We are still in China, but only just (both culturally and geographically). We are in fact in Xinjiang province in the far north-west of the country, somewhere far more akin to Central Asia than China as, despite the government's best efforts at shipping Han Chinese out here to settle, the Uyghurs are still a majority. Related to Mongols and Kazakhs they are Central Asian Muslims and the influence is clear in all aspects of life, from cuisine to architecture, even language.
Precisely, we are in Urumqi which boasts the world record for furthest city from any ocean on Earth as it lies slap bang in the middle of Eurasia. Its amazing to think that we can reach the very centre of this land-mass while still being in China, which stretches all the way from here to the Pacific. The journey here certainly gave me the feeling of travelling to a remote land as it was 2 and a half days by train from Chengdu, mostly through desolate, barren wilderness. Any romantic illusions I had about the desert were shattered after endless hours of nothingness, a landfill site without the rubbish: it really is deathly dull to observe. The last part of the journey was at least different in that it was an icy desolate barren wilderness, but that only served to make me colder. Urumqi is apparently wavering between -5C and -15C in the days at the moment, and with memories of snorkeling in turquoise tropical waters still fresh on my mind it has certainly been a shock to the system.
We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and headed straight to the Kazakh consulate to apply for our visa, only to be told that we had to come back on Monday, the next open day. This was so frustrating after our earlier delays in Chengdu, and of course because of the cold, but in the end it was a blessing in disguise: we took the chance to use our 3 days by going to nearby Turfan which is in a depression 230 metres below sea-level, and as such regularly records the hottest temperatures in China in the summer. Even in winter we found it to be a good 5-10 degrees warmer and a really great place to visit. For one thing it is a very significant historical city in terms of the Silk Roads as it was a big trading centre for the region as well as being the point where the road west forks north (to Urumqi and Kazakhstan, our choice) and south (to Kashgar and Zyrgyzstan). It is also a centre of Uyghur culture, has an amazingly interesting bazare and an old minaret with attached mosque that is not only the largest Muslim structure in Xinjiang but also is very beautiful and evocative of our Central Asian adventures to come. We also had time to travel to a nearby Uyghur grape village, Tuyoq, where the main trade is to produce the famous Turfan raisin - still green because the grapes are dried in large aerated brick cubes on top of the houses, protected from the rays of the sun and incidentally absolutely delicious. Visiting the red adobe village was like stepping back in time, and it seemed to emerge somehow straight from the mountains behind it. It was set in a stunning valley where they were building an underground irrigation system for the crops, a technique learned from Iran centuries ago, and where at the end of the village there were many caves containing remains of Buddha paintings and engravings. A wonderful day that was the perfect antidote to freezing, industrialised overwhelmingly huge Urumqi.
Tomorrow we (hopefully) collect our Kazakh visas and take a 24 hour bus journey through the mountains to Almaty - not a day too soon as the border closes behind us for 4 days during local festivities. We were lucky again to get the last 2 seats on the bus as I really don't know if I could endure yet another delay; as it is we will have a little more time in Kazakhstan to apply for our Uzbek visas and do some exploring before moving on again. While the journey continues to be amazing and wonderful I am glad that the pace is now picking up: it is definitely time for me to come home now; there are some things an Andy just can't live without.