This is the view outside of our hotel in Kashgar.

And this is one of the biggest statues of Chairman Mao in China.

And these soldiers were there across from it, just standing stiffly and looking sternly at everyone walking by. While waiting for our tour bus to arrive, I watched them for a while and they disgrouped a few minutes later.

Our first stop of the day was the Idigar Mosque. This was around 10am and as you can see, it’s still very hazy.

The place looked deceptively small from the outside but it is the largest mosque in China. Each Friday, it can hold about 10000 worshippers for afternoon prayers.

On our way to the next stop, Abakh Khoja’s Tomb, we passed by some old Uighur neighbourhoods.

Some of these were set to be demolished, ostensibly to build modern buildings with proper sewage, water and electrical services, and that can withstand earthquakes better. Only a small section were set to be preserved and I thought that was a shame. Still, they could have opted to demolish everything but they didn’t so I guess it’s a small consolation.

Abakh Khoja’s Tomb was very impressive up close. It is considered one of the holiest Muslim sites in China.

Within the compound was a mosque.

And a cemetery.

I’ll finish off this post with some pictures of the Uighur people that I saw during the day. This is a family riding on a donkey cart.

This is a shot of some motorists on the road. Notice how the woman is sitting sideways at the back of the scooter – they all sit like that balancing themselves.

These are Uighur carpet wovers. Depending on the fineness of the weaving, it can take 2 Uighur women (all wovers are exclusively women) 18 months to weave a super soft and smooth woolen carpet.

Next up, one huge bazaar in the centre of Kashgar.

Two weeks ago, I got an email from Julie who works for J Walker Thompson and is the Johnnie Walker Community Manager. She said that she read that I drink Johnnie Walker, and asked if I would like to sample two bottles of special limited edition releases. Hell yeah! I immediately replied and said, “Yes, please!”

And the package arrived today! w00t!

Three layers of packaging and bubble wrap later, behold … a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label, Milestone Series with a special black label tin, and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Double Black.

I’ve never tried the Double Black variant before and for good reason …

It is currently only available duty free in limited locations, and is quite rare.

How did it taste? I drank it neat and it has a very nice bite to it and a strong oakey flavour. Oh and smokey. Just like it says on the box. Be friendly to me and I might just let you have some.

And btw? Being a blogger is great! This would be the 3rd time that I’ve received swag. The first time, I’d got 24 cans of Mother energy drink and the second time I’d got 6 bottles of Vitamin Water. Maybe I will get some KFC vouchers next. ‘Cos I love KFC. Really, I do. Woohoo!

Thanks again Julie!

The flight from Urumqi took about 2 hours. Above, you see the snack that was provided in flight. Those biscuits were so addicitive. I finished off the whole pack.

Upon arrival at Kashgar Airport, this was what we saw. Do not adjust your screen. That is dust that you are looking at.

Our local guide was a jovial guy called Mohammed. He told us that we had arrived a day after a big dust storm. If this was better, I’d hate to imagine what it was like during the storm.

This was about 9pm. If you are wondering why it’s still so bright, even though it’s summer time, it’s because China has only one time zone despite being almost as wide as Australia. In comparison, Australia has three time zones. So technically, Kashgar’s real time is about 7pm. The official time is whatever time Beijing is at and is called Beijing time. For prayer purposes however, the Uighur follow the local real time.

Kashgar’s foot and vehical traffic is uber chaotic.

As it was already late, once we’d checked into our hotel, I washed up and went to bed. For our 1-day tour of Kashgar the next day, we would be visiting the biggest mosque in China, Id Kah Mosque, the tomb of Abakh Khoja, an ancient Uigher ruler, and huge market/bazaar. Lotsa photos.

In the morning, after we’ve checked out of hotel, we headed to Tian Chi, or “Heavenly Lake” which was about 110kms outside of Urumqi. It took about 2 hours to get there and once we got there, the view above was what greeted us. The air was much more cleaner and fresher than in the city.

