Mike Chrisp

We were up a little later than usual and we were late for Ahmat. Just after the agreed time Lao Bei and Lao Wu arrived to have breakfast. We told them we were meeting Ahmat at 9:00. He was not amused and could not understand why we needed him.

We had breakfast after dispensing with the driver and then loaded up the Nissan and all five of us piled into it and made our way to the Emin Minaret. This beautiful Moslem mosque and minaret was built in 1777 by Su Laiman to commemorate the military achievements of his father, Emin Goja, who suppressed a revolt by the Jungars.

The minaret was constructed in brick. They are arranged in fifteen different patterns such as flower petals, tilted squares and others.  The largest mosque in Turfan is next door, holding up to a thousand people.

At present the mosque is being restored but we were able to wander around quite freely except in the most dangerous areas, which were cordoned off with rope. Around the mosque was a large Islamic burial site and in the ruined area to the north I found an old bathhouse with its characteristic circular roof. Hopefully one day this will also be restored.

A high wall enclosed the whole mosque area but Tim was not allowed to film within the compound despite Lao Bei showing a press card. Tim was decidedly unhappy (exceedingly pissed off) and had to resort to climbing a low hill outside to get any film footage. He was not happy with the results as telephone wires obscured his view.

We passed back outside to the street vendors and found a man selling different types of raisins. We tried them all; some were sweet and some quite bitter. We bought a kilo of the sweetest then set off for the ruined city of Jiaohe.

We took the dusty road south out of Turfan and arrived back at the car park we had visited the night before. Now it was full of street vendors trying hard to sell us anything they could from their stalls. After paying for the tickets we all started the climb up through the Southern Gate.

Jiaohe means city where the rivers meet. The whole city was built on the top of a high plateau and surrounded on both sides by splitting the rivers flow. Roughly the shape of a double-ended arrowhead, it was over 30 metres high with precipitous cliffs. It was 1.6 km long and 300 m wide. The whole built up area covered over 200,000 square metres. There were no city walls as such as the natural defenses of the cliffs was enough.

We wandered up the main street and the city stretched out before us. We could walk down narrow side streets and visited a large Buddhist temple. You could still see the carvings, although badly weathered it was possible to make out the shape of the Buddha. There were also administrative buildings, which were two stories high. The main offices were underground to keep the officials cool. Although founded during the Han Dynasty the city reached its greatest prosperity during the Tang Dynasty. The Mongols destroyed it at the end of the 13th century.

As we wandered back we came across the burial ground of 200 babies. To date no one is sure why they are buried here together. The current feeling is that they died of disease, probably an infection as innocuous as chicken pox.

After a couple of hours it had become quite hot so we left the city and found refuge under some tall trees where we had melon. The seller carefully weighed it out and then cut off segments for us. Lao Bei was insistent that we had Hami melon as it was his favourite. By now we were getting hungry and so decided to have lunch on our way to see the Karez water irrigation system in Turfan.

Lao Bei became quite upset with Ahmat because we went to the Karez tourist restaurant and he felt it was going to be too expensive. He wanted to eat over the road in a little roadside restaurant.

After lunch we visited the centre and saw how the whole underground water way had been constructed.

There are three great building feats of ancient China: the Great Wall, the Grand Canal and the Karez System. Stretching over 5000 km the water system consisted of a series of interconnecting wells. Some wells could be as deep as 90 metres. The wells were connected by underground tunnels and even had reservoirs built for storage. The water is collected from the snowmelt in the Tian Shan and flows all the way to Turfan. The ancient Uighurs used hand tools to mine their way between wells usually approximately 20 metres apart. This allowed for the spoil to be removed and also allowed fresh air and a little light to enter. Most of the karez seen today were dug during the Qing dynasty but some around Turfan are over 2000 years old.

