吐鲁番 Turpan 1-day Trip

Venue: Turpan

Date: 4 April 2009
Time of Departure: 8.30am
Person involved: 7 tourists + 1 tour guide yang licik + 1 driver

It was quite a sunny day. We were warned that the weather would be around 20-30 degree celcius and will be very dry. This trip ended up fun yet frustrated and meng-keksim-kan. My sight couldn't balance up either as the colours of the scenery are either yellow or ground color. *Argh*

It tool approx 2 hours from Urumqi to Turpan.

Fyi, Xin Jiang is a multi-racial state and Uygur is the largest population in Xin Jiang, followed by Han zu 汉族, while Turpan is one of the 聚集地 of Uygur people. Geography: Turpan is the lowest place in the world. As Turpan is surrounded by numerous mountains and the far distance from sea (Urumqi holds the longest distance from sea in the world 世界上里海洋最远的地方), this situation makes humid air unable to cross over the high mountain, resulting dry and hot weather in Turpan.

There are 4 MOST or -est to describe Turpan:
1. Sweet-est 最甜: Grapes in Turpan contains high glucose level, among them, no seed white grape (无核白葡萄) is sweetest grape in the world.
2. Low-est 最低: "Turpan" in Uygur language means "lowest land". Lowest place in China, 艾丁湖 Aiden Lake is 155m below sea level.
3. Dry-est 最干: Turpan is one of the driest place in the world (降水最少最干旱的地方，干旱少雨区 - someone help me to translate please).
4. Hot-est 最热: Another nickname for Turpan - City of fire 火洲, because of its hot weather. Highest temperature can reack up til 49.6 degree celcius, temperature of earth surface even reached 89.2 degree celcius. Days with temperature higher than 40 degree celcius in a year is about 35-40 days.

On the way 1: 风力发电厂 Wind Energy Power Center. Xin Jiang places the largest wind energy power center in Asia.

On the way 2: Death Sea of China, Xin Jiang Salt Lake 中国死海，新疆盐湖. We didn't drop by, but just looking out from our van. The salt concentration in this lake is 7 times higher than the usual sea, makes it really darn salty and you won't drown. During summer, this is one of the hot spot for tourists to take a salt bath.

We passed by 达坂城 Da Ban Cheng too. If you know the song '达坂城的姑娘', the song is a lie and fake! Due to the geography and weather condition, ladies there ain't as beautiful as what the song says. The origin of this song is because the president of China then wanted a railway to be built on time, but the condition was so hard that time. So, a composer thought of this idea and wrote this song. Surprisingly, the song really works and the workers even speed up their work time just to make sure to reach Da Ban Cheng soon. That's what the tour guide told us lah.

The van was really teruk plus the bumpy road, makes us quite difficult to listen to what the tour guide said. She said something about adding up RMB100 for this trip, but we didn't catch what she means, until it triggers a bigger problems later that night...

On the way 3: Turpan Tourist Information Centre.

This is where the tickets are purchased.

They arranged few series of hot spots with different price rates.

We ended up paying RMB320 for seven places to visit, which is extra RMB100 from what we were quoted first.

First stop: 坎儿井 Kan Er Jing.

Kan Er Jing is a systematic underground draining system used in Turpan. The water supply is from Tian Shan 天山，one of the highest peak in China, and the water is called 天山雪水 Mountain Tian snow water, as the water is actually melted snow's liquid.

Below this museum is the exact drain used last time. The water is freezing cold and the drain aint so deep either.

One of the signature in Turpan is as above - grape farm. Due to the weather and geography condition, Turpan is very suitable to plant grapes. As I mention above, they produces the sweetest grape in the world. However, as the weather is just exiting winter, the grape trees are dug up from the ground recently and not even leaves can be seen yet. Haiz~ (fyi, they bury the grape tree trunks underground during winter to prevent it from breaking)

Second stop: 交河故城 The ancient city JiaoHe.

Here once a location of a city that has large population, government, administration etc. It's quite cold as it is almost made out of ground!

Third stop: 维吾尔古村 Uygur museum.

It's a museum about Uygur nationality. Everything about Uygur. That is exactly how the house of Uygur here looks like (in a large scale).

One of the features in Uygur house hold is this thing 葫芦 hanging on the door. It means the house has a baby boy recently. I forgot what they will hang if they have a baby girl.

Another feature is this: Grape hanging room. The purpose is to hang the grapes, let the wind blow it dry to produce the finest raisins.

LUNCH BREAK

I was srsly disappointed

Fourth stop: 苏公塔 Su Gong tower.

It is a tower built by 额敏和卓 Er Ming He Zhuo, a King and his Uygur royal family members. This tower was built to embrace Allah, besides to show his loyalty to Qian Long.

Inside this building, is a large area for the people to perform Sembahyang. I tell you, it's so cold as if they installed Air Cond in it! As the wall is made of earth and very thick, the sun can't get through the thickness of the wall, resulting the cold atmosphere indoor.

Fifth stop: Uygur Home Visit.

The tour guide arranged a visit to an Uygur house.

The owner served us various kind of raisins, biscuits and tea. It's really my first time trying different types of raisins.

They arranged an entertainment show for us too! The daughter of the owner performed Uygur dance and an Indian dance. Our conversation was quite *slap forehead*.

Out of sudden, this little girl tried to catch our attention by walking to her sister while her sister is dancing. Beh tahan the cuteness~

Sixth stop: 葡萄沟 Grape Valley

One of the 'MUST VISIT' hot spot. However, since it's not even their season yet, we could see nothing. -________-"

One of the famous landmark here is 鹰嘴崖.

Seventh stop: 火焰山景区 Fire Flaming Mountain Museum

For those who familiar with 西游记, this place should not be a strange place for you. Indeed, this place really exist, and the story is more or less same!

According to the true fact, there is a 唐僧 in real life. He is called 玄奘.

For him to go to India from China, he must cross the one big section of the Silk Road, and Flaming Mountain is located in his journey. According to legend, even though the mountain is not really high, but the hot weather and the steep mountain condition makes his journey more difficult. However, he managed to conquer the mountain and continue his journey.

A large scale of 如意金箍棒 aka a termometer is located at the center of the museum.

Outside, there's few statues from the legend 西游记. 牛魔王，铁扇公主，唐僧 and his konco.

Eight stop: 万佛宫

This place is not really worthy. It's just another museum with Buddhas statues and an outdoor scenery where more statues of 西游记 characters can be found.

The tong sampah

China map with a mark stated 'Hottest place in China - Huo Yan Shan', and behind, the famous ‘孙悟空大闹天宫时，蹬倒了太上老君的炼丹八卦炉’ statue.

This mountain is called 馒头山. It gets this name due to the round shape of the mountain. If you zoom up the picture, try to look at the green circle. The few dots there are camels!

The enormous 弥勒佛

Ninth stop: Climbing 火焰山峡谷 Flaming Mountain valley

This would be the best place ever that I've visited.

To get to the climbing stairs, we need to enter this holy dark 牛魔王洞.

公主树 Princess Tree

Time to conquer 火焰山！
‘没有过不去的火焰山’

This climbing session was a full stop of our 1 day trip. Later we headed back to Urumqi, dropped by 达坂城 to purchase some nuts.

Please refer to this blog for the frustrated part.