Turpan – Urumqi & Meeting M

We’re 2 weeks into October. Oh my god 2020 is going too fast! I barely looked back these days. Every day comes in as a separate experience from the past. I’m still trying to continue my blog posts somehow in this mess…gonna have to pick up from where I left it 2 months ago 😂 this was the start of some very unexpected things began to happen 👀

On the last morning in Turpan we planned to go to the Museum for the time left in between the journey to the train station. The Turpan Museum had lockers for our bagpacks and stuff. As usual there were security checks and you can only bring your passport and valuables inside. It was a fun and educational hour spent. We made it just in time for Urumqi Train Station and approached the counters for boarding passes.

Everything went smoothly until the security area. We were queueing for the metal detectors when the female officer signaled to take off my headscarf which never happened throughout the first leg of the trip so I was shocked. I tried to ask her to allow a personal check with a female officer. After some frantic hand gesture she understood and led me to their desks and conduct the security check there instead. It wasn’t fully obscured view but it was reasonable enough for us. After that, another security check awaits. We had like 8 minutes to get through downstairs and embark! At this checkpoint they recheck every content of our hand carry bags (luckily bagpacks were excluded since it passed imaging process) but it still took some time to lay everything out and then put it back again. Both of us were getting anxious and irritated. We can’t miss the train!!

When we finally embarked it was like we were the last ones and it shot up to speed a minute later. Phew.

Here the train conductors looked Russian?Kazakh? Idk I meant they looked unlike how Chinese people would look like. I was so ignorant 😅 I gotta remind myself China stretches from the east to west. From being in Turpan the signages are available in both Uyghur and Mandarin. We started seeing more locals who looked like the above, if they were in traditional clothing and you can tell they’re the Uyghur minority of China after some asking around. In Xi’an Hui people is common(?) and they have more typical Chinese features compared to Uyghurs. So I have a picture of what to expect in Urumqi as the capital of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. I didn’t know anything much, yet.

Urumqi lunch hour traffic was rather bad. Other than that everything around looks like any other major city. Lots of people with a mix of ethnicities but still NO foreigners. We were getting used to it but hey it’d be nice to meet other travelers. My friend and I had a random video of us walking and faced the camera to the crowd around us. Just to record how unrelenting stares we get wherever we went 😅 we were the ONLY headscarf wearing people out here. For a region with a known sizeable Muslim people we did wondered why was that? It could be completely cultural. Apart from old ladies with a tied scarf no other headscarf can be found. We found a few shops selling headscarves though. It was nice stuff I bought some of the best headscarf that I still wear now.

Meeting M and her mother

Around 4pm we looked for a place to eat. We found a restaurant with a proper ‘Muslim Food’ sign outside and stepped inside, ordered our food and sat down in the middle of the room. Again, many eyes on us , if not most. A full table of Kim Kardashian looking (they’re gorgeous) and dressed young women sat 3 tables apart looked directly at us and at this point we were close to approach them lol do you have anything to say or….? loool at no point it clicked into my mind why the obvious observation by practically everyone. I was about to go to offensive mode when I notice a young woman (not Kim K table) actually sat up and came to our table. Hmmm.

Woman: Hello^^ I saw you here I thought to come and say hi. Is it okay if I sit at your table?

Me: ??? Oh it’s okay <smiles> (I wonder about her really good English and accent. No offence but it was only the second time we talked with someone who can)

Woman: Thank you^^ I’m an English teacher <gave out her hand to me>

Me: (still ????) <accept the handshake> Oh okay I can guess from your command of English! <awkward pause>

Woman: <smiling all the way through> Sorry if you feel awkward!! I heard you guys talking and your headscarf. I wanna ask if you’re Malaysian? Ive been to Malaysia last year. Beautiful country!

Me: (((Ooooh okayy)))

So that was how it went at the beginning. I’m prepared for a nice light conversation with this stranger about our travels, I thought to myself as she led the other woman who sat with her to our table. She introduced the older woman, her mother to us. The mother was a lot more reserved and just nodded with a little smile. They stayed through the entire meal and exchanged stories of their trip to my country and us in China so far.

Let’s called her as initials M. M revealed she’s Muslim as well, from Hui ethnicity. I was happy to know. Until M started telling me how they can’t wear headscarf or any head cover here, and stressed that she’d totally wear it if she could. But she can’t. I remembered feeling huh I didn’t know that you can’t.

Me: As if in, banned?

M leaned forward and shushed-signaled me.

M: You can’t talk about this in public. You need to speak slowly. (to which I don’t know what to say) Did you noticed people are looking at you? Like the girls from the other table. (we turned abruptly to them to find those eyes hurriedly looking away from us lol)

I know it was weird but I didn’t know it was like, banned. Illegal.

