially as he flat out stated that this was why he was taking us there. (Although my parents couldn't understand language-wise, anyway.)
Next we went to the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha caves, which were....kind of sad, actually. They're considered one of the top four Buddhist grottos in China (along with Mogao and the ones we saw in Lanzhou and the Tianshui...depending on the source. I think these were rather Gansu centric, but so be it...) as well as the best of the ones detailing Buddhism among the Uigher people. But they were...not so impressive. Mostly everything on them, virtually, had either been ripped out, severely degraded, or defaced. Stein (the same guy who took many of the manuscripts from the Mogao grottos) had taken some of the best murals, showing Uigher princes and princesses (to the left and the right, as always...weird how consistent that is) and dragged them to England, where they remain in perfect condition. Most of the rest had either been deliberately destroyed or defaced. (The communists seemed to like scratching out the Buddha's faces and/or eyes.) There were a few amazing murals left. One showed the western heaven with a wide variety of races playing guitar like instruments and pipes. Another showed all the races (including Indians, whites with bushy red beards, Chinese, etc.) all happily watching the sleeping/dead Buddha ascend to Nirvana. The few bits of murals that remained were fantastic...but far too few.
The monastery,
Both the sheep and the shepherd have REALLY good footing!
Around the monastery or maybe the Flaming Mountains (it all looked kind of similar). Supposedly the Monkey King set the mountains aflame or something like that, so there's a lot of Monkey King stuff out here.
More monastery.
Remains of a mural. Note that the flute player is clearly European, because BUDDHA LOVES US ALL AND WANTS EVERYONE IN THE WORLD TO CONVERT.
Some of the 10,000 Buddhas. note that they're defaced. In particular, the Communists scratched out their eyes to show their disdain for religion. :(
The area itself was also amazing. There was almost no plant life and the hills were red. It was like being on Mars. (Even the sky was faintly pink.) On one of the hills were a group of goats that were being slowly coaxed down by a goatherd. (The goats clearly did not want to move...) And at the bottom of the mountains was a lush, riparian paradise of green trees and a small stream. Lovely, if severe.
Next we went to the “flaming mountains” (well, technically everywhere we'd been so far was there...) which seemed to be mostly a tourist trap to show off the mountains and do things like ride camels and celebrate the Journey to the West (the monk had passed Gao Chang, and possibly other areas, and in the book the Monkey had lit the hills on fire or some such). We just took a few pictures and left
Last on the list was Jiaohe, another ancient city. It dates back from about the 4th century BC and is the largest city without walls (because it was built on a mesa, so doesn't need them...) as well as the largest ancient city made of packed Earth. It's a UNESCO heritage site and quite impressive. We climbed a hill at first to overlook it and it's..well, it's a pretty phenomenal ancient city.
Jiaohe is still clearly a city despite being 2,000-3,000 years old. Amazing!
It is also very defensible, seeing as it is on a cliff.
Some of the ruins.
It's amazingly intact!
The main street, ending that the Grand Buddhist Temple.
Close up of the Buddhist temple, along with niches for idols.
Goats don't care much about history...
The whole city was laid out in a North to South alignment on the mesa, with the south gate sloping towards the ground then rising sharply. Most of the city (2/3) is dedicated to Buddhist temples, which dominate the city, the largest being at the north end with a massive tower in the center and small cubbies for the Buddhas. There are additional temples surrounding it as well as government buildings and other impressive structures. There was also a well which must be exceedingly deep.
We returned back from that adventure around 5 and started looking for food. But while Turpan may be overabundant in police officers (yep, sometimes we had to go through security twice to get into these exhibits, since why not? EMPLOYMENT!!!!), it was rather deficient in restaurants. We went to the bazaar...which had a burger joint. Then wandered the streets for a bit, which sold...noodles and burgers. But really, it was weird...I think I counted more “dress up and get your picture taken” shops (to be fair, this is China...) than restaurants (then again, the Chinese love food, so what gives?). We eventually found a street with maybe six restaurants (most of which sold noodles or burgers...why noodles and burgers?), but no Uigher food. (Which is freaking delicious, and renouned through China!!!! What gives?!!!) and gave up and just ate naan from a bakery and meat on a stick (still delicious, but not exactly typical...)
