AKA Wulumuqi
Urumqi… ooroomchee… I like saying that. In Mandarin it is even more fun: Wulumuqi… wooloomoochee… The capital of Xinjiang Province, there really isn’t anything spectacular about Urumqi. (Other than that name!) It is a big Chinese city, not unlike a thousand other cities in China. There are about 2 million people living there, with 75% Han, 12% Uygur, 8% Hui and the rest a mix of various minorities. For those who have traveled or lived in China, Urumqi will not interest you that much. Unless you are me.
Urumqi street with Tian Shan mountain range in the distance
I can’t help it, I liked Urumqi. Sure, it is a big, somewhat charmless city, but it is an established city. Infrastructure is in place. The streets and parks and canals running through it are clean. The sky is blue (when not experiencing sandstorms). All of the things that Linyi is not. And in some ways, the feeling of it being a Chinese city helped decrease the bewildering aspects of seeing police/soldiers everywhere.
View towards Hong Shan Park along busy road
When I say “Chinese” city, of course I mean that it is a city set within the boundaries of China. But there is also a hidden second meaning, and that is the fact that Urumqi has a visible Han Chinese majority. This fact is at the very center of the recent “special situation” affecting Xinjiang. And yes, “special situation” is the terminology used by the hotel staff to refer to both the July riots and the changes they brought about. No Internet? “Because of the special situation…” Police checkpoints? “Because of the special situation…” We were particularly disappointed to learn a popular night market and the Grand Bazaar were closed due to the “special situation.”
Here’s the conversation:
Us: “How do we get to the night market?”
Hotel Staff: “Night market closed.”
Us: “But it is only 8:30 PM. It is not open at night?”
Hotel Staff: “No, it is closed.”
Us: “But it is a night market, right?”
Hotel Staff: “Yes, but it is closed.”
Us: “What time does it open?”
Hotel Staff: “Closed now.”
Us: “Yes, but when does it open? When can we go?”
Hotel Staff: “Special situation… night market closed.”
Us: “Ohhhhhhhh. That kind of closed.”
What a bummer.
So how did we entertain ourselves for a day and a half in Urumqi? The DH and I are not organized tourists. We had no bus to haul us around to the “scenic spots.” Instead, we woke up, ate breakfast and then proceeded to wander around aimlessly. My feet were a little tired at the end of the day! We walked up and down some of the major streets, a few side streets and through People’s Park. I always advise walking around without a plan to get a feel for a city. In China it is safe to do so. I suspect that the locals thought us a little crazy. The whole day we never encountered another foreigner!
Fabulous tandoori cooked naan bread. This was for sale in a neighborhood that seemed to have more Uygur residents.
A lot of people asked me what it is like in Urumqi after the riots, whether or not we noticed any ethnic tension. Walking around, we encountered both Han and Uygur residents going about their days, hopping on and off buses, buying fruits and vegetables, taking their kids to school. I didn’t see any visible tension between the groups, but I didn’t really expect to. It all seemed relatively normal (other than the police/soldiers!) As a stranger to the city, I’m not sure I would know what tension looked like. It was pretty clear that the Han are in the majority. We also did not see any physical evidence of the July riots, such as fire or destroyed buildings, but I imagine that was all cleaned up ASAP following the restoration of order. (On the 12th six men were sentenced to death for their roles in the riots.) Really the only way I knew I was specifically in Xinjiang was the sighting of the occasional mosque dome and the Arabic script of the Uygur language on the sides of buildings. (Kashgar is more easily identifiable as a Uygur city.)
One of several mosque domes we saw on our walk.
We spent the afternoon in the Xinjiang Museum. I love museums and this one was better than I expected. The highlight is the display of several mummies taken from sites deep in the desert. The mummies have obvious Caucasian features. One of the reasons I find Xinjiang so interesting is the mix of people and cultures that defines the province. Evidently that mixing has been going on for many thousands of years. This is the heart of Silk Road territory, after all! The museum also features a carpet display and dioramas explaining the many ethnic groups (or minority groups, as the Han Chinese refer to them) that live in Xinjiang. They are Uygurs, Mongolians, Kazaks, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Russians, Tatars, Manchu, Dao’er, Hui… (I may have forgotten one or more!) Dioramas kind of freak me out.
Don’t forget your “revolutionary history.” In People’s Park.
The museum also has a “Revolutionary History of Xinjiang” display, featuring memorabilia related to the civil war and founding of New China. That section has no English translations, however, so I’m not really sure what everything I was looking at meant. I’m not sure I was supposed to!
At the entrance to People’s Park – look at that sky!
People’s Park was fun, too. We were there on September 30th, and everywhere we walked we encountered groups of people dancing or singing or playing musical instruments. I got the feeling that they were all rehearsing for something, perhaps for local events planned to celebrate the October 1st anniversary? Since we were in Turpan on the 1st, we couldn’t come back to the park to find out. If they were not rehearsing for something special, then let me just say how wonderful the community spirit is! (The Han community… I don’t even remember seeing any Uygur people in the entire park!)
This huge group was singing Chinese songs accompanied by a full band, including a saxophone.
As far as food goes in Urumqi, we suffered through one dismal meal in a very, very touristy restaurant the hotel sent us to and one wonderfully delicious meal in a random Uygur restaurant we came across on a random street. Not really knowing what to order, we just pointed at a picture of a dish that looked good and figured it would be okay. We also ordered our daily ration of lamb kebabs. The dish was sublime. Superb. I’m drooling now. I don’t know what it was called, but it contained potatoes, green peppers, onions and lamb cooked together in a tomato-y broth. How could you go wrong with those ingredients? It was a simple, hearty dish that kicked off our week-long lamb-extravaganza. (More to come on that subject!!)
Logistics info:
We stayed at the Mirage Hotel, located centrally on Xin Hua Bei Lu. It is a Chinese 5 star hotel and cost 380RMB per night. Please note that is the most we have ever paid for a hotel in Asia! What a splurge! But it was awesome watching CNN in English every evening. We made reservations through elong.net.
When in Xinjiang, it is important to distinguish between Beijing time and local time. Although Xinjiang is located west of Beijing, and technically should be two hours behind Beijing, it is not. Beijing time is the official time zone for ALL of China, Xinjiang included. In Urumqi in late September, the sun comes up at 8:30 AM! Some people choose to follow the more logical local time (subtracting two hours) and we found this to be true in Kashgar. Urumqi is the capital city so it does seem to follow the official time, but we noticed people saying “Beijing time” when referring to opening hours or flight schedules, so there does exist the possibility someone could mean local time instead. Be sure to clarify!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
You are selling me on a Xinjiang vacation.
Just wait until I post about Kashgar! We did see a Western family there with two kids, probably about 5-8 years old. They were expats from Beijing I think. The kids looked like they were having a blast.