(back date to 1/16/13)
After 47 very patient hours I have finally arrived in beautiful Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Province in China’s far west. Fun facts about Xinjiang: Xinjiang (新疆) in Chinese means new frontier and Urumqi is said to be the city further from an ocean than any other city in the world. Xinjiang is majority Uighur and the only predominantly Muslim province in China. Facts are fun! Despite the heated interior, the cabin was noticeably cooler when I awoke in the morning and as the sun rose it became more and more apparent how far north we had traveled. The desert became blanketed in wispy snow banks and white-capped peaks loomed on the horizon.
After disembarking I decided that I could make the trip to my hostel by foot. Before I left I had made sure to take photos of different google maps of the city that I could later bring up on my iphone and use to navigate my way. It worked out well enough but the hostel unfortunately was clear on the other side of the city and after two hours or so of walking I finally found it. When I first hopped off the train I had to brace myself against the change in temperature but after a few minutes of lugging my bag around the city I became quite warm.
The hostel is nice but pretty empty. Apparently people don’t travel to Urumqi in the winter.
I decided to spend the day walking around and getting to know the neighborhood. Urumqi is a very interesting mix of ethnicities. It is strange to walk around a Chinese city and see such a diverse group of people walking around. I’ve become quite used to the ubiquitous Han cities that make up the rest of China. It’s nice though because I’m starting to blend into the crowd a bit better here. The city is comprised of Uighurs and other central Asian groups and Russians. In fact, the written signs are changed here as well. In most Chinese cities, all official (and most commercial) signs are written in Chinese characters, pinyin, and English. Here though the signs are written in Chinese characters, the pinyin has changed to Arabic, and the English has been replaced with Russian. I guess there’s no better time to practice my Russian! And most non-Chinese here sort of refuse to speak Chinese so this might be a hurdle.
Later on in the day I wandered into a bustling, off the beaten track, Uighur neighborhood. I’ve never seen a place so non-Chinese in China. I found this neighborhood because I happened to see the top of a large green mosque in the distance and decided to check it out. After wandering around and hesitating to take pictures (it felt weird and somehow inappropriate to take pictures here for some reason) I stepped into a small Uighur restaurant with just a few tables and sat down. A few people were sitting as well and all had their eyes fixed on a TV in the corner of the room watching a Chinese version of “funniest home videos”. I ordered while some of the men were peering through the window from the kitchen and laughing at a clip of some small dog on a bed jumping on his own face. I ordered skewered lamb kabobs with lamb meat, lamb liver, and lamb hearts, and although it sounds weird, it was awesome! I topped off the meal with a piece of flat bread and a roasted bun filled with boiled lamb and green onions. They eat a lot of lamb here...
Tomorrow I plan to do a bit of sightseeing. Apparently the international bazaar is worth checking out.
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| Sign with Chinese and Uighur (Arabic script) |
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| Even Urumqi cannot escape the smog |
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| Spices for sale at the Erdaoqiao Bazaar |
After disembarking I decided that I could make the trip to my hostel by foot. Before I left I had made sure to take photos of different google maps of the city that I could later bring up on my iphone and use to navigate my way. It worked out well enough but the hostel unfortunately was clear on the other side of the city and after two hours or so of walking I finally found it. When I first hopped off the train I had to brace myself against the change in temperature but after a few minutes of lugging my bag around the city I became quite warm.
The hostel is nice but pretty empty. Apparently people don’t travel to Urumqi in the winter.
I decided to spend the day walking around and getting to know the neighborhood. Urumqi is a very interesting mix of ethnicities. It is strange to walk around a Chinese city and see such a diverse group of people walking around. I’ve become quite used to the ubiquitous Han cities that make up the rest of China. It’s nice though because I’m starting to blend into the crowd a bit better here. The city is comprised of Uighurs and other central Asian groups and Russians. In fact, the written signs are changed here as well. In most Chinese cities, all official (and most commercial) signs are written in Chinese characters, pinyin, and English. Here though the signs are written in Chinese characters, the pinyin has changed to Arabic, and the English has been replaced with Russian. I guess there’s no better time to practice my Russian! And most non-Chinese here sort of refuse to speak Chinese so this might be a hurdle.
Later on in the day I wandered into a bustling, off the beaten track, Uighur neighborhood. I’ve never seen a place so non-Chinese in China. I found this neighborhood because I happened to see the top of a large green mosque in the distance and decided to check it out. After wandering around and hesitating to take pictures (it felt weird and somehow inappropriate to take pictures here for some reason) I stepped into a small Uighur restaurant with just a few tables and sat down. A few people were sitting as well and all had their eyes fixed on a TV in the corner of the room watching a Chinese version of “funniest home videos”. I ordered while some of the men were peering through the window from the kitchen and laughing at a clip of some small dog on a bed jumping on his own face. I ordered skewered lamb kabobs with lamb meat, lamb liver, and lamb hearts, and although it sounds weird, it was awesome! I topped off the meal with a piece of flat bread and a roasted bun filled with boiled lamb and green onions. They eat a lot of lamb here...
Tomorrow I plan to do a bit of sightseeing. Apparently the international bazaar is worth checking out.
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