World Plaza Urumqi

... in the world.<br><br>25th October:<br><br>Our last day in China, and we ended on a high note with a journey into the snow-capped mountains to visit Heavenly Lake, 2000 metres up in the Tian Shan mountains. We had read about this lake in 1987 in Vikram Seth's travel book From Heaven Lake. We had never imagined that one day we would visit it ourselves! We were so lucky. Two days before it had started snowing, and the whole area had ...

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 ...

... 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 ...

... trip. LX pretty much bullied the travel agent, Lirong, into going on the tour to take care of me. I am not really sure how he managed to do this, but she gave in. She'd never been to Kanas before and business was lousy (riots and all that) which meant her boss was willing to let her go for free. Besides, LX had pestered her to the point where she was worried if anything happened to me up there, he'd be out for her blood. After scaring the living daylights out of Lirong, we went out for dinner.

... This part of Urumqi certainly is in stark contrast to the abject poverty we saw on the outskirts of the city during our first visit to Urumqi by bus from Turpan in 2007.<br><br>Our room in the Hoi Tak Hotel did not disappoint us. It was a beautifully appointed corner suite looking right across the city to the snow capped Tian Shan Mountains. In front of our hotel was the lovely (and then) peaceful Renmin Park, and as always inhabited by ambling local families ...

... respects, Taher is an excellent guide for western China. He speaks several languages (Uyger, Chinese, English, French, plus a smattering of Czech); he's enthusiastic and good humored; he knows the cities of Turpan, Urumqi, and Kashgar, and he's a strong hiker, in case you're headed into the mountains, and we were. However, a historian he's not, and a historian is what we needed to make sense of the jumble of rocks that ...

... in every way possible. After lunch Shaw headed off for Hong Kong (he was here on busines) and I made my way to Hongqiao to catch a flight to Urumqi. Since I was flying during the start of the May 1 holiday period, the flight prices were pretty high; high 2000 RMBs for the 4 hour trip. Usually you can get heavily discounted plane tickets, 35% off and sometimes more off of listed prices, which makes traveling in China a pleasure. Not going to happen during the May ...

Well, shock-horror, the train ride to Turpan (or Tulufan, or Turfan, or whatever your particular ethnic group wants to call it...) was boring. And extraordinarily hot. We were in the exact same compartment, in the exact same carriage that we were in on the way to Kasghar. I know this because the exact same damn window was broken and wouldn't open. Why would nobody else in the carriage opening their perfectly able windows? Grrr. About midday we got ...

... sinking below the lake. When it turned red, it lit up & turned the whole valley red, bit by bit. The green hills surrounding the lake looked on fire, then the snow capping the mountains turned into strawberry ice cream. I got sunset fever & burned a lot of film. This is by far the most relaxing place I have been to in China. I leave Rashit's Yurt & Heaven Pool relaxed & recuperated.