Where I journey to the west

October 11, 2014

Where I journey to the west

Later than usual I know, but I've actually been traveling so no computer access! Thank God for technology and cell phones, I was still able to keep in touch with Coffee and pretend we still have a typical relationship as I traipse through western China. It was National Week for the Chinese last week! Hip hip hurrah for time off! One of the neat perks of working abroad is the local holidays- obviously we don't get all of them, but having a couple additional days is a nice relief between...well, spending your entire life for a few years here. Unfortunately National Week is designed by the Chinese to have everyone go home and take time off together. Yes, that means all 1.3 billion Chinese are trying to spend family vacation time by traveling. You can imagine how crowded that makes all forms of transportation and vacay spots...

Good thing I'm not much of a swimmer...

So a few coworkers and I decided to have some fun and try to get as far away from the eastern coast of China as we could while still technically staying in China. Hello XinJiang, end of the silk road in China...

Also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region under PRC administration, it houses a large number of ethnic minorities, including Uyghur, Kazakhs, Tajiks, Hui, Kyrgyz, and Mongols. Since the area is bordered by a bunch of stans' (including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan...), it also has a rich and disputed history of over 2,500 years.

Random trivia- K2, the second tallest mountain in the world is part of the bordering mountain range with Pakistan.

We spent almost a week traveling around, from Urumqi through Turpan then to Kashgar and Karakul Lake, which we got to by taking the famous Karakoram Highway, the longest paved international route in the world at 800 miles. Unfortunately most of the parts we were taking weren't actually paved...

Xinjiang was a beautiful land filled with great diversity. At times you could almost forget you were in China and red hair, light colored eyes were not uncommon to see.

The time we went was also when the Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha, one of their most important holidays. Families buy a sheep and slaughter it in celebration to honor Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to God. Since much of Xinjiang is heavily Muslim, we ate a lot of lamb while we were traveling around (and saw a lot of sheep being herded through the streets.) We also visited the animal market which was quite a fragrant experience.

I like big butts and I cannot lie

We pretty much winged the trip planning and despite some situations that popped up with our hotel arrangements, had a educational and fun time. We even went to a local Pakistani restaurant that only spoke Urdu...which none of us knew. There wasn't even a menu in Chinese, so after a few failed tries to communicate in both Chinese and English, one of our group finally was able to use some Dari to order made to order naan, a few wonderful veggie dishes, and delicious milk tea. (Go diversity in the service! You never know when that language training will come in handy!)

And since pictures say a thousand words, click READ MORE below to see some more photos from the trip.