Silver Star Urumqi

Our visit to Urumqi (pronounced locally as Oolumuchi) was split over two separate days; one afternoon on the way to Kashgar and another before flying to Kyrgyzstan. We had heard that Urumqi was just another modern Chinese city without much character and so had not budgeted much time there, which turned out to be a bit of a shame. Admittedly, there is not a huge amount to do in Urumqi but it was still very interesting to walk around ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

The day started with a bit of a headache. No internet, no text messages, no way of calling out on the hotel phone and no phone call from my mum, which suggested to me that international calls were being blocked, to cell phones at least. I suspected she must have been getting pretty worried back home in Perth. I tried to call out again, failed miserably and then sat back to assess my options. I called JV (in Wuhan) on my cell and ...

... people are funny creatures. Resilient and adaptable. And here was proof. After discussing travel plans, we headed out for barbecue and beer at a night market. A super clean night market with proper tables and chairs (the likes of which I have seen nowhere else in China, the sparkling cleanliness, that is...) with people eating and chatting happily. People of different ethnic groups at that. It was almost midnight, but the city was wide awake. Changji is awesome. I think I will like it here.

Friday, September 28th In truth, most of this day was spent either in Jiaohe, a long-abandoned city on a plateau above the intersection of two rivers near Turpan or on a small bus between Turpan and Urumqi (pronounced something like oo ROOM chee). However, I had to choose some location for the Travelpod map pin, and this was my only chance to choose Urumqi because we were on a plane for Kashgar before the end of the night. In ...

In the morning my brother and i grabbed a bowl of Japanese Ramen at a restaurant near his house. It was pretty good, and in hindsight I'm glad I ordered that extra salad because it would be the last one I would have for a very, very long time. Shanghai food in general I found to be pretty good ... it's rapidly approaching Hong Kong standards and I think that's the goal. From the pudong development to overall prices, it seems like Shanghai is determined to best Hong ...

... Daheyan, the nearest trainstation to Turpan, and in a piece of organisation remarkable for China, were quickly escorted onto a bus (Daheyan is the sort of place where it is obvious that a foreigner is just passing through) which took us to the bus station where we bought tickets for it to then take us to Turpan. After about 1 hr travelling down a road that was actually a river bed, we got to Turpan, to find out that it is indeed the hottest place ...

I love this city. It's like being in ChinaStan. The city is a mix of central asia peoples from neighbooring countries, the local Uigyer people and Han Chinese. The food in the streat is rather good with central asian rice, mutton, sheshkabab, etc. The city has full of muslims, with beards and women with covered faces, people selling Sadam Hussian VCDs on the street and Arabaic (Turkish? Uigyer) writing all ...