We arrived in Turpan on Wednesday afternoon and checked into the strange-looking, imaginatively-named Turpan Hotel. Unlike other parts of Xinjiang there were a considerable number of westerners here – Turpan is definitely on the tourist trail and it didn't take long to find out why. This oasis town of 60,000 people in the Turpan Basin, and once an important stopover on the Silk Route, is an atmospheric place with several fascinating and different sights to see. It is also the hottest place in China with summer temperatures in the high forties and the second-lowest place in the world after the Dead Sea.
Tour touts descended on us even before the bus from Urumqi stopped at the Turpan station. One of our fellow passengers was an under cover tout and he began to harangue us aggressively as we approached the outskirts of town. We refused to deal with him but within minutes of arriving we had stitched up a deal with a more mild-mannered operator to take us on a tour tomorrow in the desert countryside surrounding Turpan. We walked through the buzzing local bazaar loaded with the melons and grape products that Turpan is famous for, then adjourned to a crowded Uighur restaurant for dinner.
This morning our driver Mahmud picked us up and we headed out of town to see some sights. It was interesting countryside with parched desert scenery on one side of the road, grapevines and cotton fields on the other. The landscape was dotted with rectangular mud brick structures used to dry and transform harvested grapes into sultanas, raisins and currants. We stopped to look at the Afghan-style Emin Minaret constructed by a Turpan ruler in the late 1700s and we had lunch at Grape Valley. Here there was a huge expanse of vine covered trellis subdivided into separate cafes, each decorated colourfully with curtains, rugs and carpets. We ordered Uighur noodles that were prepared fresh from a bag of flour. While the noodle maker expertly swung and twirled the dough, Mahmud took a nap on a bed sitting in a babbling brook that ran along the edge of our cafe. It was certainly a cool, pleasant sanctuary from the scorching heat outside.
But the highlights of the day were our visits to Tuyoq Village and to the ruins of the ancient city of Jiaohe. Each is described in later separate blog posts.
