Yilite Hotel 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

... was still in good shape, but it would have been nice to know more about how many prisoners (or barrels of beer or pool tables) they could fit into the place at one time. Gary, tour guide and history nerd, was eager to see the mummies at the Xinjiang Uyger Autonomous Region Museum, so we had a quick lunch back in Turpan before dashing off to Urumqi in a mini-bus. If I recall correctly, Urumqi is further from an ocean than ...

... he's not a bad traveler. He was taking a year off from med school to do research on HIV/AIDS in China, and Peter is a friend of his from church. They met me at Urumqi airport (I never left the terminal) with a couple bags of noodles (laghmein) and a couple bags of tomato sauce, having just returned from Tianchi themselves. I scarfed down the noodles as fast as I could before jumping on the plane to Kashgar; they would catch the next flight out about 30 minutes later.

... China. So, Turpan is "the desert oasis". It is notable for being the lowest area in China (the nearby lake is 150m below sea level, and second only to the Dead Sea in terms of the lowest point on earth), the hottest place in China, surrounded by ancient abandoned cities, and a good place for growing grapes. Laden with our backpacks, we headed out in the 40øC heat to John's Cafe (we seem to be doing a tour of these of late), where we had arranged to ...

... the place. Me and Asaf spent most of our time just wandering around the muslim areas, i'm never hungry as i eat whatever is see, sometimes its good, sometimes great.. sometimes i just throw it out. We also met quite alot of Israelis here (Erez, Reut, Gadi, Roni on the first day and Liron on the last) and it seems everyone is going to Kashgar from here, were we will also go, then maybe come back to this ...