I'm now understanding why the travel wiki for Turpan recommended the burgers. THIS IS LITERALLY ALL THERE IS TO EAT HERE. This is especially weird in that this is a touristy city...a touristy city that seems to employ half their people in security and none of their people in restaurants. This is a weird freaking tourist destination. Just saying.
Bonus pictures:
A market with flags EVERYWHERE. Most of China does not have so many flags.
I suspect this is not approved by Disney...(although could be wrong)
Pretty lights!
10/19 – Turpan
Wandered around a bit today. I decided to head towards the desert botanical garden (not so much because I care about what grows in deserts – I lived in California – I know! - but as a way of having something to do). I mistakenly thought that it was to the south west vs. south east, so headed in that direction to a part of town where there were no sidewalks.
Within a very short period of time, a police officer started following me and asked what I was doing.
“Looking at grapes,” I said. “They are very pretty.”
“You like to eat grapes?”
“And look at them. And walk near them.”
This went on for a bit, until I think they got frustrated enough with my halting Mandarin that they gave up. I walked a bit farther until I realized that I wasn't getting anywhere, at which I turned around and walked back to the city.
Along the way were many murals of the Uighers as happy Chinese citizens.
Quite a number were in their traditional ethnic outfits. (As far as those go. I get the feeling part of this is traditional - ancient sources discuss women with five braids (some made of yak fur) - and probably the patterns originated here as does the rough look of "long skirt, shirt, vest, pill box hat, maybe veil - but some is probably similar to the "traditional European costumes" that were pretty much entirely made up. Peasants tend to wear what's available, not what's "ethnic".)
More flags down an alley.
Next I headed east, towards the Muslim quarter. I only realized I'd passed it when I made it to a karez museum (something pointed further down the way). So that, too, was uneventful, although I did pass a rather pretty (if small) green mosque.
I headed west next and made it to the Emin Minaret, which was a rather pretty building with a small mosque inside and not much else. It was built in 1777 to commemerate a brave Uigher general (the plaque went on and on about how he was so great in fighting separatist forces, but also how his sons inherited after him, so...IDK. Not sure how that worked.)
Emin Minraet is very pretty on the outside.
It's also fairly pretty on the inside.
Be that as it may, I ran out sidewalk again, so pretty much gave up. Apparently the walkable parts of Turpan are small indeed!
I went back to the museum to take pictures of all of the 4,000-5,000 year old fabric (amazing!) and saw the mummy from about the same period of a shaman. Most of his grave goods had been taken from him, although it mentioned that he had all kinds of nice things including a good stash of marijuana for the afterlife. (Weirdly, despite the heavy police presence, there was the smell of weed pretty frequently. I guess they don't care? Or stoners just don't worry about being caught? Unsure.)
Along the way, I did get to witness a rather loud procession. It started with a number of police cars blaring sirens. Then there were maybe 3-4 Strykers, then another 3-4 military convoys, followed by more police cars. Some of the people halting traffic for the procession were SWAT officers who had actual guns (rather than the big sticks that 90% of the security officers carried). They wound around Turpan a few times (probably for a few hours), then dispersed, so I'd still see Strykers from time to time, just alone, moving slowly down the street with sirens blaring. It was rather interesting.
Part of the daily military "parade".
I also got to see the same police group of maybe 6 or so men and women walking around town essentially all day. They were led by a guy with a riot shield, the followed by another 6 or so people with large sticks. They were mostly just walking single file and occasionally chatting. They didn't seem especially threatening and it felt like more make work. (Although really miserable make work in the summer or winter I have to think. Maybe they lessen the patrols then? Or let them chill inside?)
Found the bus station, too, which looked like a large parking lot by the bazaar with a bunch of minibuses in it, most of which weren't labeled, and no ticket office. I gave up on any hope of figuring out which was which and decided that maybe it would be best to take a taxi to the train station.
Met up with my parents and went out to dinner on the one street with restaurants. We went to a Malaysian chicken place that had been mentioned in Travelwiki as literally the only places to eat in Turpan were burger joints, the Malaysian chicken place, and noodles. So...there we go.
