Hua Ling Grand Hotel Urumqi

Yesterday, we visited the Xinjiang Museum where we saw the amazing and intriguing mummies - some more than 4000 years old - which have been found in the area. I found an article in the Independent from 2006 about it, which you can read if you are interested!<br><br>http://www.independe nt.co.uk/news/world/asia/a-meeting-of-c ivilisations-the-mystery-of-chinas-celt ic-mummies-413638.html<br><br>We took a stroll through the Red Hill Park ...

After breakfast, we left for Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It was a most exciting drive; through the Gobi Desert, in very windy, stormy conditions; on a fantastic highway [312] which stretches all the way from Shanghai to the border with Russia in the ...

... so much beauty... I was not ready to leave. I was glad I hadn't listened to the people who told me to stay away and glad that I had not been scared off. I had gambled and it had paid off. Xinjiang is one of the best places I have been to. But perhaps most of all, I was really bummed to have to say goodbye to LX. Somewhere along the line, he went from being my student to being my friend. A good friend. And goodbyes always suck. Goodbye Xinjiang. Hello Sichuan.

... the curiosity was even more noticeable when walking around with LX (Han) and Ma Jun (Hui) than usual. After being very nice, but glancing at me surreptitiously when she thought I wasn't looking, the waitress finally couldn't contain herself and the question "Which race is she?" burst out from her lips. I can see if I come back to Xinjiang I am going to have to have a t-shirt made with this information printed on it in order to stop people from dying of curiosity regarding my heritage.

... family. There was much muttering outside the temple from travelers who complained that the whole thing was a capitalist venture poorly disguised under a cloak of religion. Whatever, even Daoist monks need to make a living, I guess. However, feeling scandalized by the cost of incense did not stop us from making a donation so that we could beat the **** out of a huge bell overlooking the lake. It was supposed to be lucky. And let's face it, hitting noisy stuff is fun. On the way back we ...

... br>Soon to be followed by camels, a salt lake, wind turbines and a solid line of smog breaking up the brilliant blue sky. Luckily the wind changed and Urumqi was as clear as a bell for us.<br>I have downloaded a whole lot of photos for the last five blogs, but am afraid with the lack of internet connectons I have become muddled with the sequence of the photos. Best to get them posted now and sort it out later....

My flight landed on time at Beijing International Airport. I spend the next 3 hours trying to locate my missing eye glass, then realized it was tucked safely in my bag. ^_* Oh well, my friend's flight from Shanghai was delayed anyway, so we not meet up until 5:00 pm. Our direct flight to Urumqi was already booked on Hainan airline. The ticket only cost ¥630 ($90); with the raising cost of oil, I have no idea how can the airline afford to ...

... on apprendra sur toutes les minorites presente dans cette province comme les Kazhaks, les Kyrgyz, les Tajiks, les Uighurs, les Mongols, les Hui... On a pour chaque minorite un exemple de leur habitation, costumes traditionnels, outils, instruments de musiques, etc... Puis, on decouvre les mommies provenant des cimetieres anciens de la province enfin un grand nombre de reliques extraites des sites majeurs retracant l histoire du Xinjiang. Le lendemain, on part vers le lac Tian Shi.

... god knows how many historical sights in 1 day on a tour (with no doubt a few gem and Chinese medicine stores thrown in for a laugh), and limited our historical jaunts to the Emin Minaret (no relation to the "artist" Tracey) and the ancient city of Jiohe. The Minaret is a stunning clay building, which has really stood the test of time and looks in a much better state than a lot of the new stuff around town. The ruins of the ancient city were amazing ...

... rather than a tourist town. Oil is a major source of revenue, and lots of Han Chinese have migrated here, giving it the same look and feel as most of the other Chinese cities. After settling in, showering and resting, we head out looking for food. After negotiating the road underpass with an interesting courtyard in the middle of the road, we check out the KFC in the shopping centre we can see from our room. Looks like about Y25 for a ...