Urumqi and Tian Chi

Urumqi is a fascinating city. It's a nice city, in terms of weather and relative cleanliness; I keep wanting to take pictures of the sky--I guess because it's been awhile since I've seen actual blue sky, clouds, and sunsets. Incidentally, the sun doesn't set here until about 10 p.m. As Daniel put it, the sissy businesses close around 10-11 p.m., but the hard-core shop owners stay open til midnight or later. Close to our hotel there is a giant night market, with an entire street dedicated to street food. Kabobs of lamb, beef, sparrow, liver, seafood (in the world's most land-locked city, interestingly enough), bread and other ingredients wait to be grilled; noodles of all different shapes and varieties, rice pilaf, dumplings, soft serve ice cream, yoghurt, and all kinds of fruit are either sold from street-side stands or carried through the crowd on platters or in boxes.

Yesterday morning we slept in a little and we went to the Urumqi museum--one of the best I've been to in China. There was an entire exhibit about Xinjiang's minority cultures (13 of them, with Uighurs being the largest, and including such others as Kazakh, Hui, Manchu, Russian, Tajik, Mongolian, and Bulgarian), with mannequins in traditional dress, cases of jewelry, musical instruments, and handicrafts, and rooms set up in the styles of the different living arrangements. There were a couple rooms of yurts--giant circular tents. Another exhibit had displays of mummies from the days of the silk road--some 4,000 years old, but in remarkable condition, and displayed very well. We also enjoyed the air-conditioning during the heat of the day.

That evening I left Daniel in the hotel and went wandering. I walked up to People's Park (there's one in every Chinese city, I think) and then caught a bus and rode it almost all the way around. I got off in the Muslim quarter and wandered around there for awhile, picking up some street food to snack on for dinner. The bread I liked a lot, but the pomegranate juice was a little sour. I walked almost the whole way back to the hotel, but as I wasn't exactly sure where I was I decided to take a taxi to the night market and wander through there before walking back. There's just a huge mass of humanity in places like the Muslim bazaar and the night market--it fascinates me, but it wears me out! I was happy to get back to the hotel.

Today we took a day trip to Tian Chi--Heavenly Lake, north of Urumqi. We got up extra early to catch the bus--a minibus operated by a tour company. They packed us in and we were off on a 2.5 hour ride through the desert. They played ridiculously awful music for most of the ride, and described (in Chinese) the special features of Xinjiang, Urumqi, and the minority cultures. I liked this better than the music of course, but it didn't do much for Daniel. He was immensely grateful for his MP3 player.

We finally arrived, were given instructions to be back at the bus at 4:30 p.m., and set off on our trek uphil to the lake. We wound our way up the mountain along a river rushing through incredibly beautiful scenery. A pleasant temperature of 65-70 degrees made the day that much better. Finally we reached the lake. It was a beautiful blue-green, surrounded by mountains. We thoroughly enjoyed our half day there, although I was really disappointed that we didn't get to eat lunch in a yurt.

The ride back was much less enjoyable. The terrible music was back in full-force--a mixture of American dance music and Chinese pop--ugh. For some reason they didn't turn the air conditioner on, although the day had gotten significantly warmer and the sun was strong. We stopped to "xiuxi"--rest--supposedly. Then we had to stop to change a tire. Then to visit a suvenier shop. Please, just take us back!! Finally, we were back in Urumqi and caught a taxi back to the hotel. We hit the night market for a street-food dinner, and then back to "xiuxi" and pack for our plane ride tomorrow to Chengdu--stop number 4 on the grand tour!