Turpan, also known as Turfan (or Tulufan), was once a major
oasis stop for caravans of thirsty camels on the Silk Road (see map below).
Nowadays, this relaxing wee town is famous for its grapes and the archeological
and architectural wonders scattered around the surrounding desert. It's also
about 80m below sea level.
The northern branch of the Silk Road skirts the edge of the Tian Shan mountains
to the north and the Hami/Turpan depressions to the south. The infamous
Taklamakan Desert is further west (south of Aksu) . One feature of the route is
the large number of caves containing early Buddhist art which punctuate its
length, most famously at Dunhuang (Buddhism
came to China along this very route from India). Just like our Silk Road
explorations of 2006 we failed to make it to any of these grottos, deciding
instead to visit an ancient fortified city called Jiaohe - a sort of garrison
town used by the Han Chinese during one of their historical incursions into the
wastelands of Xinjiang about 2000 years ago. This was long before the region's
mineral, oil and coal reserves made it even more strategically important...
Our first full day in Turpan was marked by a choking sandstorm which caused
traffic chaos. Urumqi's airport was closed, trains were cancelled, and the main
roads were choked with traffic jams of crawling vehicles. All this didn't bother
us too much...we took a taxi out to the Jiaohe ruins and wandered about picking
up shards of pottery and dodging the security guards employed to keep the
tourists on the marked paths!
The sandstorm was actually a relief. When we'd first arrived in Turpan we'd been
bowled over by the heat, well over 40°C in the shade! In the wind it was like
standing in front of a hairdryer at full blast and our eyes dried out in
seconds.
Freda and Edie enjoyed playing (and studying) among the ruins...
On the way back to town we asked our taxi driver to take us to a karez -
an underground irrigation channel. Not the touristified one in town, but a
genuine, quiet (and much cheaper!) example a few kms away. The surrounding
village was a joy. Walled farmyards held goats and donkeys (left) backed by huge
airy barns (made of adobe bricks) used for storing grapes. Luckily, the harvest
had just begun and we were invited up onto the roof of one building to inspect
the crop (centre). The village kids were all keen to practise their English on
us too (right).
The karez itself was fun to explore. In the days before drilling
technology enabled groundwater to be easily tapped, these underground tunnels
minimised water loss by evaporation and were a common way of providing water to
desert communities all over Central Asia. Turpan's run from the snowcapped Bogda
Shan (Tian Shan) peaks to the north. Nowadays only 40% of Turpan's water is
karez-sourced.
L: Looking up the karez R: Most farmyards also feature a well (and a
donkey, of course!)
The next day dawned bright and clear - the sandstorm had dissipated, so no
more of those atmospheric sepia toned photographs...We hired a couple of bikes
and cycled out to the Emin Minaret (left) past fields of grapes (centre) and
numerous mosques (right).
The Emin Minaret (and the adjoining mosque) was built in 1777 on the death of
the local hero, Emin Hoja (1694-1777). It is one of the most beautiful buildings
we've come across in China, and is made almost entirely of mud bricks, elegantly
styled in different motifs.
From Turpan we returned to Urumqi, spending another few
days in the provincial capital and making a 2-day round trip south to Shuixigou
in the foothills of the Tian Shan mountains.
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