Kashgar

We've had a couple days in Kashgar now, but one of the main reasons for coming was the well known Sunday Market. There is your Livestock Market for animals, and then the Bazaar itself for everything else. We started with the Livestock Market and it was great.

This was the parking lot as most people seemed to arrive by donkey and carriage. They sell all your typical farm animals here including cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, and even the one lonely camel seen right here at the front! It is good fun watching the deals go down, and the locals are nothing short of animated as they strike a deal. The sheep section; by far the biggest seller. They love their mutton!A closer look a the sheep and how they are kept.
And these are great pictures we had to include! A few fresh goat heads on the left for sale, to eventually become goat head soup on the right.

Next was the Bazaar. An interesting place in itself, but not what it used to be hundreds of years ago I am sure. Lots of carpets, hats, etc... The Sunday market in Kashgar goes way back.

Dried fruit and nuts for Jillene to go 'nutty' over...
The only thing for sale at the market that I wish I could have bought... Jillene doesn't necessarily agree with me, but I think this guy is TOO CUTE!
And another local favorite - lunch today actually. Gosh Girdie (mutton meat pie) and mutton Kebabs all for the low price of $1.75 with a little green tea to wash it down.

Kashgar has been great, and we still have half a day left before we jump on a plane to Urumchi. We'll see how many meals we can fit in before we go...

Train Travel and Karakoram Highway

After Turpan we were off to Kashgar. A short 28 hour train ride through the dessert. Here is a picture of the train, and a bit of the land ahead of us. We were one of the last cars, as there were only 3 more behind us. They don't fool around here in China, as this is one of 4 daily trains between Urumchi and Kashgar, and these are all passenger cars! They move a lot of people in this country by train!A little more dessert to see a long the way - taken from the window in our carriage.Finally a little change of scenery as we got into some more mountainous terrain.We arrived into Kashgar, and despite having had endured a long train ride only spent one night. We were coming back, but if we wanted to be back for the Sunday market AND make our way up the Karakorum Highway to Karakul lake we had to leave the next morning. So that we did, and we were rewarded with some more great views. The Karakorum Highway leads into Pakistan, but we stopped before you hit the border.The trip was done for one of many reasons, but the view along the way was reason enough.Our bus unfortunately had a flat tire, but it was actually a welcome break and allowed us to have a look and speak with some of the locals whom were living where we stopped to make the necessary repairs.Along the way... many Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgy) people living in yurts.
And finally Karakul lake. A small lake, but nestled in a beautiful snow capped mountain range at around 4000m above sea level were told (not sure how correct that is though).This was our home while at Karakul. A Yurt of our very own, right next to the lake!The view from our Yurt on the morning we left. A perfectly clear sky, so you can imagine the great star filled sky the previous night. The first and only 'starry' night we'll have in China I am sure. A village we visited on the other side of the lake.Your typical house... we actually ended up having yak milk tea inside this place with the family whom lived here.And the little boy whose parents were the proud owners of the yurt we stayed in. This little guy was cute, but had a serious attitude ~ he was cleary used to getting his way. This was also his favorite toy. He rolled this tire around and chased it all morning the day we left... And we were even given the opportunity to help build a yurt before we left. It was just dumb luck that a family was building one on a day we were there. Everyone seems to pitch in, which helps it go up pretty quick so we jumped in as well. They got a kick out of it, and it was good fun. You have to tie the roof braces to the wall, and Jillene said they watched me like a hawk when I was the one tying the knots!
We headed back to Kashgar shortly after, back down the Karakoram Highway. One of the few times you don't mind backtracking because it is such a beautiful drive.

Around Turpan

Most of the sites for Turpan are actually outside the city so we had to charter a cab. It was a full day, but we managed to get lots of sites in. Below are some ancient Uighur Buddhist caves, that date back 1000's of years to when Uighurs were actually Buddhist, not Muslim. The walls were painted and there are some images amazingly left, but most of it had actually been cut out and sent to Germany by an German in the early 1900's. Something the Chinese were clearly perturbed about - especially since it was then lost/destroyed during WWII.

