Turpan

AKA Tulufan

I’ve been staring at this blank blog post for the last 5 days trying to write something, anything, about Turpan. This should not be difficult. I have tons of photos and tons of thoughts. Everything just comes out so… itinerish. Yes, I did just make up that word. It’s as though the only thing I can type out is our itinerary (“first we went here. then we went there.”) So that’s what you’re getting, folks. I’m saving up my prose for the Kashgar post!

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Turpan, AKA Tulufan in Mandarin, is in the middle of a big, dry, windy desert and is the second lowest point in the world! It’s the Dead Sea of China. We hired an English-speaking guide and a car to drive us from Urumqi to Turpan for the day (about 3 hours each way.) Since we had no pre-planning and no Internet to help us make arrangements, we thought this would make it easier. In retrospect, it was fine, but I think I would have preferred to do it a bit more independently. We ended up experiencing the equivalent of the Chinese Group Tour, only in English and in a group of two.

Our tour guide, Cinderella, was very excited about the five “scenic spots” we were going to visit throughout the day. The first stop was at a karez, which is a special kind of irrigation system used to transport water from the nearby Tian Shan mountains down to Turpan. A tourist complex has been built atop one of the irrigation channels with dioramas (shudder) and tunnels to explain it all. It was really hard to take pictures inside, so you’ll just have to use your imagination. The system is made up of a series of wells dug periodically and connected underground in a long tunnel across the desert before emerging in reservoirs at the Oasis city of Turpan.

A really big water pot

Next up was a stop at the ancient city of Jiaohe. Jiaohe is located on the top of a fluvial island, between the forked channels of a river. It reminds me a bit of Masada, which is also built atop a mesa. Viewing Jiaohe requires a certain amount of imagination, since the whole thing is constructed of stone that seems to be slowly melting away. The city was inhabited between 108BC and the 13th century AD. Evidently, it was abandoned after being sacked by Genghis Khan. How cool is that?

Ruins – Genghis Khan was here

Cinderella told us that Jiaohe is not very popular among her domestic tour groups. They step out of the bus, feel the sun bearing down, and request to go somewhere else. I wanted to be an archeologist as a kid, so these kinds of places appeal to me. Mind you, I had a ton of sunscreen on. Cinderella carried an umbrella. Isn’t that sky amazing?!

Walking down Jiaohe’s Main Street, I feel like I’m on a George Lucas movie set

Here are some fairly atypical Chinese tourists. 1) They’re not part of a huge organized tour. 2) They’re actually enjoying Jiaohe (Cinderella says Chinese tourists like to visit natural scenery, not ancient buildings and ruins.) 3) They were taking photos of the scenery without one of the persons posing in front of everything. This couple, on the other hand, is very typical of the emerging Chinese adventure tourist. 1) They always carry large and fairly expensive cameras. 2) They are always decked out in adventure gear, as though they just robbed an REI/Mountain Equip Co-op. 3) They travel in small packs, usually couples or groups of couples. I am always glad to see the emerging Chinese adventure tourist. It seems they were glad to see us, too.

Our third stop was a blur. The local government has set up a mini-museum featuring the “typical” Uygur house. It features dioramas (eek!) of a Uygur family making bread, crafting pottery, visiting the market, etc. You can imagine how exciting this was. It felt like they were trying to preserve an idealized view of the “happy ethnic group,” minus all the gritty realities of life. Why worry about maintaining actual people’s homes and culture when you’ve got a folkloric museum? (But more on this complaint in the Kashgar post.) We were out of there so fast our poor driver hardly had time to smoke a cigarette.

Scenic spot number four was by far the cheesiest thing I’ve seen in ages. It is a site devoted entirely to the beloved Chinese story of the Monkey King (Journey to the West) and seemed to be popular among the Chinese tour groups. The “spot” is basically a really enormous thermometer plunked down in front of the Flaming Mountains, which are an important setting in the story. Various statues of characters in the story flank the site. You can also ride a camel or donkey cart, if you wish. All the Chinese tourists were clamoring for photos in front of the statues, ignoring the camel & donkey completely.

The Flaming Mountain

Buffalo-Bull King and the lonely donkey cart

I suppose for us Westerners, visiting this place would be something like a pilgrimage to Winnie the Pooh’s forest or visiting Prince Edward Island to see Anne of Green Gables’ house. We were a lot more interested in the pump jack across the road, to Cinderella’s chagrin. This region of China is oil-field country.

One of many small pump jacks along the road to Flaming Mountain

Our final stop was at “Grape Valley.” Grape Valley lies within one of the valleys of Flaming Mountain and is a naturally fertile place for growing, you guessed it, grapes. In reality, Grape Valley is a series of pathways intertwining through a few hundred square meters of grape vines where you can see such fascinating things as:

Sign for “cockfighting”

and another diorama, this one representing the court system in place in the region many moons ago. Cinderella described grape valley this way, “When I was a young girl, I learned about grape valley in school and I could hardly wait to come and see it for myself. When I arrived, I discovered that it is just a field full of vines. Really, it is not very interesting.” So when your tour guide can’t even come up with anything good… The whole Grape Valley scene is just a set up to the real attraction anyway, the trip to a “local family” home to enjoy some fresh grapes. Which is also just a set up to get you to buy some fresh raisins. We fell for it, purchasing half a kilo of pretty darn delicious green raisins.

Grape Valley – It looks a heckuva lot more grand than it really is

So overall I have to say that the Turpan area was interesting, but also kind of contrived. The best parts of the tour were the drives between the “scenic spots” and between Urumqi and Turpan, where we were able to see slices of life and some stark natural scenery. Unfortunately, we were halfway to Urumqi before I realized we had failed to see what might be the biggest attraction in Turpan – the Emin Minaret. Perhaps the minaret is of little interest to domestic Chinese tourists, or perhaps it is under construction, or maybe it was closed due to the “special situation.” Who knows. I was pretty mad at myself for not realizing sooner. I’m blaming the lack of Internet.

No Emin Minaret? I had to console myself with a random camel

and donkey cart guy

Logistics Info:

Our driver and English-speaking guide were arranged by the Mirage Hotel tourist agency, although any agency in Urumqi can make arrangements. You can also travel to Turpan by bus and train. Once in Turpan, go to John’s Information Cafe (website currently down, probably due to Internet blockage) on Qingnian Nanlu, opposite the Tulufan Hotel, for information. They can arrange tours and help you with hotel and transportation.

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Tagged as: China, Travel, Turpan, Xinjiang