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?