NORTHERN XINJIANG -- Journal by Stacey Irvin
4- -00
I am in Hami now and said good-bye to Rose and Mr. Jao last night. I really did get to liking them! They were so sweet and protective of me. Rose gave me a tape with some famous Chinese music on it too. It will be nice to send them photographs of our travels.
My new guide, Jean, and driver, Mr. Ma, are cool. Mr. Ma is young and hip and really has a great smile and sense of humor. Jean is older, but is very cool with doing just about anything -- she is not as dainty as Rose. For example, Jean doesn’t even flinch at the idea of camping out in the desert between Kuqa and Niya! Hami is a neat town that I wouldn’t mind spending a little more time in. This was the first place I’ve come in contact with Uighur people.
Uighurs are of Turkish descent and their physical features are an interesting mix between European, Middle Eastern, and Asian. The Uighur food is great: special handmade flour noodles, fresh vegetables, lots of spices and yummy sauces and there is a rice dish (kind of like pilaf) that they call “finger food.” I really wouldn’t want to eat it with my fingers, but gosh, was it delicious. Kind of sweet with cooked carrot chunks in it. My only concern is that I may get tired of all the mutton.! Then, there are the raisins! Hami is actually famous for sweet melons, but the raisins were a fine substitute due to the season....mmmmmm.... little light greenish yellow raisins that are just meaty enough to drench your mouth with the SWEETEST taste! Oh! I’m addicted!
During my first full day in Hami, we went up to the Tian Shan snow covered mountains. What a nice escape this must be in the hot summer! Our SUV got stuck in some fresh snow and I got a chance to photograph an icy stream in the bright sun.
On our way back from the mountains, we stopped by some farm houses to buy some bread from a Uighur woman. We ended up going into her house and in the main room there was a window in the ceiling that illuminated the wooden crate of freshly baked round bread. Oh! It smelled so good and the light was so beautiful.
Outside, the sun was bright and the sky was deep blue with fluffy white clouds... Gosh, the adobe homes were so crisp in the sun and the trees were brilliant green. We left with some fresh warm bread and I proceeded to gobble it up and spoil my lunch!
In the afternoon, I visited two very important mosques with tombs. One houses several generations of the past kings of Hami and the other is home to a Muslim saint named Gai Si. Gai Si was one of two of Mohammed’s prophets who were invited to spread Islam in China back during......?...... This was the very first time I had ever actually set foot inside a mosque. Apparently, if Muslims in this part of the world cannot afford to make the trip to Mecca, they will travel here instead.
The Uighur farming part of town was a maze of dirt and stone lanes filled with big vegetable “green house” structures made of packed earth and covered with thick and colorful fabrics. When the sun comes out, farmers roll up the fabric to expose the crops. The morning light was wonderful -- I HAVE TO GET UP EARLY MUCH MORE OFTEN!!! I photographed men baking bread in big round ovens that open from above - like a giant vase made of earth. They just stick the round flat pieces of dough to the inside of the oven walls. Many of the doors lining the white walled streets are bright blue and I enjoyed photographing people against such brilliant color. It was fun trying to speak Uighur! I’ve mastered my three key words: “hello”, “thank you”, and “good-bye.” Hami isn’t quite as touristed as other stops along the old silk route and I was treated so warmly by everyone I passed. One little old man stopped his bike and got off to greet me and shake my hand! Many of the men drive donkey carts with their legs dangling to the side and they most always have a lovely white beard jutting down from their chin.
4- -00This afternoon we drove to Turpan in the Tarim Basin -- this is the second lowest place on earth (next to the Dead Sea)! The drive was long and hot and the desert air is really sucking the energy right out of me! I must drink more water!
