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GROUP
JOURNAL FOR
MONGOLIA, CHINA, KIRGYZISTAN, KAZAKISTAN
THE SILK ROAD
Aug.28, 2003 - Sept. 15, 2003
Day 08
URUMCHI TIENSHAN MOUNTAINS
THURSDAY
September 4, 2003
ubmitted by
Louise Harris
lharris848@earthlink.net Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
Area established in 1955 is twice the size of Texas having 1/6th of Chinas
land and 19 million people, about equal numbers of Uighur and Han Chinese,
with some Kazaks. It is a buffer state between the western Turkish area
and the remainder of China.It is surrounded by mountains on three sides,
the Tien Shan in the north, the
Kun Lun on the South and with the Taklamakan desert (he who goes in
doesn’t come out) on its central eastern side.
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Its
people live on the plateaus between the desert and the mountains.
Agriculture, wheat,
cotton and corn are important crops and it contains China’s largest
reserve of oil.
Here it is not acceptable for Uighur girls to marry Chinese boys, though
the boys may marry Chinese girls if she changes her religion to his
which is Muslim. Their children are called Dongans. There are no
beggars, people help each other. The youngest son and wife care for his
parents and she learns from her mother in law and then takes over
managing the home.
We dealt with our second money exchange, about 8 yuan to the dollar and
“ni hao” for hello and “xie xie” for thank you.
Urumchi (Mongolian for Beautiful Pasture) is surrounded by mountains.
Coal fire is used for electricity generation. Its capital originally
called Ulan Bai, (bai=city) was located near Turpan 200 miles away but
was moved to its present location because of flooding.
Despite the near craziness of the previous late night, we were up and
ready to leave by 9am. We were accompanied by the guide/translator Ajim
and driver Abdul.
Anita had returned from an early walk, telling of the morning market,
masses of people pressing in on the vendors to get their food and
household goods for the day. The people’s square was full of people
doing exercises in formation, tai chi, and couples dancing to American
tunes. She reported that since her last visit here, the narrow streets
where the people lived out their lives were fast disappearing and being
replaced by apartments and office buildings.
The museum, Ancient Corpses of Xinjiang, Peoples of Ancient Xinjiang and
Their Culture, lived up to our expectations. We were properly informed
of the difference between mummies and these corpses which had merely
mummified. We were assisted in our understanding of the artifacts by the
director and an assistant. DNA was used to date the remains at 3-4000
years old. For those of us who have read Elizabeth Barber’s “The Mummies
of Urumchi”, this was a real highlight, one of many on the trip. To
actually see the infant with the blue stones covering its eyes, the
graceful hands of the “Loulan beauty”, and the painted face mask on one
male all with much of their clothing and personal items still intact was
truly moving. The variety of the textiles considering their age was
incredibly was fascinating.
The Xinjiang Regional Museum which would vie with any museum for its
architecture (Uygur and Russsian), the wide stairs and ceilings
wonderfully covered with enormous murals. It is set on a huge square
surrounded by impressive buildings. We saw archeological treasures from
the Silk Road and were chased out of the minority cultures hall which
was changing out its display. Life size models of different yurts with
household items, handcrafts, tools, musical instruments and clothing
were displayed.
We ate lunch at a really good Uygur restaurant where men cooked mutton
and bread outside. A pickup truck full of garlic provided a great photo
op as we boarded the bus to leave.
After lunch we drove up into the Tien Shan (Heavenly) mountains to
Baiyangou Park. Snow topped mountains were off in the distance. We rode
through a very fertile valley with a rushing river below, passing homes
of mud brick some with piles of hay on top, and clusters of bee hives.
Honey venders were camped along the road in tent cabins. The jars of
honey shown golden in the afternoon light when we returned. I saw a
donkey pulling a tire in a circle over a bed of what I presumed was
wheat to thrash it. At one stream a man was filling jugs with water and
putting them on a cart to take up the hill to his home. This is a tough
life. On the way we passed through the town of Yuoing Feng the
geographical center of Asia.
Our final destination was to visit a waterfall at the head of a mountain
pass. This is an obvious destination for the city people also as there
were amassed near the gate, a village of yurts Kazak style called
“Ach-ouls” according to Ajim and stalls to meet the needs of both locals
and tourists for food and trinkets. These ach-ouls are a bit smaller
with a more conical roof than the Mongolian ones with brighter interior
furnishings. One was even outfitted with a solar panel. The number of
parked vehicles was puzzling until we noted on a distant higher valley
in the hills what seemed to be hundreds of riders on horseback, many of
them doubled up. These turned out to be Kazaks giving rides to Han
Chinese. Our attention was soon diverted to piling ourselves onto
colorful horse drawn carts to ride up to the falls. The countryside was
beautiful with green meadows and the road soon became much steeper as we
moved up into evergreen forest. The stream rushed besides us and we soon
came to the final walk to the lovely falls. We passed a beautifully
dressed goat with his cart waiting photographers.
Back in Urumchi Fred and Diane went shopping before dinner. Fred showed
up for dinner, which was fairly close to the hotel and Diane never did.
Meli showed up late. She had gone to a shop and in not more than minutes
been outfitted with new glasses. Hopefully they were a proper fit
because the technician put her old ones on the floor and crushed them
with his foot.
With faith that Diane would show up back at the hotel, several of us
chose to walk through the night market first rather than mount a search
party. This was fun, as usual, dealing with the looks and bargaining for
best prices. Some of the purchases were as a joke, doll umbrellas for
the coming desert. It was late and we still had to pack for Turpan. But
Sharon, Doris, Jeanette and Mary from Philly, trotted off to the peoples
square where the first two created a sensation dancing with the locals.
Incidentally, Diane had returned safely to the hotel.
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