Hoi Tak 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 ...

... Next on the list was drinking slushies and beer in the park, then KTV. We figured an hour of KTV would probably do the trick, but ended up yowling away for about 3 instead. Finally, after noodles and beer we parted company. I was extremely happy to have met Ma Jun and sad to see him go. The next day, LX and his uncle took me to the airport. I was already out of sorts in the morning. I had had a fantastic time in Xinjiang. I had met so many lovely people ...

... 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.

... that I have become much too impatient since I moved to the PRC. After this incident I really must agree with her. While it is all very useful to possess a glare that can scare off military police, it does make me wonder what the guy would have done if confronted with a knife-toting terrorist instead of an English teacher. I guess his training didn't cover impatient women. We went out for coffee, before heading back to the hotel to meet with a travel agent to book me in for the Kanas ...

... other. I was pretty sure Mum was not going to be able to rest at ease until she managed to hear my voice and know that JV had told her the truth, I really was fine. This made me feel pretty ******, having pretty much sentenced my Mum to 10 days of worry. What a horrid daughter I am. I went out to lunch with LX and some of his classmates at a place that served Hui (one kind Muslim minority group in China) food. After that, the lot ...

... the way to the gate of Xinjiang University. I'm not sure why I didn't just ask somebody where they were going. Dejected, I went back to my hotel room. Strangely enough, the relay was still going on. A couple of nights later I discovered what had happened after talking to some other foreigners at a bar. The relay had actually been held much earlier than it was televised. The people in the crowd had been handpicked by the Communist Party to ...

... present apelle un confrere parlant anglais qui se deplace pour nous aider a remplir les formalites. On doit ecrire une lettre sur le pourquoi on souhaite visiter le pays et remplir les papiers classiques et bien sur payer 56 USD pour 30 jours de visa touristique. Apres ces quelques formalites, il est temps de trouver un hotel pas cher , ce qu on parviendra en retournant vers la gare routiere. Un petit gars qui voudra nous vendre des tours dans la region nous indique un hotel ...

... here on, we had a series of events that made the going hard, and very few high points. Once at Urumqi, we get our gear from where we managed to tuck it under the lower bunks, and get ready to debark. MP experiences a sudden toilet urge that he manages to control with difficulty until we get to the hotel. We exchange our identification cards for our original tickets, and proceed very slowly in to the platform, too slowly, MP thinks ...