Sunday, October 01, 2006
TULUFAN (Turpan)Perhaps the six nights here will go down as the highlight of the holiday. As usual it's not just must-see sights but people who made the difference. We first saw Andreas a 40 year old German and his wife Lina (originally from Lithuania who had left for Germany on independence) on the bus from Ruoqiang to Korla, but didn't make contact until we met again on the bus from Korla to Tulufan. They have been cycling from Germany for two years and one month, via Turkey, Iran, across India from Calcutta to Amritsar, through Pakistan via Hunsa and the Karakoram highway to Kashgar.
Andreas has just broken his expensive bicycle frame for the second time. Last time it took a month to get his free guarantee replacement frame through. This time it is stuck in customs in Beijing, though in fairness it seems the problem lies with the choice of a local German carrier rather than one of the international giants of this industry, because they deliver into China through an associate the tracking numbers get transcribed as well.
A KORLA PEAR from Michael sitting behind, to the left Lina and Andreas |
ANDREAS, LINA and JOAN with Michaels latest selection |
Michael senses immediately when I am taking a line opposite to my true thoughts and I often see Andreas give a little chuckle at some play on words which the others, even Joan, have missed, and that requires a deep understanding of English and personality. It's a side of me that rarely is seen in polite Western company, maybe fleetingly in language classes. The beauty is that we can go from sheer fun to serious thoughts in a few minutes, as we probe each others deeply held views, without fear and without giving rise to offence. It's has been like being at university again, talking and drinking (mostly Andreas) without boundaries, entering those really interesting philosophical areas which are too often taboo at home. Two Buddhists, a one time Catholic, an atheist, an Agnostic and a Chinaman who knows only that he isn't 'Confucian', makes a fair mixture.
This morning we saw them all off back to Korla on the 11am bus. Tomorrow we will go east to Hami and then to Dunhuang. Today is the start of one of two Chinese National holiday weeks. I had to wait ten minutes to get one of the 44 computers in this room, most people, mostly male, are playing games, hardly anyone else is entering text. Still at 7.5 hours per £sterling this is not so surprising.
Strangely it was only this morning, after they had left, that Joan and I saw the old town of Turpan as we walked east for 3 km along a minor road to the mosque and the Emin minaret. The old life style is very much alive here as it was in Yarkand (Shache), but instead of being a street of metal bashers the activities were concentrated on the sultana and cotton trades.
GRAPE DRYING CHECKER WORK ROOMS |
CARPET WASHING IN THE ROAD |
On arrival at the mosque we could not gain access from the west and so decided to walk around it on a country road, and ended walking across the vine fields to gain access via the old desert town. Many of the old cave like building were still fairly intact, even though it had obviously been deserted for several centuries. By contrast the mosque itself was rather a disappointment.
TUYOK MOSQUE |
CAVE DWELLERS |
INSIDE ROOM with COT |
Incidentally Joan and I had been puzzled for some time by the frequent reference to Veega people. Only with his help did we realise this was the obvious pronunciation based on Chinese Pinyin of the word written as Uighur.
LADDER TO GRAPE DRYERS ABOVE |
THE WELCOME, AS ALWAYS |
One final stop to inspect a cotton field, we left having stolen a seed pod and a flower, the ripe pod opened like a large rose bud to expose the cotton. Michael, although 23, was enjoying his first trip to Xin Jiang with as much wonder as us, surprisingly it was his first trip without family or friends. He was intent on improving his English and his knowledge of western culture, before pursuing a career like his father in industry and commerce. He has offers from four British Universities and hopes to take one up next September, so we look forward to seeing him again in the UK. He would make a fine outside centre with his tall athletic powerful build, though I tried hard to convince him cricket was the game par excellence - he now believes it has something in common with chess!
ANDREAS (NOW UNFORTUNATELY DEAD IN NEW ZEALAND) |
New Turpan's best feature is a wide grape pergola fully 1.5 km long which stretches from north to south across the city. In the morning it was used for marching practice by the middle school classes. Dressed in a uniform, which resembles that one time worn by British and American sailors, they marched up and down shouting Ee, Ah, San, Sir, (1, 2, 3, 4 or Yi, E, San, Si, in Pinyin).
CHAOS RESOLVED |
Next stop we came upon a artist training pupils in caligraphy, if that's the right description for someone skilled in the various eras of Chinese writing. Michael spotted it from the shop sign in Chinese. We were welcomed in and he insisted on doing four sheets for us. There were a good number for paintings which often come in sets of four - Bamboo in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter being a common theme. Since he would accept no money we offered to buy the bamboo set on display, but it was not for sale so he offered to paint us a new bamboo theme for the following day, again as a gift. You just have to accept such kindness, as Michael explained he is a teacher, not a business man, and this is his way of welcoming us to China.
JOAN, LINA and MICHAEL at JIAOHE |
JIAOHE |
In between we did very much less well with the pair of drivers who took us to see the 'Flaming Mountains', the mountains should have been flaming red but from that point of view were rather disappointing. We did however avoid wasting an entrance fee to a compound to see them better, as we did later that trip with the caves at Bezeklik, which apparently have little to offer, though the scenery going there was well worth the trip. The new industry, oil, was all too obvious in the desert along the mountain range with hundreds of 'nodding donkeys' side by side steadily pumping oil.
Michael has really given my Chinese a boost. At the start of the of the hour long trip to Tuyok he asked me to construct a sentence in Chinese, after that he kept asking how do you say this and that. Simple enough but I was amazed at my fluency with a modicum of prompting a great deal of emphasis on getting pronunciation absolutely right, he insisted that tones were not important and that you would be understood if the pronunciation was correct. The taxi driver was pleased too and kept giving a thumbs up sign over his shoulder - a sure sign I could be understood.
A month with Michael and I would make a huge amount of progress in spoken but not written Chinese. The next best thing is that he has suggested we meet up with his girlfriend in Xi'an. We left Wales in a total hurry having just seen off our Anglo-French granddaughters. Many preparations were missed, but I did rush into Argus to buy a personal CD player to play two discs of Chinese vocabulary and short phrases. That was the best move I made, without it I would never have got on as well. Pinyin is eventually a godsend, but it is very hard to master a phonetic equivalent to Chinese which turns e into u, ang into eng, uo into war, ou into oh, i into ee or irr etc. Difficult for me at first but remarkably consistent once mastered.
We never did take Theresa's final advice to take dinner lounging under vines at Grape Valley, but I did buy an expensive bottle of wine for dinner last night, Lan Lou I think, we have the label. But at a restaurant price of 400p it was more or less the same as an equivalent quality in a British Supermarket. In contrast dinner for five including a large fried fish with a wonderfully flavoured slightly spicy sauce cost less than 600p. Lots of garlic and lots of peppers, red and green, hot and cool, are used here. We need to rethink our use of chilli and garlic, somehow they can use huge amounts which flavour the food, but unless you are fool enough to eat the hot peppers, leaves the food passably mild. Food here has been an eye opener.
When we started backpacking 20 years ago at 50 we were the oldest around. There a large number of travellers here in remote China of our own age, but non more interesting than the couple of women we met here in John's Cafe at Tulufan. One a veteran long term traveller, Jewish, with spells in Germany, France and England . The other an American, a keen trout fisherman, living in Florida, who raved about Chile and her next trip was going to include a cheap boat to the South Pole. Both bubbly at ages they'd not care to think about. Chile is next on my wish list, roll on February. Michael says the year of the pig will bring especial luck. The 'girls' have recommended a good hotel in Hami 'The Electricity', sounds exciting, so here goes.
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