And you can't visit the desert without riding a camel! Jillene was a natural, but she said that she wasn't a fan of 'bare backing' a camel. Not too comfortable...
I didn't mind it, although going downhill wasn't ideal. I was just happy the camel didn't pull up lame from all of my weight due to the mass food consumption I've been undertaking.
A view of our surroundings while out and about on our camels.
This is flaming mountain. Nothing too spectacular on its own, but infamous in Chinese history.
We headed to Grape Valley outside Turpan for lunch. Rightly named after what they grow there. It boggles the mind that anything can grow here, but apparently this is the perfect climate for grapes. And because water is readily available thanks to the Karez's, they take off like wild fire. A plush valley of green grapes in the middle of a dessert. Beyond the grapes are stone buildings, this is where they will dry some of the grapes to sell as raisins. Grapes aren't quite in season yet, so we disappointingly didn't have the chance to indulge other than a few stolen sour grapes off the vine. However that didn't stop us from eating a ton of great raisins.
A little shade for lunch... Believe it or not, the roof is filled in by grape vines, so there is nothing but the leaves and thousands of grapes growing right above our heads. Not sure why, but it works great and the temperature difference in the shade below a 'grape vine roof' must be at least 10-15 degrees. Lastly there was Jiaohe Ancient City. 2000 years ago people lived in the middle of the dessert just outside Turpan. They are undoubtedly the ones whom started the Karez system and built an entire brick city out of the only land available to them. Amazingly enough, some of the city still stands today and you can really get a feeling of its layout and the buildings around you with streets. All pretty impressive stuff worth braving the 43-45 degree temperature it must have been to go and see.
A better shot of the city.
Remnants of one building.
This picture was taken from Jiaohe, but really has no attachment other than the fact it is right beside. We like it because it yet again really shows the vast difference in landscap seen here. The dry hot dessert, and then plush green valley of grapes and poplar trees.

Turpan was great, and by far a favorite in Xinjiang. A very memorable 3 days were spent here, if only we had more time...

Dunhuang And Turpan

From Jiayuguan we made our way to Dunhuang. There are a historical sites to see, but the admission prices were outrageous. We had decided before we even arrived that we were just going to go and play in the sand dunes. We were glad we did, as the city had a great feel to it, and an awesome night market with great food. We stayed in a nice place and made our way out to the dunes on a beautiful day. There were tons of things to do in the dunes, and it was a bit of a circus on its own. You can go fly in an ultralite, but we just don't trust the Chinese engineered engines/planes enough to even consider it. I was dead set that I was going to paraglide - one of the main reasons we made the trip (jump off the top of a dune with a parachute strapped to your back) - only to find out that the chutes were brutally small and wouldn't even allow a small Chinese person to take any significant flight. It was a bit of a downer, so it was a good thing we liked the town! Made the out of the way journey to Dunhuang still worth it.
Next was Turpan and it ended up being a GREAT place. We spent 3 days here and loved it. It's the hottest place in China, and also the lowest being something like 150m below sea level. Every day was above 41 degrees or higher, as the thermometer never drops below 40 during the months of June, July and August. We had a great experience here as I spent 1 night at a Uighur School (local Muslim ethnicity) speaking with student studying English. Jillene and I both returned the next day while classes were in session and ended up being put up in front of the entire school and asked to give a speech! We found ourselves (at their request) speaking about our trip and talking about cultural differences between China and Canada for over 2 hours. Was a great experience and something we'll both always remember I am sure.

Below is a picture taken form inside Turpans daily marker. Lots of action, and we loved the local 'JMC' trucks!

The 2 of us outside the Enmin Minaret in Turpan.

A practice used by both businesses and schools which crack us up. We have seen this all over China a number of times, and it never gets old. They call this exercising, but it is more like choreographed dancing done by all the employees. Some places do it in the middle of the day, some places do it at the start. Either way, it is performed on the street for all to see! I finally took a picture when we saw it in Turpan.
Something particularly amazing in Turpan are is their source of water. It is called a Karez and is essentially a tunnel hand dug all the way from the mountains where water flows. Because of the heat, it has to be underground otherwise the water will evaporate before it reaches Turpan in the middle of a dessert. The mountains are 100kms away and there are over 5000km of Karez tunnels in/around/under Turpan alone some of them as old as 2000 years. Pretty impressive stuff when you see it and imagine it all being done by hand. This technique/technology is only used in 3 other countries in the world; Iran and Egypt.
And you can't have an entry about Xinjiang without including something about the food! In short, it is amazing. Here is a local favorite, and a definitely a favorite of ours, Loghman. Comparable to spaghetti yes, and that is only because this is where spaghetti was first eaten/made before it made its way to Italy where they made it their own. A great freshly made pasta meal for 2 people with beers for $3 CDN. How could you go wrong?

Jiayuguan

A quick 18 hour train journey from Xian and we were in the city of Jiayuguan in Gansu province. The sites here were great, but we weren't huge fans of the town. We started at an old fort used as a defense also connected to the western end of the Great Wall.

Walls definitely seem to be the defense strategy of choice years back here in China.
I suppose elevation gave their archers the upper hand. Here we are trying out hand at it - a very touristy thing to do. Neither of us were able to hit our target, although I'd like to say that at least mine was close!

A pretty interesting place to visit.
Next was the western end of the great wall. Quite spectacular and great to see. We climbed to the top and then back down. The landscape here was radically different than where we had come from, and we definitely felt close to Xinjiang province. The lay of the land had a very 'middle east' feel to it.