We got to Almaty Airport at 17.30 on the 25th and the plane left at 06.40 on the 26th so we had a very long and intensely frustrating wait, broken only by the need to drink Fantas for £2 a bottle. The flight to Urumqi was uneventful and I couldn’t keep my eyes open to enjoy the dramatic vista of snow-capped mountains several thousand feet below. When Urumqi appeared, it was a patchwork of green spaces, evidently irrigated with snow melt from the mountains, small blocks of sandy desert, settlements of high-rise blocks similar to those in Chongqing with a height of up to 60 storeys and mile after mile of factories. Urumqi has a population of 4.5 million, small by Chinese standards, but a major industrial centre and the administrative capital of Xinjiang Province. Getting through customs and passport control took less than an hour, the easiest border we have been through. People had to have their finger prints taken on a machine; Jennifer did but, curiously, I didn’t. Perhaps they already have them from a previous visit.
I had booked the Tian Yuan hotel because it was only 700 metres from the airport and the internet said we could walk there. We tried, but there was no footpath and we didn’t fancy walking down the motorway. So we went back to the airport and got a taxi. The driver was outraged at being made to take a fare for £1 by the supervisor, which meant that he would have to rejoin the taxi rank at the end of a long queue. However he took us with a thoroughly bad grace. The hotel is huge and consists of the main part plus two blocks. We were in Block A and a young man took us along an endless maze of corridors to the room. We then slept for about 6 hours. The hotel is said to be 5-star and looks it. The cheapest room is £438 a night but I got it through Booking.com for 80. The evening meal was splendid with an enormous range of dishes to choose from.
Flying into Urumqi
Breakfast t the Tianyuan hotel
Tianyuan hotel