When we first arrived, Kashgar’s famed Sunday Market seemed cavernous but dead. It was nine-thirty in the morning, Beijing time, which meant that it was seven-thirty, Xinjiang time. Markets are normally bustling by seven thirty. In fact, if you get to many markets any later than that, you have missed the best time. But the …
I have mentioned that Kashgar is a Muslim city that is known for trading. I wanted to detail this encounter we had. Walking down a lane in Kashgar’s old city, Galen and I came upon a handful of men with a sheep on a rope leash. We watched as one of the men picked up …
We were leaving Turpan on a sleeper bus, the bad road bumping along. The landscape was that of a brush desert, low, green-gray bushes the only plants that could hang on to life in this environment of extremes. The wind had picked up that day, rocking our bus from side to side and tossing tumbleweed …
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 …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …