This week was national week. This means that China celebrated her 61st year of New China, and that K and I had a week off from teaching. We had toyed with the idea of staying home and relaxing for the holiday, but gave in to our wanderlust in the eleventh hour. We knew that this might be our last adventure in the 西北, or the Northwest, so we decided to go further north and west.
We packed up your things and decided to hop a train heading to our neighboring province, Xinjiang. This province is unique in China for so many reasons. Not only is it the largest province, spanning 1.6 million square kilometers it is home to China’s Uyghur and other Central Asia minorities. It looks and feels very different from the other places that we have traveled.
During our trip, we traveled to two cities, Urumqi (the provincial capital) and the smaller Turpan. Both destinations were so interesting and picturesque in their own respects. Over the next few days, we will post some photos and information about our trip. We hope that you enjoy and comment on them.
kandm
Here are some photos from around Turpan
Tuyroq Mosque
Ancient City Outside Turpan
Oasis
Flaming Mountains
Hiking the Flaming Mountains
Afgan Style Mirinet
Awesome! How far was that from Zhangye?
It took us 15 hours by train and then 2 more hours by bus to get to this place. All in all it was well worth the transit time.
beautiful photos! What an interesting place!