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I got in to Turpan
at a good early hour, though it was two hours later
than scheduled and taxied in to the hotel. That was, of course, a
shambles, since. The guy assured me he knew where the place was and then
took off in the wrong direction. It took quite a bit of pointing at maps
and eventually phone calls to sort. It out. I'm pretty sure, however, that
the bus did not stop in the location described in the guidebook as the
long distance bus station. It just dumped us on the side of the road (
just like the bus into
Bombay
did, as I recall.) I also note that the street called Bezaklik Lu is
listed on the whereis map as Baizikelike, and that the red pin indicating
this address is not where my hotel is.
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I hadn't even put my bag down when I was urged to
sign on for a tour of the main sights leaving in 30 mins and returning in
the late afternoon. It was 200Y rather than what the guidebook claimed was
a normal price of 60Y, but I eventually decided to go anyway.
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Turpan
area
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The tour wasn't very enjoyable. I was exhausted,
there were no English speakers at all, the old minivan was terribly
uncomfortable, it was very hot, and I felt very dirty and hungry. The
first place we went to was the Karez museum, all about the curious semi
subterranean channels that take water for the mountain slopes' raised
aquifer down to a pool for redistribution over the fields. They're pretty
clever and successful, but not that interesting to look at for long. The
museum was, however, very nicely arranged. From there we went to some
other places in an order I can't quite remember. We stopped to look over
desert cliffs to see operating vineyards; we drove through really a
impoverished Uighur village where they were growing miles of vines; and we
stopped to look at what I suppose were the Flaming Mountains.
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Karez
Museum
Rather a pleasant grapevine tunnel
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Roadside
oasis
Notice the mountains in the background
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Vineyard
oasis
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The only thing that was really worth seeing was the
Bezaklik caves. They are long barrel vaulted excavations dating from
10th-12th c to late Gaochang (Huihu?) In the caves that were open (3 only)
there were the evidences of Sleeping Buddha pictures which had previously
illustrated the Mahaparinirvana Sutra on their front walls, with behind
him the standard mourners and Saro trees. (And what are they? I'll need to
look them up.) at the side were some remains of 'Donating bodhisattvas'
and Jataka scenes further along the walls towards the doors. Also
interesting: according to the notices in fractured English, there were
illustrations of scenes and themes from the Avalokitesvara and
Samantabhadra Sutras. There were also paintings of Mt Wu Tai which
mountain is apparently associated by long tradition (not just Chinese)
with Manjusri. That's something else I'll need to look into. It's
unfortunate that all of these had been very badly damaged by the German
archaeologist/ explorer Albert von le Coq, who took many of the frescoes
and statues back to
Berlin
at the start of the 20th C - where they went missing or were destroyed in
the Second World War.
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Bezeklik Caves
Not the only ones of this name, which
apparently means 'painted place' (or something like that) in the
local Turkic dialects
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Bezeklik Visitors
The tourists come very well-dressed here.
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Bezeklik Singer
Entertains the crowd on a most peculiar
looking instrument
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Another moderately interesting site was Gaochang,
but my stamina was flagging at this point and it was almost more than I
could face. The book says it's not much worth seeing, and i was prepared
to take its word for it. I sat in the shade with some chubby young girls
and their boys from my tour for a while, until they left and I felt
obliged to get moving. It was just a dry and dusty mud brick construction
with nothing remarkable remaining except some indications of a Buddhist
temple in the Southwest corner. I walked to that, happy-snapped my way
around a group of Buddhist pilgrims and then walked out.
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Gaochang
The extensive remains of an old city
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Gaochang
What happens when you leave a mud brick
wall in the rain for too long.
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Home and I made use of the shower and toilet.
Most welcome. I wandered about looking for a place to eat, winding up at the
Hanzeda on Gaocheng Lu, where I struggled to be served by some of the most
offhand waitstaff I've met outside of
Guangzhou
airport. The meal (apparently I was only allowed to have a pizza) was
expensive and not that great. Much better was the meal that the staff made
in the White Camel hostel and offered to some of the guests to share. If
only I'd known.
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Turpan Hostel
The White Camel. A huge space.
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21/04/2014
(Monday) |
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Mostly a rest and reorganisation day. I've realised
that I'm just not going to be able to do the route that I'd originally
planned - which is not a great surprise - I'm often more ambitious than
reasonable with these plans. I've decided to skip from
Urumqi
to Bishkek by plane and if possible to do Kuqa on the way back to
Urumqi
. Well, we'll see how it goes. Having eventually, after a great struggle,
bought a ticket from URM to FRU, and with similar difficulty resigned
myself to dorm accommodation in
Urumqi
, I headed off to the long distance bus ticket office. It was completely
invisible to me, but I did eventually find the station itself behind the
bazaar (and nowhere near where the LP book or the whereis map had put it)
and got a ticket leaving at 8:10 am on the 22nd.
