Yin Du Urumqi

... a cold a blustery autumn day. We were glad we had gloves and scarves! There were a few families out walking, and more appeared as the sun came out. <br> <br>There was some confusion about our hotel. The one we were supposed to stay at had been pulled down a year ago! It was half way through a complete re-build.<br><br>But we were 'upgraded' to a 5* hotel, which was fine - nothing special; a typical 'business' hotel - could have been ...

... 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!

... see this ethnically diverse city. We were also there just a few weeks after the riots in the city and so it was fascinating to see how this had affected the people and the place. <br><br> <br>Our first afternoon was spent wandering around the town centre and visiting the People's Park. We had our first taste of Laghman, a delicious Uigher noodle dish, which looking back was probably the best example we have had throughout our travels ...

... heading into Huashan) by a shoe repair/key cutter guy. A whole 2 RMB and my bag was as good as new. Then it was time for video games. Except for a period of time in Taiwan when I took to playing on the drum machines after work to cool down after a particularly stressful class, I have never been that into video arcades. Having said that, this didn't stop me from playing a shoot and kill zombie thing, then getting blisters from an over-excited bout on the ...

... 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 ...

... but that it should be easy to fix and if I rested and took medicine to help make me stronger, the dizziness and blurred vision would go away. He told me which roots I needed. I think LX was surprised by how readily I agreed to follow the doctor's instructions, but what the doctor had said made sense to me. I started drinking the medicinal tea I was prescribed that night and have not felt dizzy since, despite overdoing it and still not getting enough sleep. Placebo. Perhaps, but ...

... other city on the planet. It's also in the least-populated area of China and is surrounded by desert. Dull and ugly, you might well expect; I did. Somehow, though, a couple of million people have managed to create an oasis that I wish I'd had more time to explore. Other than our brief stop at the museum and another for dinner, we only got to see Urumqi from the bus, but we caught glimpses of bustling streets, outdoor markets ...

This is for my friends and family whom I am unable to contact via my usa.net account. In China, all Internet providers go through the national defense ministry which blocks thousands of web sites. This means, I am unable to get to my email account. Anyone who wants to contact me, please use gobidesert2006@yahoo.com. This will be my temporary account while travelling in China.

... Tiffany (who had decided to tear herself away from the riveting metropolis of Urumqi to provide M & I with someone else to talk to for a change). Luckily things are all pretty close to each other in Turpan, and some of the pavements were sheltered by grape-vine covered walkways. Awfully nice touch. None of us were in an energetic mood, so we scoffed at the bicycles and jumped into a bus to take us just out of town to check out a Minaret (an ...

... to see the Tian Chi lake. We were also at a muesuem that explains the whole area which was rather nice, there is a huge mix of ancient kingdoms and diffrent types of people that used to live here, but the most dominent now are the Uigyer with some Kirgiks and Tajiks and some others This is one of those places that can't be explained in words, but maybe can in pictures, so i'll upload some as soon as possible.