We arrive at Turpan at about 7am Beijing time, 5 am local time. Again, the draw of a tour group our size is amazing. There was actually 2 beautiful Uygur ladies were there dancing to the drum beat of a Uygur gentleman, welcoming us at 5 in the morning!
After a quick breakfast, we set off for Bizaklik Thousand Buddha Cave（柏孜克里克千佛洞). Similar to Dun Huang, the caves are painted with Buddhist murals. Unfortunately, these murals are severely damaged and have little aesthetic value. According to our guides, the murals, if undamaged, could rival those of Dun Huang. One can only imagine...
The caves are located on the foot of Flaming Mountain(火焰山). If the name sounds familiar, it should! This is the inspiration for Flaming Mountain in "Journey to the West"（西游记）!
Now, there is of course no flames to be found in the mountain, but there is fairly unique landscape. On our next stop, we drove to a tourist center for the "most ideal photographic location for Flaming Center". Also in the center is the largest thermometer in the world.
The center is clearly milking its connection to "Journey to the West". On the walls of the corridors leading to thermometer are paintings of stories from Journey to the West.The thermometer itself seem a little small. In fact, the one at Baker, California seems bigger! However, our tour guide keep insisting the one at Flaming Mountain made the Guinness Book of World Record. She's cute, so I decided to let it slide:)
The weather was cold enough that we were wearing jacket, but decided we need to lose it while taking pictures so that our friends will believe we are actually in Turpan:)
From Flaming Mountain, we went to Grape Valley(葡萄沟). This is probably the most blatant tourist trap on the entire trip! There was nothing to see except grapes hanging overhead. Having visited many vineyard in Northern California, I am just not interested.
Next, we visited a Uygur grape farm for watermelons and grapes. Again, the Uygur farmer clearly often have tour group visit. There was a long table where we all sat. On the table were Uygur hats that guys could wear and take pictures. We were served watermelon and grapes while there was a singing and dancing performance. Then we were asked to join in. Finally, the farmer ask if we are interested in tasting raisins...
He started by telling us the cheapest raisins from Xin Jiang are not fit for human consumption. Rotten raisins are soaked in chemicals or smoked by sulphur to preserve them, and then sold at a low price. Well, goods from China has been suffering from bad press lately, so I am incline to believe him:)
He then turn us on to raisins he cultivated. They are indeed quite sweet and tasty. Feeling a little guilty from the free watermelon and grapes, we decide we should buy some rasins...Sigh...I guess we fell for the oldest trick in the tour guide's book:(
After a quick lunch, we went to Jiaohe city ruins（交河故城). I usually enjoy visiting ancient relics, but the ruins here have abandon for so long that natural erosion has cause the entire city ruins to look like some random mud caves. I cannot help but recall a article by Yu Qiu Yu(余秋雨） about how fragile a city is.
The next spot requires is a large network of underground water canel call the Karez system(坷儿井). Since most of Xin Jiang is a desert, the only source of water is melting snow from the Heavenly Mountain(天山). Digging more expose canal to bring water from the mountain to Turpan is not feasible because too much water would have evaporated during transportation. Instead, underground canals were dug. According to the guide, the sum of length of all the underground canal together would exceed that of the Great Wall of China and is one of 3 ancient engineering marvel of China. It is indeed very impressive, but somehow not widely report(at least I was not aware of the Karez system before this trip).
Our final stop is at Emin Minaret(苏公塔）, a real life mosque which welcomes non-Muslim. The architecture clear is different from the Tang inspire building we have been seen through our trip, but did not have the onion shapes which we are familiar with either. The tower itself if made of bricks and has various patterns on it. Quite beautiful to look at. However, in terms of historical importance or artistic value, it cannot compared with some of the buildings we had seen thus far.
For dinner, we were treated to BBQ whole lamb(烤全羊), a Xin Jiang specialty. I know I have complained we were not able to get authentic local cuisine, but here I have to take back what I said. Given the size of our group, we were able to order 3 whole lamb. This would be difficult is I had traveled alone or even in small group. The lamb itself does not have a strong lamb smell, due to its feed. According to the tour guide, the grass in Xin Jiang has more alkaline in it, so it changes the taste of the lamb. I personally do not have a problem with the lamb smell anyway, and really enjoy the dish. The meat has a little cumin like seasoning on it, but most of the flavor comes from the lamb itself.
After dinner, we had a performance of Uygur dance/music group. This is suppose to be a professional group, but they have only 4 female dancers, 4 male dances and a band of 4 musicians. Consequently, the performers are forced to do back to back dance. I felt really bad for the dancers.
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