Day 32: The Second Lowest Depression In The World
Now I am in Turpan, situated at 154m BELOW sea level, it is the second lowest depression in the world (The lowest is the Dead Sea). Which means, it is HOT here!!! And I mean Damn Hot. Together with 2 other XinJiang travellers we shared a cab and went sightseeing.
First stop, JiaoHe Ruins (Jiao1 He2 Gu3 Cheng2). It is one of the world oldest, largest and best preserved ancient desert city.
Strangely, this is not a UNESCO site but it has got the logo of it.
An ancient infant cemetry. Why was it here? It is still a mystery.
Here's a video of the surroundings.
More Pictures around.
An old Well.
Nature barrier to prevent attacks.
Wonder how do they get water in this desert? As in many other dry countries, they have lots of great underground reservoirs of water. The problem is, how to get it up? With ancient primitive equipments, it seems not possible at all. But the Uighurs (the local people here) came up with a good way in old days and it is still around now. Its called KAREZ. Here, there are over a thousand of wells around with a network of water channels running over 5000KM(unbelieveable) constructed over 2000years ago. Incredible isnt it? There is a place where you can see it for a fee as a tourist. But our taxi driver told us that we can see it for a very much lesser amount. A place where no tourist goes to. HOW? With thousands of wells around and the local are still depending on it to live, we just need to go to a local's house and ask to see it. And so we did. Very orginal.
Thats the owner.
View from the top.
Underground.
Then it was time for lunch. Had it together with the driver and the Xinjiang travellers. They brought me to a local restuarant. Though I am still in China, I dont feel like I am.
Its friday. The Muslims have to go to mosque. So after lunch, the guy that I am with went to the mosque with the driver while I waited for them.
Another mosque.
Then its time to top up petrol. I cant believe that we actually waited more than an hour in the queue just to fill up. Amazing. the queue was not even long. So while waiting, they played around with my camera.
When we finally filled up, we went to visit the Flaming Mountains. Better known as Hou3 Yan4 Shan1. The classic chinese show "Journey to the West" (Xi1 You2 Ji4) made this mountain famous. To those who had seen this show (which I believed most Singaporeans did), remember Sun WuKong with the big fan? Why is it called Flaming mountains? Because it VERY hot here. This mountain is also almost red in colour.
Here's what happened in "Journey to the West" at Flaming Mountains.
Ok, Sun WuKong and the rest of his buddies are just stories. But Tripitaka (Tang San Zang or Xuan Zang) really did passed through here when he went to India on foot in search for Buddhist scriptures. He lived during the 602AD - 644AD.
Look! A thermometer made into the shape of Sun WuKong's weapon (Jing Gu Bang).
And whats the highest temperature ever recorded? 49 degree!!! It is so hot here that they have this place where you can cook eggs by just using the heat from the sun.
Thats me trying to imitate Sun WuKong.
More pictures around.
Jing1 Gu1 Quan1 ( The ring that Sun WuKong had on his head).
Wanna see this place from a height? Yes you can.
Since that I dont have a bike to ride now, I decided to ride a Camel instead. HAHA!! How can i miss a ride on a camel in the desert?
The best way to cool youself down here is to get an ice cream,
and watch the espisode of Journey to the west which showed what happened here in the Flaming Mountains. Good old memories.
After that, we went to visit some other places. On the way, we passed by a very nice dam of water.
Turpan is also famous for producing grapes and rasins. You can see grapes almost anywhere in the town. The is the place where they dried the grapes.
The grape valley.
What else can you make from grapes? WINES!!
After a long day of sightseeing, I went back to the hotel and was surprise to see a row of BMW GS parked at the carpark.
Why cant I met them when I still have my bike with me? Sigh.
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
First stop, JiaoHe Ruins (Jiao1 He2 Gu3 Cheng2). It is one of the world oldest, largest and best preserved ancient desert city.
Strangely, this is not a UNESCO site but it has got the logo of it.
An ancient infant cemetry. Why was it here? It is still a mystery.
Here's a video of the surroundings.
More Pictures around.
An old Well.
Nature barrier to prevent attacks.
Wonder how do they get water in this desert? As in many other dry countries, they have lots of great underground reservoirs of water. The problem is, how to get it up? With ancient primitive equipments, it seems not possible at all. But the Uighurs (the local people here) came up with a good way in old days and it is still around now. Its called KAREZ. Here, there are over a thousand of wells around with a network of water channels running over 5000KM(unbelieveable) constructed over 2000years ago. Incredible isnt it? There is a place where you can see it for a fee as a tourist. But our taxi driver told us that we can see it for a very much lesser amount. A place where no tourist goes to. HOW? With thousands of wells around and the local are still depending on it to live, we just need to go to a local's house and ask to see it. And so we did. Very orginal.
Thats the owner.
View from the top.
Underground.
Then it was time for lunch. Had it together with the driver and the Xinjiang travellers. They brought me to a local restuarant. Though I am still in China, I dont feel like I am.
Its friday. The Muslims have to go to mosque. So after lunch, the guy that I am with went to the mosque with the driver while I waited for them.
Another mosque.
Then its time to top up petrol. I cant believe that we actually waited more than an hour in the queue just to fill up. Amazing. the queue was not even long. So while waiting, they played around with my camera.
When we finally filled up, we went to visit the Flaming Mountains. Better known as Hou3 Yan4 Shan1. The classic chinese show "Journey to the West" (Xi1 You2 Ji4) made this mountain famous. To those who had seen this show (which I believed most Singaporeans did), remember Sun WuKong with the big fan? Why is it called Flaming mountains? Because it VERY hot here. This mountain is also almost red in colour.
Here's what happened in "Journey to the West" at Flaming Mountains.
Ok, Sun WuKong and the rest of his buddies are just stories. But Tripitaka (Tang San Zang or Xuan Zang) really did passed through here when he went to India on foot in search for Buddhist scriptures. He lived during the 602AD - 644AD.
Look! A thermometer made into the shape of Sun WuKong's weapon (Jing Gu Bang).
And whats the highest temperature ever recorded? 49 degree!!! It is so hot here that they have this place where you can cook eggs by just using the heat from the sun.
Thats me trying to imitate Sun WuKong.
More pictures around.
Jing1 Gu1 Quan1 ( The ring that Sun WuKong had on his head).
Wanna see this place from a height? Yes you can.
Since that I dont have a bike to ride now, I decided to ride a Camel instead. HAHA!! How can i miss a ride on a camel in the desert?
The best way to cool youself down here is to get an ice cream,
and watch the espisode of Journey to the west which showed what happened here in the Flaming Mountains. Good old memories.
After that, we went to visit some other places. On the way, we passed by a very nice dam of water.
Turpan is also famous for producing grapes and rasins. You can see grapes almost anywhere in the town. The is the place where they dried the grapes.
The grape valley.
What else can you make from grapes? WINES!!
After a long day of sightseeing, I went back to the hotel and was surprise to see a row of BMW GS parked at the carpark.
Why cant I met them when I still have my bike with me? Sigh.
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
posted by ZeeVinCeZ at 3:42 AM
1 Comments:
You cannot meet the bikers bcos...
"Everything hapens for a reason!!" LOL
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