Turpan. My dream comes true. A natural wonder.

Journal entry 8 September 2010.
Our aim today is to get to Turpan and onto the train for Hemi.  Hemi is the closest train station for our onward journey to Duanbuang arguably the most important stop along the Silk Road.    Our train departs Turpan station at 01.30 tomorrow. 

Tuyoq ancient village. Historic oasis on the silk road.

Turpan represents to me the wonder of the Silk Road. I first read about it in Paul Theroux's book "Ride the Iron Rooster" and never ever thought I would see it. The dream comes true. To explain, the area is served by 5000 kms of underground irrigation channels  built by hand 2000 years ago, 80 meters deep in some places fed by gravity, designed by Persian engineers. The result is the vegetable and grain bowl of Western China.
Maybe our planners on the MIA could learn some lessons from the ancient engineers of Persia?

Hotel Tarum Urumqui

To start it was a real struggle to get out of the Tarum Petroleum Hotel which is my idea of a backpackers paradise. Brekkie (not bloody noodles) then a taxi to the bus station for a 3 hour journey to the oasis town of Turpan. Little did we know this was to be one of the most satisfying days of our journey with surprises in store.
After travelling through an area fenced off for demolition, we arrived at the local bus station. Guess who lived in the fenced off areas?
Our bus left on time. Back on travellers terms. 
Luck was with us. On this bus was a young Urghur man travelling to Turpan to see his folks then returning to Beijing university. We chatted for an hour or so.  He gleaned a lot of information from us. In return he proceeded to organise our day.


So it was. 
A taxi met us at the bus stop and whisked us off to -

Touyoq an ancient oasis town 80 kilometres from Turpan.

The ancient oasis town of Tuyoq

The ancient irrigation systems of Turpan (karaz) 5000 kms of tunnels.

The grape restaurants of Turpan fed by the ancient irrigation system.

Grape arbors to beat the summer roast

Jiaohe Ruins an amazing ancient ruins home to 6500 people. 2 AD-9AD

The ancient city of Jiaohe garrison town

The city map of Jioahe showing a natural moat created by the river

We had a full day soaking up the enormous historical information of this incredible place.  Our student, Colin, rang and directed the taxi to the city centre to meet him. We had a couple of hours spare and Colin wanted to make sure we got a taxi at the right price to the train as the station is 90 kilometers from the city centre. 

We walked the City and found a seat in the centre watching ballroom dancing on the rotunda, listening to music and generally people watching. Our presence created a lot of interest with the locals. They all wanted to talk English. In time Citt was approached by a person and he related some very sad stories to her. 

Colin also related the same stories of genocide and discrimination. It would be easy to become involved in their struggle but so dangerous. 
As we bid farewell I recall a conversation with a fellow snapper, Ron Uhlman in Brisbane. We discussed the people of this region and the fact that they just open their hearts and homes to you without reservation. 

Nearly forgot this is where the great man Marco Polo discovered noodles. They serve them thick, thin and some slimy ones made from rice. One place we went they even went so far as to hide the noodles under vegetables in the soup so I did not know. (Ugh Noodles I hate noodles.)