Our bus was late. We waited in the bus station. Trying to stay cool, I walked back towards some large fans while nervously glancing from our bags to the man who was supposed to tell us when our bus finally showed up. Suddently, I heard the sound of a pop off somewhere by the ticket …
After leaving Gaochang, I walked the same road I had come in on. I was again taking photos. I could not resist, but I was more watchful. I was still tired from walking in the heat of the desert afternoon. I had recovered from my dehydration, pounding two liters of water, but my energy was …
For I was hungry, and you gave me food: I was thirsty and you gave me drink: I was a stranger and you took me in… Matthew 25:35, King James 2000 Bible We were wandering up a hot dirt road in a rural area, looking for water and a way to get back to Turpan. …
As we were leaving camp, an old man with a toothy grin appeared, wading across the river and stomping into our campsite. He had come down from the nearby village, around the cliff face where the vineyards began. The man was completely bald, his head shinning bright in the morning desert sunlight. His ears bowed …
I was satisfied with biking out to the Ruins of Jiaohe and the Emin Minaret, but we really wanted to get back to hitchhiking. We took a bus out to the rural town near the Bezeklik Caves, Erbaoxiang, or Second Fortress Village. After a forty minute, twenty plus mile ride across the desert, past the …
The afternoon was hot. It was easily over a hundred degrees. We were in the dry, Turpan depression, near the second lowest point on Earth. My idea to bike to and back from the Jiaohe Ruins had seemed like a better idea earlier in the morning. Now, after two and a half hours wandering around …
Turpan in Relation to Urumqi Xinjiang province is really two totally different places. The north and the south are distinct culturally, geographically and ethnically. The north is dominated by Han Chinese and our trips in the north were mostly snowy mountains and alpine pastures filled with Kazak herders. The southern half of Xinjiang is desert …
A line divides Urumqi city. Most Chinese will not pass south of that line, at Nanmen, the South Gate. Instead, the Han Chinese stick to Urumqi’s northern suburbs, the conurbation stretching miles and miles north, most of which was built in the past decade as Beijing encouraged Han Chinese to settle the province. Entering south …
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 …