We then had to get into smaller buses to go up further into the mountains as the roads were too narrow for the big coaches. This would take another 20 minutes. Once we’ve went as far as the roads will go, we then had to walk on foot to get to the lake. It was tiring but the serene scenery along the way was nice.

And once we got to the destination, this is the lake that we came to see.

This is very nice and all but I was never one for the beauty of natural scenery and thought that this morning’s trip took a little bit too much effort. Hahah. I couldn’t help but feel like Clark Griswold in “National Lampoon’s Vacation” where him and his family stared at the Grand Canyon for 5 seconds before saying, “Ok we’ve seen it.”

Once again, it was the people and cultural stuff that fascinated me more. At the bottom of the foot trail going up to the lake were all these stalls, mostly Uighur, selling food and souvenirs. The smell of lamb being grilled and barbecued was thick in the air. Looking at these pictures is reminding of those smells now. Mmm.

After this, we would go to lunch before heading to the airport to fly to Kashgar.

Urumqi fascinated me because it was a Chinese city but not really. Besides the Arabic characters, the Uighur people look and talk different, although those who do speak Mandarin speak it very well without accent. The intermingling between them and the Han Chinese that I saw made it easy to forget that racial riots here last year ended up killing a lot of people on both sides.

Nonetheless, this place and other cities in Xinjiang that I would visit on this trip offered a snapshot of Central Asia with the convenience of it still being in China, and hence not much language difficulties.

I saw this little girl sitting in the middle of the street, selling bok choi from the looks of it. And somehow, it didn’t feel strange to me at all.

Here’s a closer look.

The Uighur women have striking features. My brother couldn’t get enough of hearing flawless Mandarin from such non-Chinese faces. At the restaurant theatre that we went to, he even bought more beer than we could drink just so he could talk to the girl at the bar more.

So yeah we really enjoyed Urumqi. The next day we would be travelling to Kashgar, which would be an even more Uighur city. I was excited.

So I was hanging out with friends on the weekend and they said that although they like reading my blog, they are getting bored with my China stories. As much as I like to regale everyone with stories of my wonderful life, as wonderful as it is, it’s actually quite boring. Hahah!

Because newsflash? There is no newsflash. I still don’t have a girlfriend, which means that I haven’t been having regular free sex in a long time. And although I just got promoted, I still can’t afford to have a house built on the plot of land that I own. But I am happy. Sometimes there is no reason why I’m happy. I just am.

Though mostly, it’s because I derive joy daily from the simplest of things. Today, it’s from sitting under the shade in a city park, having my lunch.

Anyway, my China stories continue tomorrow. Suck it bitches! Hahah! But seriously, thanks for reading my blog enough to tell me that I’ve been boring.

The flight from Xian to Urumqi took about three hours. You know you are in Urumqi because you see Arabic characters everywhere.

Urumqi is the capital city of Xinjiang Province, an autonomous region. Although there are other Turkic languages spoken in Xinjiang, the Uighur people make up the majority of the people and thus, the Uighur language whose written form is based on Arabic characters is one of the official languages of the province. The other being Mandarin Chinese of course.

Having said that, in Urumqi city itself, the Han Chinese are the majority – the only place in Xinjiang Province that this is so.

Our first stop after we got out of the airport was the Urumqi museum where our local guide gave us a brief history and cultural overview of the ethnic minorities that make up the people of Xinjiang. I’ve got no photos of that because photos weren’t allowed at the place.

Next stop after the museum was the Red Hill which overlooks the city.

This is the pagoda on top of the hill. It was built during the Yuan Dynasty (1277 ~ 1367 A.D.).

And here are some dare-devil Uighur boys standing and peering over the steep cliff of the hill. Don’t try this at home.

Although there were more Chinese tourists than Uighur ones, I managed to snap this photo of a Uighur family.

Next up, more scenes of Urumqi streets and people.