Day 99 September 3rd Turpan
The road from Korla to Turpan runs through semi-desert similar to the Ust Yurt Plateau in Uzbekistan but without the nomads and their huge herds of sheep, goats, horses and camels. This, apparently, is because of the ferocious winds which can blow sheep across the road. We did see a graveyard miles from anywhere with Moslem tombs in one section and Han Chinese tombs in another. Crossing a spur of the Tien Shen, the splendid motorway rose almost imperceptably to the summit and, only when looking down into the western edge of the Turpan depression, the lowest (134 metres below sea level) and hottest part of China, did we realise how high we had been. The mountains were magnificent with bands of different coloured rock and, on the Turpan side, we saw the first sand dunes of the Taklamakan Desert. A strong wind arose from nowhere and it was difficult to open the door of the van.
Turpan is the grape-growing centre of China with water from ice melt in the Tien Shan mountains and heat reflected off the mountains producing succulent grapes with a magnificent taste.The lamp posts on the motorway into the town culminated in a grape design. This is Buddhist rather than Moslem China and we saw a Buddhist stupa with prayer flags adjacent to a police check post.
Turpan is a large city and our hotel was actually a youth hostel with a courtyard covered with vines. The room was basic!