It wasn't possible to go to the museum today (it's closed until tomorrow)
and I've no interest in the emin minaret, so I didn't do much this
afternoon. In the later afternoon I went out to get a chicken burger and
chips down the road. There I ran into a chap who was doing a charity ride
across china from his home in Zhousan to
Urumqi
and the Kazakh border. He's almost finished now and is looking forward to
getting back with his wife in Zhousan. I had intended to wander about the
night market, but instead he and I went to sit outside a little beer shop
and had a long chat. His name is Jerry Grey and he's got a blog attached
to crazyguyonabike.com. I've sent him an email and it's possible that
we'll stay in touch. (Note that he has a riding partner called Phil with
him.)
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22/04/2014
(Tuesday) |
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Today didn't start very well, since I woke up at
6:30 and was ready to go at 6:50 when I realised that the hostel didn't
open until 7:30 and it was all locked up until then. My bus left at 8:10
and I was determined not to miss it. When 7:30 came and there was no
movement I escaped out the side door, asking one of the other guests who
happened to be going to the toilet to lock it behind me. Later in the day
the hostel apologised for not being there and wondering how to return my
deposit.(100Y) I said it wasn't their fault and that I'd consider how to
get the funds transferred.
The trip itself was a bit uncomfortable since a nice fellow called Hassan
(821867872@qq.com, +86 189 2075 2005) insisted on talking to me most of
the way, and as he was sitting behind me it made it quite hard on my neck.
But he speaks good English and Uighur and some Chinese, is well-educated
(mining engineer) has been to
Brisbane
, a and is looking for employment opportunities. He actually mentioned a
desire to guide tourists around the area, but his parents would need to be
convinced that that wasn't going to take him away from them for too long.
He sounds like just the sort of chap who might be useful to my scheme.
Arriving at
Urumqi
was a bit confusing, but I managed to find the
hostel without too much walking in circles. (It was unfortunate that a
helpful security guard sent me off in quite the opposite direction, but I
soon corrected myself. I find that my natural sense of direction sends me
in the wrong direction too, but that I am better if I set myself to work
out rationally which way to go - checking the sun and so on.)
I had a nice coffee in the 'Agape' coffee house in a nearby park, which
was indeed a Christian establishment. I queried the lady about the number
of Christians in the province and she didn't know but would hazard a guess
at 20,000. Not that many, but ones surprise to find any. I wish I could
have asked about the denomination: I suspect they are evangelicals, but I
suppose they could have been the remains of the Nestorians who came out
along the
Silk Road
so many years ago. Well, that's probably just a romantic notion of mine.
In the afternoon I had a satisfactory meal at KFC in the Parkson Shopping
Mall and then back to the hostel to organise accommodation and transport
to it in Bishkek. I was also pleased to see that I had an email from
Jerry. He's offering to show me around the southern parts of china should
I ever come near
Hong Kong
. I'm sure I'd like to take him up on that. Later in the evening I walked
along the streets outside the Parkson and all the flash shops which had
transformed into a snack street. I had a couple of fried goodies then to a
small shop for a good feed for 15Y.
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Urumqi
My hostel was the MingTian near Hong Shan
park and intersection and transport centre.
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23/04/2014
(Wednesday) |
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Woke up this morning and waited until the others
would get up and go so I could have the dorm room to myself. By the time
10:50 came around I realised I would have to give up on that idea. So up I
got and got myself ready to go out for breakfast, and what do I find? It
had snowed heavily overnight, and was in fact still snowing. It was very
pretty, and rather cold, and also made. Me worry that there might be a
difficulty with my onward connection. It seemed to clear as the day went
on so I am still optimistic.
I went out to get my KFC breakfast and then came back in to get my camera
to record the scenes. I think this was a bit unusual for the time or
place, because. There were plenty of natives clicking away with their
phone cameras - especially in the park around the Agape cafe where I went
for a nice warm coffee.
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Urumqi
The gate to the park
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Urumqi
The roof of the gate to the park
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Urumqi
Trees in the park behind the gate
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Urumqi
Branches on the trees in the park behind
the gate
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Following this there wasn't much else to do but walk
up the street to the regional museum. This was highly spoken of in the
guidebook, but was fairly limited. I had read that there'd be a free
English audio tour available, and perhaps there would have been if there
had been anyone on duty at the ticket office or tourists reception desk.
The displays of mummies and the descriptions of the archaeological sites
and cemeteries from which they and a good deal of artefacts had been
recovered were quite interesting. The mummies mostly dated to about 1800
BC, and the artefacts ranged through time from that date on. Photographs
indicated that there was nothing left to see at those sites in Miran or
Qiemo or the other very remote desert places that I had actually
considered visiting at one time. There were also displays of clothing
which were only really notable for their state of preservation.
One thing that would certainly have benefited from the English audio was a
display of paintings that, so far as I could tell, were reproductions of
Buddhist cave/grotto paintings. The artists photos and bios were displayed
and information about the subjects - but all in Chinese. Still one could
recognise the style and subject-matter and the shape of most of the
paintings. I just wonder where they were from and what the point of the
reproductions was.
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Urumqi
On the road to the museum. There were a
great many broken trees on the way.
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Urumqi
A tapestry - about which I would like to
know more
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Wrote a long email to Pascaline who has been
awaiting a reply for 2 months now. I am ashamed of my slackness, and
resolve to do better.
I have made sure that *this* hostel knows that I'll be leaving first thing
tomorrow morning. I don't want a repeat of the shemozzle at White Camel!
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