Friday, June 19, 2015 - Turpan

I think I am finally tired of overnight trains.  We boarded about 10:30 and tried to go right to bed.  Because we are now farther west but China has only one time zone, it's hardly even dark by the 10 p.m. lights out order.  Anyway, a lot of us got on at our station and it was a bit confusing finding some of our bunks, especially since people were sleeping in them even if they weren't supposed to be.  The train started somewhere about 20 hours further south so there was no guarantee that our bunks hadn't been slept in along the way and we were prepared for that.  However, we weren't expecting people to still be sleeping in some of our beds.  It really is an amazing system and it seems to work really well for the locals.  It just takes some adjustments on our parts to be comfortable with it. 

We were to get off at 5 a.m. we thought, but it was much closer to 6.  We had been warned about that the night before so no big problem - other than it was still early for most of us.  Nothing like lugging suitcases up and down stairs when you are half awake!  I don't even know the name of the place we got off at but we Canadians considered it kind of like Ft. McMurray.  Most of the passengers getting off the train were male and blue-collar workers.  It was definitely an industrial town, although we never figured out what industry.  The landscape was barren and looked like it had already been processed for something.  As we left the town, on the side of the road there must have been 30 huge trucks loaded with something under cover.  As we drove along we met a continuous parade of similar vehicles heading into town.  And they were going very slow but we finally figured out that was because they were climbing up hill and we were going down hill but at a slow consistent grade.

We had about a 50 minute drive to get to our hotel in Turpan, which seems really nice.  However, we're not really sure about the hourly rates that are posted and the condoms provided along with the other bathroom items.  Shampoo, conditioner, shower cap and condoms.  Who would have thought it?  We all had a great laugh about that.  We have also had a great laugh about many of the signs we come across.  The English translations are priceless but right now I can't think of a single one.

We tried to rest until about 11 a.m. since most of us didn't get much sleep on the train. Our first stop was to get lunch (although we never really had breakfast) and we just went down the street to an outdoor seating area.  The temperature was perfect and there were very few people there yet so we had a very quiet and peaceful lunch.  We ordered individually and it was amazing how good everything looked and tasted.  Most people had noodles.  The package of noodles arrived at the restaurant while we were there - six inch disk of perhaps 4 feet of noodles.  Some folks remembered to go watch the lady spin and stretch and swirl the 4 feet of thick noodles into many, many yards of thinner noodles.  Their pictures were great.  Some of us had rice and I personally had the cashew chicken dish that I like at home.  It was huge and it was delicious.  We all tend to try everything on the table, which is good.  There were hordes of cashews instead of the two or three you might get back home.  There was also a lot of chicken which was unexpected because up until this time in this western region we've had very little meat in any of the dishes because meat is so expensive.  And when we did get meat it was barely edible.  We still haven't seen animals other than lambs and goats so I'm not sure where the meat is coming from.  And supposedly Turpan is the place where spaghetti was invented.  Who knew?

After lunch we went to the Jiaohe Ruins at Yar City.  Jiaohe sits on a fish-shaped or boat-shaped island at the convergence of two rivers.  In the 1st century BC it was a very important place on the Silk Road.  As the administrative capital of the district, all travellers whether on the north, south ot central route had to come here to register.  At some point several centuries ago the Muslims attacked the city and everyone was killed including over 200 babies whose bodies were later found in one location.  They don't know how they died or who killed them, only that they all died at the same time.  

Today all that is left of the town are partial walls and pathways.  They know which are the temple remains and which are the residential or business areas.  There were some agricultural areas at one time but nothing remains of that now.  The island rises in the centre and from the top you can see the very rich agricultural land on the other side of the rivers.  It's quite a desolate area but still very impressive with all the wall structures in pale sun brick colours

Our next stop was at the Karez Water System museum.  The system is quite amazing given that it was developed over 500 years ago and is still in use.  The system starts with wells from 5 to 100 feet in depth and there were/are rows and rows of them on the hillside.  Then there are both hidden and open trenches running between the wells.  The trenches were 100 m to 25 km in length and 1-2 m in width and depth.  The museum showed the men down in the wells and trenches digging them.  The walls of the wells were square instead of round because with round walls the diggers got disoriented and didn't know which way to dig.  And to keep things level they used a suspended stick as a simple plum line.  It's quite a simple but ingenious system and has served the dry, almost-desert area well.  Through the many irrigation trenches they are able to grow an abundance of crops including grapes for wine, and everyone has water flowing near their home for domestic purposes.  The museum also had a display of the grape drying sheds and the bars they were dried on - also very ingenious.  They were dried for 30-40 days and the "raisins remain green and fresh as newly picked up grapes."

Our last stop was just a short one to see a pagoda but it was at at the Imin Mosque so I'm not sure why it wasn't called a minaret.  Perhaps it's just a translation issue.  Anyway, the grounds around the mosque were very plain but nice, and the mosque inside was also very plain.  The pagoda or minaret was very unique in that the stone work on the outside was different all the way around and up in various patterns.  With the sun shining on it, it was quite spectacular.

We then had time to return to the hotel and freshen up and rest before happy hour at 7 p.m., which was in one of our rooms and consisted of a lot of different things we were trying to finish up before our flight tomorrow.  Then we walked to dinner - a new BBQ place the guide had heard about.  It was a longer walk than expected and the place was just a parking lot with tables and chairs setup and various vendors BBQing around the outside.  Some of it looked disgusting but some of it also looked good.  However, we decided to not take a chance since some of it was already prepared and then sitting out for who knows how long and there were flies all over it.  We walked some more and ended up back where we had lunch.  They provided us with another great meal, which we enjoyed sitting outside until 10 p.m. and it was still light out.  This one time zone in all of China that really covers 5 timezones makes for some interesting day and night time hours.

I should add a couple of other things here.  The temperature was still hot tonight and unless you were in the shade you were sweating.  We figured it was close to 40 degrees celsius today.  Second thing, the price of food is very reasonable.  We eat lots aand, in actuality, never finish all of the dishes which is frowned upon here as being very wasteful.  Tonight we had plain rice, fried rice, dumplings, shredded pork and garlic, and the cashew chicken again.  The five of us eating this food had to each pay $33 or about $6.00 Canadian.  And that includes tea to start and at the end, as well as several big bottles of beer.  We probably could have found something cheaper or sometthing more expensive but why bother when the food is great and the price is right.

Well it's now time to go to sleep.  My room mate is already in bed as she's feeling a bit under the weather.  I guess I should be nice and let her get some well-needed rest before our journey continues tomorrow