I’m starting to freak out if we were being completely obvious with an illegal act! I asked her about the security checks, she said it’s how it is only in the recent year. I was like I didn’t know! That’s crazy.

M: Now you know. I’m telling you this because it’s my experience as a local as well. (a sigh) If you looked at me from the outside would you even know I’m Muslim, like you? I wear all this and looked like everyone else here. We all looked the same. They didn’t let us wear it to make us all looked the same.

Me: Do people who wore it get into trouble?

M: Yes, you can even go to jail for it. That’s why no one dared to. They only allow older ladies to wear it, like my mom (who had a tied headscarf).

Her mother avoided eye contact but looked approving of what M said. Her mother lightened up a bit when we realized we were of the same age and I commented on how younger M looked compared to us. I think we were being calm enough after the meal ended and processing the whole conversation. I didn’t try to fight the stares anymore though. We were walking around with something illegal above our heads for the last few hours.

…continue writing later it’s 12.24am where Im at 😅..

Jiayuguan – Dunhuang #5

(Im on a roll)

Dunhuang. Oh Dunhuang…a voice in my head said that I would’ve live here if I could. Lol that was how good the impression I get from this place. Everything was nice from the weather, people, the parks. Overall experience here was superb. We enjoyed it soo much. Easily because of the sand dunes! Ive never saw one in my life so that won me over fast. Lmao

We were at Dunhuang in the early morning. We creeped closer to Xinjiang by reaching Dunhuang. It was also one of the important Silk Road routes. We got a ride with a nice uncle who tried hard to understand us and translate app but he just couldnt get that we were asking about the attraction sites. He parked the cab at the front of the hotel and video called his English taught daughter to speak to us. We spent half an hour trying to get a ride with him to the sites in an agreement that he could understand…he apologized for language barrier and we were like nahhh we’re sorry too we are severely lacking by not learning at least conversational Mandarin before actually going to China without a travel guide 😂 we could understand simple sentences but couldnt reply back. With no local sim card to connect to Wifis…this would be the most important tip for a China trip when you’re not a Mandarin speaker. Get local sim card!! And install VPN (I have it) but without internet it’s kinda useless.

The empty boulevard in early morning

We checked in just for an hour of freshening up and wend out to get breakfast. The hotel was at walking distance to noodle places as well as nice looking restaurants. We decided to splurge a little by going inside this beautiful door to a fancily decorated dining area with uniformed waitress treating us to a welcome juice in tall glasses. Nice eh? The price werent too pricey and the food tastes good. A local guy who spoke fluent English greeted us while we were going out the building. He introduced himself as the owner’s son and wanted to know our thoughts about the place. He had with him a huge ass bike too. That was random, to notice he had a big bike but that amused me 😆 we walked out to the townspeople waking up and starting the day in full swing. There was a little traffic and there was a group of mixed age Tai Chi practitioners at one side of a busy street.

The cab uncle came by at the specified time to bring us to the Mogao Grottoes. We didnt know it was actually a 2 part trip through the museum where you will have a visual presentation of the history and parts of the Grottoes since it wasnt all preserved and opened to public. A large part was still in conservation, others were just too fragile to be exposed to the public. The modern looking museum also is where you take the shuttle bus to the actual site. As I said, these parks are just sooo huge.

The 1/4 chicken we ordered

The bus ride to the Grottoes

Mogao Grottoes are a network of underground Buddhist shrines built through 10 dynasties. The fact that it was quite recently discovered is mindblowing. It was there for a looong time buried under the desert. The arid weather preserves much of it that we can see today. The shrines are built individually with own styles. The decorations and the vanity of a shrine signify the owner’s wealth and prosperity at the time it was built. You can’t take photos inside so I have nothing to share but the outline of the caves.

One shrine that is set for public use unlike all the other shrines were the one by the only Chinese Empress Wu Zetian. She made her shrine for everyone to use regardless of their status in society. It was an impressive chamber to pray and offer offerings. The Grottoes are a strong example of the cultural and economic exchange of the East and West set by the Silk Road and even before it was recognized. The materials and technique used to build each shrine spanning 1000 years is a must see 😭😭

It was noon and we still have half a day to go for the sand dunes. I mean you can’t say you’ve been to western China and not see the sand dunes right?? We get a different driver for this trip because it’s farther away out from the city. We parted ways from the kind uncle. He was genuinely worried about how we, 2 women getting around by ourselves 😅

The moment we arrived at the sand dunes it was late, it was just so far and we were hoping to be lucky enough to arrive on time. The parking lot and the entrance werent close. We ran like crazy to see the ticket booth still opens. We get some of the last tickets because the place needed hours to ride the shuttles and trek the dunes. That’s why they will close around 5pm to avoid people getting lost inside when it’s dark.

