Hua Rui Mansion Hotel Urumqi

... 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 ...

Finally it was time to go back to Changji. We stopped at a couple of shops (including a farm for deer antlers, boo hiss) on the way back, but arrived a lot earlier than I expected. The tour to Kanas was fun, I'm glad I went on it. Not only was the scenery spectacular, but I was forced to speak in Chinese for the whole time and I learnt how to split melon and pumpkin seeds fairly quickly, thanks to the auntie sitting across the aisle from Lirong and I who kept showering us in the damn ...

... shop (as tours in China so often do) I sat down for a free consultation with a Chinese medical doctor. LX told him I had bumped my head. I told him I thought I had been a bit dizzy before that. He felt me pulse, pressed my fingernails, looked at my tongue and then told me the bump on the head had nothing to do with it. While I was not seriously ill, my pulse was weak and I was exhausted. If this continued for too long, it would make it difficult for me to sleep and may lead to heart ...

... 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 ...

Waiting at Lanzhou airport I started to get butterflies in my stomach. Not good excited butterflies. Scared butterflies. I don't think I even felt nervous the first time I flew. I might have felt a little worried flying to Israel, but I was with my mum. This time it was just me. I sent a couple of text messages to let people know I'd be out of contact for a while and to tell Mum I love her. In retrospect this was a bit melodramatic. I tell Mum I love her fairly frequently, but to say ...

... capital city of Urumqi.

Xinjiang, known as East Turkestan by the local Uighur population, is yet again another country within a country. Bigger than Alaska, it consumes about one sixth of China's territory. It borders with the eight countries of Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Pakistan. With a long history of dissent and a largely Muslim population desperately wanting independence, it is no wonder that ...

... Ein wenig merkwuerdig, einlass ist nur jede volle Stunde fuer max. 400 Personen, Sontags ist es umsonst (daher recht grosser Andrang). Leider ist Sonntags auch die Mumienausstellung geschlossen (und Montags das ganze Museum). In Xinjiang leben uebrigens 1.3 Millionen Kasachen, die drittgroesste Minderheit (nach Uyghuren und ...

... remarkable condition. Some had been repaired or restored over the centuries, but many had been untouched. One of the benefits of a very dry climate! This place is well off the beaten track and probably doesn't get too many foreign visitors, but certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far. We also had a chance to go camel (the two hump variety) riding in the sand dunes And then further on through the Gobi to Turpan - China's equivalent of ...

KFC in China is so wunderbar. Clean & quality toilets. Toilet paper & hand soap. Warm in cold weather, cool in hot weather. We just had a short layover here, and having seen everything we wanted to see in Wulumuqi, we spent a goodly amount of time in KFC. Of course I first ate, but ...

... get a very fast and wild #7 minibus back to the hotel for Y3 total. Stand on the side of the road outside the hotel for a long time waiting for a break in the traffic, before walking along to a safer place and finding a dark, but safer underpass right to our hotel. DP has a sleeping tablet to try and get some sleep, but we are disturbed jut before going to bed by a phone call enquiring if we need a massage. Tempted to leave the phone ...