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holiday travels through Xinjiang!
For our summer holiday 2008 we spent 3 weeks in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (above
centre), continuing the Silk Road explorations we
first embarked on in the summer of 2006 (Jiayuguan
and Dunhuang). First was the amazing wild west town of Kashgar
(Lesley had last
passed through in 1997!). We then returned by train to Urumqi, from where we
flew up to Altay (Altai) to see the total solar eclipse on August
1st (above left).
Next we braved the furnace of the Turpan depression
(80m below sea level),
before heading into the pine forests of the Tian Shan mountains SW of
Urumqi for a night in a Kazakh yurt (above right). After a final few days
enjoying the fantastic Uighur food in
Urumqi (and teapot shopping) we headed east, again by train. Despite the travel
hassles resulting from our holiday's coincidence with the Beijing Olympics (and
a number of violent
incidents in Kashgar and Kuqa which we thankfully avoided)
Xinjiang proved to be a fascinating experience. It was especially enjoyable to
meet the people of Xinjiang and, in
some cases, talk to them about what life is like in their homeland...
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