August 31, 2019
We arrived in Urumchi after 9pm on the 30th, met our new guide, Hassan, and drove through town to the hotel, with Hassan talking all the way. Beijing time does not really work so far west, even though it is the only official time zone allowed. Hassan told us Urumchi locals use an hour and 45 minutes earlier to make life more comfortable. So at 9pm, Urumchi people would use 7:45. He also told us Urumchi is the Chinese name for the city and Urumqi is the Uyghur name. It sounds the same to us, but is spelled differently. There are currently about 4 million people living in the greater city, which is at the heart of Xinjiang province, the largest in China. The province is divided into North and South by the Tianshan (Chinese) or Tang ri Tag (Uyghur) Mountains, which means Mountains of God. There are 10.6 million Uyghurs in China with about 900k-1M in Urumqi. We learned that Hassan is Uyghur, Sunni Muslim, married with 3 kids ages 13,10 and 5. We decided on a sightseeing plan for the next day and said good night at the hotel. We both enjoyed him better than PinPin and looked forward to our time together.
Hassan picked us up at 9am Beijing time and off we went to the National Peoples Park, aka the Red Hill Park in the center of the city. The park was started in the late 1700s and boasted a Red Hill Temple in 1790 at the top of the hill.
Although the Chinese stopped worship in the temple some years ago, there are several interesting statues, which are very different from the ones in Lhasa. Wandering around the park, we enjoyed the colorful flowers and shade trees and, on reaching the red pagoda at the top we took a few photos.
Then we drove to the Urumqi Grand Bazaar and mosque. We enjoyed walking through the bazaar, eating freshly baked Naan, taking photos of statues and people, especially people.
I started observing that many women were dressing in a peculiar fashion with short, tight fitting underskirts and long flowing see through overskirts, some even made of netting, Many wore shirts that did not go with the skirts and many wore tennis shoes as well. Weird. So I started photographing the ones I could capture unawares. Eventually I ran across a sophisticated group of ladies dressed in the fashion and approached them about the style. Some of them work for a conglomerate business called “Wild Horse” and their job was to show off their clothes in the bazaar. I chose to be enthusiastic about the style. Their outfits ranged from $500 up. Here are a number of shots I took over 2 days in Urumchi of these decidedly Chinese ladies.
Mark wanted to buy a knife, so we made some effort to find one we could get through customs. We finally found a store that sold knives, but they resisted selling to Mark. Finally we got down to the smallest possible knife, about 2 inches long, and they let him buy it. He only wants it to peel fruit in our room.
Finally, we were hungry and walked to a well known Uyghur restaurant called Herembag. Mark and I ordered Polo, like the meal Rashida made for us, and Chao Mian, the dish we had watched being made with square flat noodles. We were very happy with our selections and ate it all. Only wish we could have had a beer with it. While reading the menu, Hassan told us there are 32 characters in the Uyghur alphabet; 28 from Arabic and 4 from Persian. The language got started during the 7th century and the name Uyghur mans “union” or “united”.
After lunch, our last stop was the xinjiang Autonomous Region Museum, which houses a special collection of mummies.
There were just a few things that caught our eye in the Museum as well as the mummies, which were quite well preserved.
Ancient cemetery with logs on end as grave markers
Lowland Beauty (age 40-45) 3500-5000 years old. Full and head of Mummy and drawing of her face
Face of female body 3800 years old
Infant 2800 years old
Body guard with tattoo. 1100-1400 years old.
Out of time. More later.
Adventures with Julia 