The work was and still is very dangerous. Today pneumatic drills have replaced the old picks and shovels. Without this ancient wonder, Turfan would not be as fertile as it today. The grapes, which are grown for both wine and raisins, rely entirely on the Karez. Other crops are grown such as watermelon, pomegranate, figs, apricot, peach and mulberry.

We wandered around the exhibition of how the Karez were built and saw various tools used and winches to lower workers down the well, both animal and man powered. There were the usual vendors plying their trade and we looked at some fascinating things. One whole area was devoted to silk scarves and pashminas.

A couple of young girls dressed in brightly coloured traditional costume sat at a corner. Tim persuaded one of them to perform a little dance. Just by the exit were some musicians having a little jam session. When Tim started filming them they came alive and gave virtuoso performances. I went back to the car to try to placate Lao Bei and we had a little heart to heart despite the obvious language barrier. He was not happy with Ahmat who he considered a tour operator with an agenda. After a while Tim came back effusing about the musicians and that he had had a great interaction with them and had taken some good film footage.

The car was parked under some tall trees and a woman was collecting the fruits. Lao Wu bought some and we ate them as we drove away. Tim suggested to Lao Bei that we are like tourists out here in Xinjiang.

"No tourist," said Lao Bei. "I have three businesses and this is my busiest time. If it was not that Lao Wang was my friend I would not be here."

We were later to find out when the dust had settled that Lao Bei owned a Hyundai car dealership and organised 4x4 rallies amongst his other pursuits.

We pulled up at a cross roads and said goodbye to Ahmat. Tim took his e-mail address and told him that we would be in contact. A wave of the hand and we merged into the afternoon traffic.

Urumqi, pronounced Ulamuchi was about two hours away. Suddenly the magnificence of the Tian Shan came into view. The snow capped peaks hovering above the dust of the desert shimmered in the distance.

Just outside Urumchi we passed through a very large wind turbine farm. They stretched way off into the distance. On the other side of the valley was another field. They were all about 30 metres high.

Once we arrived in the city, Lao Bei had to use the GPS system to navigate his way to the hotel. After about twenty minutes we pulled up at another very plush hotel and had to drive around the back to a car park. Then we asked if we could get internet access. As always it was no problem. We got the access number and password and I tried for about an hour but could not connect. Lao Bei came in and he tried but there was something missing on the laptop, which prevented me connecting.

So we barrowed his laptop and connected almost immediately. Unfortunately everything was in Chinese. Anytime there was a problem it always defaulted to Chinese. Eventually after a long session we sent out a dispatch and some long awaited photographs.

It was by now 10:00 and we were hungry. Lao Bei came knocking and the four of us hit the bright lights of the night street market right opposite the hotel.

The road ahead was lit by a layer of twinkling lights, which was attached to the various lampposts. The noise of the market assaulted us immediately it was like entering a fair ground. Once we were passed the test-your-strength machines and the shooting galleries we got into the serious business of eating. Stalls were laid out selling all manner of produce. Chicken, kebabs, whole cooked goats, fish on skewers, noodles, vegetables most of which we could not identify. Every so often as we worked our way along the stalls the vendors would offer us a taste of something or other in an attempt to get our trade. After a while we walked in to a proper restaurant and Lao Bei ordered.

Tim and I decided to try the wine and went and selected a Turfan red. Lao Bei screwed up his face and we got the by now familiar, "No, no, no,  no."

Unfortunately he was right, the wine was disgusting. We set it aside and ordered some beer. After we had finished we settled our bill and made our way out into the cacophony of the street market once more. We stopped at a pharmacy to get some sun block. While Lao Bei was paying, Tim and I looked at the Chinese medicines. Most of the medicaments we could not even begin to identify but we both agreed that we would like to know what one used sea horses for.

Back in the hotel we tried to get some more work done but it was just too much and finally turned the lights out at 1:30. The alarm was set for 5:30. We had a long way to go tomorrow to get favourable lighting conditions to photograph and film Tian Chi -- Heavenly Lake.

—Mike Chrisp

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