Our last morning in Jaiyuguan was leisurely spent before we were to board a train to take us northwest along the fringes of the Taklamakan desert to reach China’s most northwestern province, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and its capital city, Urumqi. The Taklamakan Desert is the largest desert in China and the world’s second-largest shifting sand desert (by way of comparison Australia’s Simpson Desert of parallel dunes in half this size – awesome nonetheless!). The Taklamakan Desert is nicknamed the ‘Sea of Death’ because of its temperature extremes and moving dunes. Oh, to be 20-30 years younger so we could explore this hostile place of wonder. However …….
This morning we were taken to an extensive garden, Donghu Lake Park, and let loose to wander as we chose which was perfect for us. The garden was quite a surprise particularly as we were in the Gobi Desert. The main water supply for the city – and these gardens – is from a river sustained by glacial meltwater and precipitation from the Qilian Mountains. It was lovely and obviously something the people are very proud of.
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| This tower was designed to resemble a fish, symbolizing prosperity and abundance |
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| Vibrant colour contrasted with the shady paths |
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| We came across a circle of bronze figures representing the Chinese zodiac - Lindsay beside his sign |
Of course, we had our eyes on the plants and birds, but it was quite a pleasant place to while away the hours before another banquet lunch! All the food was interesting if not delicious, but it was all becoming a bit of a blur. Many places we have had our own dining room - some expansive others a bit of a tight squeeze like today’s. Some of us may have preferred a simple sandwich, but the local people were eager to show off their local culinary specials – westernised for us of course.
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| The blue dot and arrow indicate Jaiyuguan |
Then we waddled to the station to catch our train to Urumqi in China’s far northwest. After a very noisy, completely packed, 1300km fast train ride from Jiayuguan, we arrived late that night and were greeted by our local guide bearing gifts - ‘silk’ scarves for the women and traditional Muslim caps for the men - before being whisked away to our hotel and a very welcome bed. The hotel is very new and comfortable - and, like a number of Chinese hotels we’ve stayed in, much was automated - lights, curtains, flushing toilet, they even have a robot to deliver ‘Uber Eats’ to your room. What more could you ask for?!
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| A quite desoltae landscape but fascinating |
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| Oases of productive land in this desert - fed by snow-melt from the mountains |
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The Uber person placing an order in the robot who whisked it up to the appropriate room
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Next morning, our last day in China we woke to the exotic promises of remote Urumqi the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is rather an ‘oasis in the desert’ cradled between the Taklamakan Desert in the south and the Tien Shan and Altai mountains in the north. After a week of altitudes from 3000-5000m, and suffering mildly debilitating altitude sickness, today I feel back to ‘normal’ and able to walk (rather than stagger) even lugging all my luggage and assorted other ‘stuff’! A blessed relief I can tell you.
This morning we visited the Xinjiang Regional Museum. How different it was to what we saw 7 years ago in 2018! It is now a much larger building, everything refurbished, more signage (although not enough in English for ‘need-to-know-everything’ me), and a wonderful and extensive collection of new exhibits including more ancient mummies and artefacts from desert archaeological sites. The exhibits traced forward in time from Palaeolithic to Neolithic periods, around 1000 BC. There was even a small replicate of the Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, which form a system of 500 temples 25 km southeast of the centre of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road.
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| The entrace to the Thousand Buddha Grottoes display |
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| Xuanzang a C7 Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. |
What was of particular interest to me was what archaeologists had discovered in 1980s when excavating in the desert. They found some significant graves, significant in that they revealed the mummified remains of people of ancient ‘Europoid’ origins (AKA not Chinese or Mongolian) dating back 4000 years. In particular I wanted to see the 'Loulan Beauty', the most famous of the Tarim Basin mummies. Aged 40-45 years old, she was 152 cm tall with long hair. She wore a pinted felt cap and leather shows ans was wrapped in a dark brown woollen cloak. She was a naturally preserved, roughly 3,800-year-old Bronze Age woman discovered in a tomb near the ancient Silk Road. She was one of many amazing discoveries.
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| A figure from an ancient Buddhist kingdom located in Taklamakan desert in the Tarim basin |
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| Mummified remains were found perectly preserved in the dessicating dryness of the desert |
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| This mummy of quite a tall man shows evidence of face tattoes |
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| The mummified body of a young infant |
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| Wonderfully preseverd string shoes |
Xinjiang is a region where various ethnic groups have coexisted (not always harmoniously), together with their different religions, since ancient times. Around the C1 BC, Buddhism was introduced into Xinjiang and thrived as a culture during a period of great prosperity from C4 to C10. Xinjiang and the surrounding region contains some very early grottoes and Buddhist temples. The Central Plains grottoes such as Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang and Yungang Grottoes in Datong are quite famous. The morning flew by too quickly for me - it was all fascinating and we were fortunate to have a terrific guide (unlike our last visit). There were too many exhibits to show and describe here - and many we had no idea about as the signage was only in Chinese - so I have included only a handful.
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| An ancient religious figurine unearthed from Astana Cemetery in Turpen City |
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| Burial pillow in the shape of a two-headed bird |
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| A Tang dynasty clay figurine - the head of a pig and the body of a man |
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Our group outside the museum
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Our last supper in China before boarding the train to Kazakhstan was a very Porky dinner - pork and vegetable broth, pork belly, pork meatballs, pigs tail yes that’s right! plus chicken and chestnuts, prawns, and loads of vegetables. A feast to sustain us on our long journey east.
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| A blurry pork dish! |
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| Lindsay tried all the local beers! |
Travel can be a little tedious at times with border delays, etc, but it has so many unexpected and delightful moments. Tonight for instance, we were finally on our way to Kazakhstan and while waiting to board the train, we got talking to a young man who turned out to be a pilot with a regional airline in the Xinjiang region. He had trained in Canada but many of his colleagues trained in Australia so I think he felt a connection to us Aussies. We learnt a lot about living in the Xinjiang region from this friendly young man who was so keen to talk to us. As luck would have it, I ran into him again at the station in Khorgos next morning (after our overnight train ride) and it was like we were long lost friends. Such friendly people!
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| Urumqi in red, just an overnight train ride to Khorgos which is close to the border with Kazakhstan |
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