Mirage Hotel Urumqi

... A route of over 4000 kilometres.<br><br>The Chinese are brilliant at building roads through incredibly difficult terrain - as we saw when we travelled on the Karakorum Highway from China to Pakistan in 2007.<br><br>For this entry I will let the photos tell the story!

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 ...

... Chinese people show their affection through food. She was pretty keen on me and wouldn't take no for an answer. After I got back, LX and his friend Ma Jun (who is Hui) took me to a Hui market area selling traditional foods. The food was good but we got harassed continuously by two wasps that were pretty keen on sharing our meal with us. Plus I got stared at a lot again. After being mistaken for being Kazak or Russian (?!) for the past few days, I was not particularly phased, but I ...

LX and I went on a tour to Tianchi (Heavenly Lake). Neither of us is really the kind of person who goes on tours, but given the situation (if only all the road blocks) it seemed like the quickest and most convenient way of going to the places I was keen to see. Actually, we had to catch a minibus to Urumqi first, which was good in a way because it meant I got to see what the city was like. Then we headed for the mountains. I was still feeling dizzy, so when the bus stopped at a Chinese ...

... Jinan, I had been short on sleep every night, almost died of exhaustion after hiking Huashan and had felt quite off in Jiayuguan from the difference in food and water. I was a bit worried. I went back to the hotel room to rest. Boiled some tap water and drank it, which turned out to be a mistake. Tap water is supposed to be safe in China if it is boiled, but the stuff in Xinjiang is quite hard. I learnt this the next day from a ...

... that would occur here some weeks later. But then again, we were tourists in a city of never ending tension between the Chinese authorities, the Han Chinese and the local Uighur people. <br><br>That evening we finally enjoyed our smorgasbord meal at the hotel. We left very early the next day together with our Bukhara Bellies back to Shanghai, and then Sydney via Melbourne and onto our nearest local township of Taree on the mid north coast of New South Wales.<br><br><br><br>

... 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 ...