Timezones

In Urumqi, the sun rises a little after seven and sets a little after nine. according to the official, Beijing Time. Solar noon happens a little after two p.m., according to Beijing Time. In Kashgar, our last destination in China, several hundred miles further to the west, it rises around eight and sets at ten. …

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On War Footing

Before reading over this post, make sure you check out the previous post, which briefly introduced the situation in Xinjiang. I have a policy. If I am traveling somewhere dangerous, I do not explain the danger to my mother. Mothers worry too much. I would recommend this policy to all of my readers. We were …

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Xinjiang: An Introduction

Today’s post is a little pedantic, but the background is necessary so that you can understand the posts following this one. Xinjiang, the region we had just entered, is a vast territory, almost as large as Alaska. Though China has had an on-again, off-again presence for the past two millennia, the name, Xinjiang, is Chinese …

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Under Surveillance – Subei Part V

Make sure to read this post to understand what happens in the following one. The day after our nighttime encounter with the police, we did little. I ran over to the bus station and bought tickets to get us out of town. The town had little to offer, other than the people, and we had …

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Negotiations – Subei Part IV

Make sure you read the previous post about our ride in a Chinese paddy wagon. Otherwise, you may have trouble following this post. After we took a ride in the Chinese paddy wagon, the rest of the night’s events were tedious. The short cop with the uniform took us to the hotel that I had …

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Ride in the Paddy Wagon – Subei Part III

This post is both exciting and disturbing, but, to understand it, you will need some background. To understand the authority under which the police apprehended us, read this post on hotels and foreigners. To understand the day before, make sure to have read this post about how we got into this particular hotel. We were …

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Mongolian Encounters – Subei Part II

We were in the tiny town of Subei, which I discussed in the previous post. During our explorations of Subei, we were walking along a country road lined just past the edge of town when a man pulled beside us on a little motorscooter. He just barely kept pace with us, wobblingly maintaining his balance …

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