Turpan is a beautiful town covered with the bright green leaves of grape vines. I wish I was here in July when the grapes are ripe! I’ll just have to come back. On the way down to the Tarim Basin we drove through the Flaming Mountains... legend has it that these mountains burned and burned until a student of the famous traveling monk, ...?...., magically acquired a special fan to put out the flames. The mountains are a bright pinkish red color in the evening sun and there are thousands of long crevices all over them that resemble climbing flames. Down in the low basin, water collects via ancient Karez wells that stretch from the base of the snowy Tian Shan mountains all the way to Turpan. It’s wild to see such a sprawling oasis full of rich green fruit trees in such a barren place.
FRIDAYToday we went around the Flaming Mountains and then into a deep valley inside to see the Bezelklik Buddhist Caves. The caves are nowhere near as preserved or extensive as the Mogao Grottoes, but the surviving murals were beautiful and bright. On our way to the caves we had to take a LONG detour through a stretch of farms.... that was just fine with me! I got out of the car to photograph a vineyard and a Uighur man and his 16 year old son greeted me. The young man was very interested in me and touched my hair and my cheek and was just fascinated by my light skin and hair and dark eyes. He wanted to know if I thought he was handsome and of course I said he was. He really wants to get out of the country and into a city and even come to the US Oh.... it seems everyone wants to come to the US.
We drove past many more grape vines and old men with donkey carts and women in their sparkling colored dresses - it is Friday, so many of the Muslim families are dressed up. This afternoon we visited the ancient ruins of Jiaohe (ruins that sit high between two deep, but mostly dry river gorges). It was incredible! Although the mud walls are weathering away, there is so much preserved! You can tell where the lanes were and even go inside the walls of a huge Buddhist temple and see the weathering remains of a couple of Buddha sculptures. The underground meeting hall and living spaces were my favorite part! But boy, I sure am glad I’m not here in the middle of summer! My gosh does it get hot!! I also went and saw the Emin Minaret. This minaret is very tall (about 40m) and is made of bricks in many intricate patterns! Grape fields are all around!
Tonight I went to the main square in town to photograph all the people outside at little evening street restaurants watching television. The whole street is lined with tables and televisions. I also wandered through the central park and found some photographers all set up and waiting for clientele. Usually there is a fountain with colored lights running, but this night it was not on. So much for their backdrop! They really enjoyed looking through my camera and a whole crowd gathered for some photos!
4- -00Although the sun isn’t out today - the odd cloud cover sure makes it comfortable for walks. This is also nice portrait light. My primary camera has been acting a little funny for the last two rolls, so today I wandered around with my trusty back-up, the Nikon FM2, and photographed a huge family gathering in celebration of a young boy (6 or 7) being circumcised. This morning I also went to visit an opening of one of the Karez wells and it is quite something! I just can’t imagine all of the work that went into digging and tunneling. These wells make such a paradise grow here! Oh, I REALLY want to come back and live here for a while! The Uighur people are so cool! I love everything! The food, the language, the homes, the dress, the music, the farms! All of the delicious fruit growing all around. I just have to come back here when the grapes and apricots and mulberries are ripe!
This afternoon I was able to visit a Uighur wedding and they got me dancing... you just have to dance to the music! I took a bunch of photographs of the band and people dancing and I’m going to send them copies. My favorite thing was watching this little boy dance and dance -- he was dancing just like the adult men and it was soooo cute!!
I’d like to recount my guide,Jean’s, fascinating background. Jean told me that her father was “exiled” to Xinjiang during the Hundred Flowers fiasco. He and 49 fellow classmates were shipped off to Urumqi for being “rightist.” They had just graduated from a University in Shanghai. Three years later, during the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Jean’s family was sent even further into oblivion...... 100 miles outside of Kashgar! Jean lived outside of Kashgar from the time she was 3 years old until she went away to college in Urumqi. Her father was forced to do all kinds of labor to support the family and they even lived in a cave due to the harsh desert environment. Jean points out that her father is an “open hearted” man and an optimist, whereas several of his friends from college didn’t make it through the trauma of being sent away. It wasn’t until the Gang of Four came to an end that Jean’s parents were allowed to move back to Urumqi. Today her father works for an import/export business.
