Century Prosperous Hotel Urumqi

... a cold a blustery autumn day. We were glad we had gloves and scarves! There were a few families out walking, and more appeared as the sun came out. <br> <br>There was some confusion about our hotel. The one we were supposed to stay at had been pulled down a year ago! It was half way through a complete re-build.<br><br>But we were 'upgraded' to a 5* hotel, which was fine - nothing special; a typical 'business' hotel - could have been ...

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 ...

My last day in Xinjiang was spent mooching about Changji with LX and Ma Jun. It was exactly the kind of day of doing nothing much in particular that I needed in order to wind down from too many days of seeing and doing way too much! First we went off for a big lunch at another Hui restaurant. Then as we dawdled towards a video arcade, Ma Jun saved me from having to buy a new back pack by getting the old one repaired (the one where the zipper busted just as I ...

... 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.

... he was supposed to burn for extra luck. When he got outside he was told he needed to burn 60RMB worth of incense, which he declined using the excuse that he was there with his teacher who was a heathen atheist and disapproved of such things. Chuh. He should have been thankful. Another woman was told she needed to burn incense worth 198RMB!!! The priest was not game to lecture me, or flog off expensive incense in my presence. He just looked at my hands and wished happiness to me and ...

... guide, but I had kind of thought as much anyway after running to the bathroom several times in the middle of the night. It had been good to meet LX's friends and to go do something as inane as play pool. Wandering around Changji put me completely at ease and destroyed any last butterflies of fear I might have been feeling, but I was worried that my body was trying to tell me, in an extremely unsubtle manner, that something was wrong.

... day's torch relay was underway. I took a quick shower and left the hotel. I didn't know exactly where it was going to be, but I figured I would be able to follow crowds to find it. One of the main roads near the bazaar was blocked off, and there were large crowds gathered in the shady parts of the sidewalk, mostly Uyghurs. Businesses were closed for the morning for the relay. I started to follow people that looked like they were walking ...

... they do to your hair. This time it went alright. My hair is shorter than I want it to be, but I got it cut like a Chinese girl, which is sort of cool. We watched a Korean soap opera dubbed in Chinese while the girl cut my hair, and the other girls asked me questions about whether Americans all have hair like mine, if it would be possible for them to dye their hair the same color as mine, and whether I liked Xinjiang ...

... compared to what we would normally eat. I actually ordered Chinese there. The four of us visited the bazaars, looked around the city and spent a day in Turfan, an ancient city that toured. It was very interesting. You could still see where the main road was and there were signs where the government buildings and Buddhist temples were. About 7000 people lived there. The city is surrounded by water and green trees on both sides. We also saw a Mosque in Turfan and many ...

... which has run beside the rail for most of the way, is now a multi-lane expressway. There are still a lot of heavy trucks bumping along the free highway beside it. Pass a massive windfarm. We were sitting in the corridor, a couple of hours out of Urumqi, when Dianne is "attacked" by the female attendant screaming at her "what is this, what is this" at the top of her lungs. Takes a while to work out what is going on. A lot of people are ...