I can’t tell you how mindblowing it was to me but I never thought about the scale of it. IT WAS LIKE A MOUNTAIN. Of cold prickly sand. There were camel rides as well but we decided to trek by foot.

The Crescent Lake!!

Sorry for the quality. Wish I brought myself an actual camera but I dont know if I could pack a heavy old Sony camera. I make a point to bring a camera next time…the amount of stuff I’d have taken from this place alone!! Spending 2 hours arent enough.

At 8pm we must get the ride to the train station which wasnt the one we were from when we arrived that morning (damn it was one of the best 12 hours of my life) it was at Liuyuan, another 2 hours ride out of the city. I researched the stations that were connected to Turpan / Tulufan in the type of coach that we booked. I couldn’t get through from other station. So we took a pricey and long ride into the night. Just pitch black one lane road…I still remember the numbing cold. After 2 hours, the sleepy Liuyuan, demolishing our need for a nice hot noodle bowls and little shopping before getting on the train. We felt unsafe staying outside the station. It was dark and empty. If you look around that area of the town was at the edge. There was nothing else.

Luckily the station had a number of people in the waiting room. We didnt feel so creeped out. A smiling female staff came to us to specifically explained the train numbers etc in English because obviously we looked like we didnt speak Mandarin. That lifted our spirit a bit. I dont know, the ride towards Liuyuan and the town itself were draining and it was nearing midnight. We boarded the train but found no available seats side by side. This was about a week doing this and it wasnt any surprise anymore. We took any barely empty seats we could find and said to each other, see you in the morning.

I forgot to tell you how it surprised me the first time I boarded the K train back in Jiayuguan. There were no assigned seats, people lie and sleep anywhere they could and their feet dangling in the aisle barricading you from walking through. And the smell? As expected, like feet 😂😂

Bonus city – Linxia

The driver pulled up at a bus station and the kid and the old guy exit the car. We already accepted the fact that we’re here unplanned but there’s nothing we can do. Now the utmost priority is looking for something to eat. We were brought to a local noodle shop (of course) he ordered each of us a bowl. I was like oh no don’t tell me it’s that herbal soup again >.< I sat there trying to not be rude and finish it. This time it was served with  a cucumber relish and some chewy veggies. It really compliments the cold numbing feeling from that certain herb. I’d definitely ask for this together with the noodles if I get to go here again.

We were given a walking tour of the city’s many mosques. I learned later that Linxia is known as The Little Mecca of China, almost literally. The mosques spaced by rows of shophouses and medium rise residential areas, and came with individual designs. Almost none of it are identical with each other.

This is one picture that I found. I think the others were my friend’s. We saw around 3 mosques, all walkable distance 😂 you can google about Linxia and its historical significance to the ancient Silk Road (although not as the same city it was known in modern times) and is one of the two autonomous regions of Hui ethnicity. Our driver told us a lot about the attractions and we were able to pleasantly interact with each other. I think he did a great job and he was delighted about everything. When we reached Linxia in the first place we didn’t feel too bad about it. In the spirit of adventure 😂

We get back to Lanzhou train station well before 5.30pm! We paid 75cny/person for the whole 4 hours return trip Lanzhou – Linxia including the breakfast noodles and the little tour he gave us. Compare that to the airport lift we took upon arrival to Xi’an airport. We were glad we chose to rode with him and reached this remote city and saw all those beautiful mosques. But, by this time we don’t have the space to see Lanzhou like we planned. We filled the time with looking for more noodles bowls instead. Found a nice little pulled noodle shop just walking distance from the station (remember you can’t enter the building if your departure is hours ahead)

Dry noodles. Pulled fresh right in front of you. The chilli oil is sooo good

 

You can see from the picture the local women wears scarfs over their heads. Many Hui ethnicity resides here and the remote Linxia up above the mountain. There are no train nor airport connecting Lanzhou and Linxia. Thinking about how they build up these remote and huge cities just make you intrigued…I think anyone else coming from the US and Canada would get what it meant to live in such a huuuge country. It was mind boggling to me.

Anyway, the dry noodles were so tasty! After spending time walking around the vicinity we took toilet trips before entering the station. And I swear….I cried my eyes out having to use that horrible makeshift toilet!! I understand they limit the use of water around here (all public sinks are sensor automated) But it was pure trauma of sensory and sight. Lol. My friend could control herself but I couldnt, literally bawled my eyes out 😂