During Jean’s childhood, she mainly lived in what she calls government farm states - basically it was a closed off community of Han Chinese. The Chinese were the minority in Xinjiang and formed their own communities. Indeed, there were plenty of uprisings between the different ethnicities in Xinjiang during that time and there continue to be today.
4- -00Well, I’m homesick again. China is dirty. China is different. I don’t speak the language and people like to stare at me. What is my photo theme going to be? Am I really taking good photos? Will the E100VS work? Will I be able to leave the country with all my film? What the heck will I do next? Why does it take so long for simple things to get done in China? Why does every restaurant have sooo many extra waitresses just standing at the door?
I want to see my family.
Oh! Well, things have gotten better since Korla. Kuqa was alright... the ancient ruins of Subashi were pretty impressive and the rock formations on the drive to Kizil Thousand Buddha caves made me feel like I’d landed on another planet. The sandy mountains were different shades of red and it looked like huge rough red pointy dominoes were slanted one upon another. I was tired that morning and had been having some unpleasant intestinal experiences, but managed to stop the car a couple of times and climb around for a while.
The Buddhist caves were interesting as always, but I don’t have a great desire to see anymore on this trip. On the way back to Kuqa I watched the land take many different shapes and suspected there was a small canyon not too far from the road. So, I trekked out into the bright sandy land and sure enough, I “discovered” a scenic canyon! The sandy ground was baked and broken off in dark chunks almost like bricks as I neared the gorge. It was so wonderful standing there in the bright sun staring off into such a beautiful expanse of silent earth. I followed crevices along the rim and imagined how they might have been formed by great flash floods from storms in the mountains.
The local guide I had in Kuqa was a Uighur woman who is quite anxious to come to America. I think I made a mistake when I “bonded” with her on a walk back from the post office. I asked her how “things” were between the Uighur population and the gradually rising “import” of Han Chinese. She seemed impressed by my knowledge of the political climate and I guess she decided (since I was sympathetic) that I would be able to help her come to the US - there is no way I could help all of the people who have told me they want to come to the US I barely know her at all and she was persistent to the point of really bugging me. She even asked me what job I thought I would get when I returned home and if I could hire her to be an assistant! The whole thing made me feel weird. She has a former English teacher who is an American and she has kept in correspondence with her for over 10 years. Why has she never asked her former teacher about coming to the US? And why me?
4/22/00 -- FROM AN E-MAIL HOME TO FRIENDSHowdy Everyone! Or should I say "Ni Hao!" Or actually...I really should say "Yahxshimusiz!" That's Uighur language!
I am in the middle of what used to be part of the Old Silk Road! My gosh, it's great!
I saw the remains of the Great Wall at a city called Jiayuguan and then I went to the giant sand dunes of Dunhuang. Dunhuang is also home to the famous Mogao Grottoes! The most impressive and extensive collection of Buddhist cave murals in the world! It was so unbelievable! There are about 492 caves carved out of a sandstone cliff and the earliest date back to around 366 AD... but I won't bore you with the numbers! I just have to say that the colors, details, stories, and sheer magnitude of the collection were just awesome!
Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of Buddhas, Bodhisatvas, flying Apsaras, Sakymunis, and disciples, and rich people who commissioned the caves.... just covered the walls! There was also evidence of explorers who took sections of murals and statues back to museums in Europe and even smoke stains from cooking and graffiti left by White Russians who used the caves as a hide-out. I sure am glad I read some about the history of these parts beforehand... it's amazing how some of it is actually beginning to "stick!" I also look forward to learning a lot more about Buddhism after this trip because of the experiences I'm having!
Then, there were the giant sand mountains! Wow! I sure am glad I wasn't visiting them in the middle of the summer! It was still pretty darn hot and the climb up just about caused my heart to beat out of my chest. I rode down the steep dunes on a bamboo sled and that was totally cool... I had to do it twice! (Just like a roller coaster -- you just can't only go once).
