Xinjiang: Urumqi

From Turpan we headed west, the first ~100 miles to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Urumqi, long a post on the Silk Road, only became the capital of Xinjiang in 1884. The name Urumqi is Mongolic rather than Turkic. The Chinese name is Wulumuqi which is quite fun to say (woo-loo-moo-chi).

Today Urumqi is a modern metropolis. Save for a few historic mosques, even most of the mosques are new. Unlike Turpan, all the mosques are rather relaxed, normal, since they are mostly Hui mosques, as Uighers consist only 1/8 of the population, down from 1/4 at the beginning of Qing rule 250 years ago. So, it looks like muslims in China are as free or unfree as christians, Buddhists, etc, unless any of the adherents are separatists - as in the case of Uighers - there must be greater degrees of suppression. Alas, our timing was bad as all the museums were closed on Monday, rather unusual for China. Below are photos of the Shaanxi Grand Mosque built in 1883.







We left Turpan by train from Tulufan Bei (Turpan North) Railway Station, first below. The waiting Room is second below.




I made a new friend on the train. He's ethnically Kazak and resembles some of my Meckley kin.


Fence and Windmills and Mountains - On the Train from Turpan to Wulumuqi.


The train had been through a dust storm somewhere between Hotan and Turpan, and there was dust flying everywhere creating a layer of fine yellow dirt on the floor when we disembarked at Wulumuqi South Station.








Like many hotels in China, our hotel in Wulumuqi had a room service delivery robot (here parked in the lobby next to the low-tech water cooler).


Lunch = Veggie Baozi plus Noodle Soup.




Then to the Grand Bazaar for some souvenir shopping. The Tower is a replica of the Kalon Tower in Bukhara.




We ate dinner at the famous Ling Ling Rice Noodles restaurant. The spicy nian gao were unbelievably tasty. The best ever! No wonder there were so many yellow-clad moto delivery people waiting outside.








The second day we rode the bus (1st below) to Hongshan (Red Hill) Park, with its Buddhist Temple (2nd and 3rd below), and pretty good views from the top of the hill. Lots of folks enjoying the spring flowers at the park including a team building excursion of hair salon employees.
















On the way back to the hotel we stopped by People's Park and sat for a while in the shade, and walked by the closed Confucian Temple (with red doors), and spotted a Christian church with Chinese architectural stylings.






For dinner we came upon a small resto serving what could be called a Chinese "burger"; Chinese "veggie burger" for us. ;-)


Then to a different nian gao place where the crescent-moon-shaped noodles reminded Sun-Ling of childhood Chinese New Year's meals in Shanghai