A long drive day on the way towards Turpan, road is dominated by Tian Shan (heavenly) mountains and the harsh terrain of the desert and not too much in the way of civilisation. A rocky bush camp on dry river beds for the night arriving a day later in the leafy vine covered roads of Turpan, this place is 500m below sea level and known to be extremely hot, said to be the hottest place in China (aka Huo Zhou: a place as hot as fire).
Flaming mountain is near, on a hot day flames can be seen flickering on the red sandstone hills, maybe today was just a little too cool!
Some confusion over the time, the official time is 'Beijing time' used in most hotels, banks etc but local time 'Turpan time' is 2 hours behind so when making arrangements always need to ask which time!
Largely inhabited by Uyghur people,the easternmost branch of the extended Turkic people who are apparently short tempered?!?!.
Leaving Turpan, another long drive to Kashgar. A stretch of barren road 200km with high concrete walls in part is declared as 'non stopping' by the Chinese government, a bit touchy of ? Oil reserves, economic potential for gold, military ops ? Who knows but they are trying to increase the Han population in this area which is considered sensitive and the government aren't that keen on foreigners coming here.
Bordering on the Taklamakan desert, the roads are hazy and very dusty with small villages scattered along the road, signs now in Arabic some cultural differences creeping in.
Taklamakan: 'The sea of death, go in and never come out. Just as well we are skirting around it then..
And we had to find a bush camp before dark on a small stretch of land between a railway station and the main road which made for a very noisy night, not much chance of getting any decent zzzz's.
Kashgar (means a gathering place of boulders) a tale of 2 cities, the old town in Uyghur style and the newer Chinese (Mao) style town with big wide roads.
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| Old Town |
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| New Town |
A visit to the famous Sunday Livestock market was not to be missed. On sale were camels, horses, donkeys, cattle, yak, sheep, goats alongside knifes and there being some grub to be had. Interesting forms of transport for the farmers to get their wares to market and a hop in a motorised cart for 9 of us on leaving.
Next stop for the Sunday Market although
this is actually held everyday selling anything you could want from carpets to washing powder and a good place to stock up on the fancy dress items for a bush camp night!
Strolling in the old town
The last day in China and crossing the border through the Tougart Pass, 100km between border checkpoints and no stopping in between! The queue getting into China was much longer than getting out!
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