In Dunhuang I also got to meet a few fellow travelers from the US and Canada... they were all great folks and it was fun trading travel stories -- one couple had been gone for just over a year and had been to West Africa and the Middle East and Southeast Asia... they were setting up websites for little cafes and businesses as they went. I suppose they got a free meal or two!
But the most wonderful experience was with a couple from San Francisco! We hired a driver and went out to the dunes at night to hike in the moonlight. Just getting there was surreal because we had to drive through a graveyard with all of these tombs (mounds of sand and rock and tombstones) that ran all the way to the foot of the sand dunes before gradually being swallowed up by the desert. When we started hiking it was like we were transported to another planet or heaven or something absolutely surreal.
The air wasn't too cold, the wind had died down, and the sand was cool and soft. The moon was almost full and high in the sky with only an occasional passing cloud. Closer to the horizon, the dunes faded into a misty layer of settling sandy air. We climbed all the way up to the highest peak and sat in the sand staring off into the distance. God! It was so out of this world and so in this world at the same time! I could have slept out there. The moon's silver muted light cast shadows on the dark sides of the wavy dunes and I took sooo many photos and have no clue if they'll turn out. All I know is that I was really there having one of the coolest experiences of my life with two people I barely knew!
Wow! And now I'm at the bottom of the Tarim Basin! It's the second lowest place on earth (next to the Dead Sea!). I can't image how hot it must be in the summer.... geez it's really hot here now! But, it is also my own designated Garden of Eden! There are extensive "karez" wells that lead all the way from the snowy mountains down to Turpan... it's a network of hand-dug tunnels that keep the water from evaporating before it finally reaches the basin.
This place is known for its grapes and there are grapevines EVERYWHERE!! I wish I was here for grape season... but there are still raisins! The raisins are the absolute best I have ever tasted! It's cool because there are all of these adobe grape-drying sheds scattered all over the place with hundreds of little square holes for the hot dry air to pass through and dry out the grapes. Mmmmmm... they are little greenish-yellow seedless raisins that are just meaty enough to drench your mouth with the sweetest taste! This place is also known for its apricots and mulberries and watermelons and vegetables. The town called Hami that was between here and Dunhuang is famous for melons and I sure wish I could be there when they are in season too! Gosh, I want to live here for a few months--especially when all the fruit is ripe!!
Let me tell you about the Uighur people! They are another one of China's many minority groups and I hate to choose favorites.... but they are up there on my list! Uighurs are of Turkish descent and speak an old version of Turkish that really sounds cool. They are very striking Muslim people that look like an incredible mix between European, Turkish, Russian, and Asian. The food is soooo good and the music and their dress! In Hami, I wandered around one morning and got to meet some men baking traditional Uighur bread... they stick round flat pieces of dough to the inside of these giant vase-shaped kiln-like ovens and then peel them out when they're done!
Oh, the bread smells and tastes heavenly! It was fun wandering around a less touristed town in the low season... folks were so friendly... one old man stopped his bike and got off to greet me and shake my hand! Today, in Turpan, I visited several families while wandering through the dirt lanes lining the grape fields.... beautiful people and bright green fields of leaves! I love the donkey carts too! Old men drive them all over the place... they ride at the front end of the cart with their legs dangling to the side and they most always have a white beard jutting out from their chins!
I also got to see part of a wedding celebration and they even made me dance! I love Uighur dancing.... you just can't help but dance to the music! I'll be around Uighurs for the rest of my stay in China because, until recently, they were the majority in this province and they continue to dominate most of the western towns. I'm really starting to tell that I'm getting close to Central Asia. The province I'm in is called Xinjiang...that's pronounced like "sin - john."
OK.... guys... I'm going to go back over and check on the wedding festivities!
The other wild thing was that we had to get to the dunes by having Mr. Jao (my driver) drive us through a dark tomb-filled cemetery that runs right into the encroaching dunes. It was kind of creepy and alot of fun. I’m even more madly in love with the desert now that I was before!
