Travelling the Silk Road: A Virtual Tour

October 22, 2008

This blog traces our journey along the eastern part of the Silk Road starting from its eastern terminus in the city of Xi'an (also known as Chang'an when it was the capital of the Tang dynasty and one of the world's great cosmopolitan centers) and moving westward to Urumqi, the present-day capital of China's westernmost province of Xinjiang. From Urumqi, we took a bus to the Turfan basin which is the lowest and the hottest spot in China, and then a car to Heavenly Lake in the Tianchi mountains. Unfortunately, we did not make it to two important Silk Road stopovers -- Dunhuang in Gansu province and Kashgar which is on the edge of China's western border. Dunhuang's caves contained a treasure trove of documents and art that tell us much of what we know about life along the Silk Road between the 8th and 10th centuries. Kashgar was an important crossroads for East-West interaction, and is famous for its lively bazaar (marketplace).


XI'AN

Xi'an sits in the Wei river valley which has been home to the capitals of several major dynasties, including the Qin, the Western Han, and the Tang. Xi'an (or more precisely the nearby town of Xianyang) is home to the terracotta warriors (see picture below) and the tomb of the emperor who first unified China and established the Qin dynasty. The city reached its peak in the Tang dynasty when it was a bustling cosmopolitan center for East-West trade along the Silk Road, and a place where many different cultures and religions coexisted.


One sign of this religious diversity can be found in the famous Muslim quarter which we visited and ate lunch. The Muslim quarter is home to much of the city's Hui (Chinese Muslim) community. Muslims have been here since at least the 7th century, though today's community is said to date back to the Ming dynasty.


The Muslim quarter is home to the Great Mosque which was said to have been founded in the 8th century, although most of the buildings date back to the more recent Ming and Qing dynasties. The Great Mosque contains an interesting mix of Chinese and Islamic architecture. It faces west towards Mecca but contains many features one finds in Chinese Buddhist temples and gardens such as rocks, pagodas and archways (see pictures below). (Speaking of Buddhist temples, Xi'an is also home to the Big Goose Pagoda which is surrounded by Da Ci'en Temple, one of the largest temples in Tang dynasty Chang'an. The pagoda housed Buddhist sutras brought back from India by the monk Xuan Zang who spent much of his life translating these scriptures.)






















In the Muslim quarter, we ducked into a restaurant for a taste of yangrou paomo (made of flat bread crumbled into a bowl of noodles, mutton and broth), lamb kebabs, noodles and tea. A meal that was very different from what you'd find in a typical Chinese restaurant.





















There were also many vendors selling dried fruit, nuts, and the delicious peanut and walnut cakes and dried permissons (see picture on the left). We picked some peanut cakes up from this friendly gentleman.






















URUMQI

After Xi'an we flew to the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi. Xinjiang is fascinating: it's very different from the rest of China both geographically and demographically. It's population is very diverse and contains around 50 ethnic groups, many of whom have more similarities with Central Asian peoples than with Han Chinese. The main ethnic group are the Uighurs, but there are also Kazahks, Hui, Mongols, Russians, etc. There are also quite a few Han Chinese settlers. Xinjiang these days is under a tight security blanket because of acts of violence committed against Chinese police and militia in the last few months. There is a small separatist movement here which has been fighting for the creation of a East Turkestan state. They have been branded terrorists by the Chinese government, but other Uighers who are not part of this group have been implicated and harrassed as well. When we traveled to Xinjiang last summer (2007), the violence had not yet flared up and the security thankfully was not so tight.

Urumqi seems like a regular Chinese city with little of the Muslim flavor present in places like Turfan and Kashgar. There is a major bazaar, Erdaoqiao which also boasts a KFC (note the Arabic script underneath Colonel Sanders, and the Chinese characters for KFC just above the doorway)......




















.....and of course the Uighur food which we took in at a well-known local restaurant (what you see in this picture is lamb kebabs, polo or rice pilaf, nokot or chickpeas with carrot, yogurt and tea)...

















....and stands along the street selling flat bread (nan) and lamb kebabs, but otherwise not much else to suggest that we are moving away from China and towards Central Asia.























From Urumqi, we took a cheap, but comfortable airconditioned (very important!) bus into the hot Turfan basin, about a 2 1/2 hour ride east of Urumqi. As we drove into the basin, we could feel the temperature rising in the bus. In the remaining pictures, you'll see the extremes in the geography of this region, from grassland to desert to high mountains, and get some sense of how inhospitable and difficult the terrain was for travelers coming along the Silk Road who had to navigate this terrain.























TURFAN (TURPAN)

We went to Turfan in August, so it was hot but our driver who we had hired when we got into the Turfan bus station told us it was pretty pleasant for Turfan, only in the mid-90s. (Apparently, temperatures around 110 during the summer are quite common.) Our driver took us first to Grape Valley, a lush green valley where grapes are grown. Grapes and raisins are one of Xinjiang's main crops and grape vines, and grapes being laid out to dry everywhere. On the left is a picture of where we stopped to have lunch (notice the large clusters of grapes hanging on the trellis). Grape Valley is the green area just behind the girl in the traditional Uighur dress.






















Our next stop was to look at a karez, which is an ingenious kind of irrigation system used to irrigate crops in this hot, arid landscape. The term "karez" refers to a system of underground channels dug to bring water from the mountains down to the plains. The picture below on the left shows an actual channel. At regular intervals along these channels are dug wells to allow people access to extend the channels further (see picture of the scale model on right). This entire system is fed by gravity thus eliminating the need for pumps. Having the channels underground also reduces water loss from evaporation. Turfan, and a number of other oasis towns in the area, owe their existence to the karez, some of which were constructed more than 2000 years ago.































From the karez, we moved on to the Jiaohe ruins. These ruins, along with the Gaochang (Khocho) ruins are a reminder of the importance of this region to the Chinese empire during the Han and Tang dynasties. Jiaohe was a military garrison during the Han and Tang dynasties, while Gaochang was the Uighur capital in the 9th century and an important provincial post on the Silk Road until it burned down in the 14th century. Jiaohe is striking not only because the ruins are still well preserved, but because its baked ruins are built on this leaf-shaped plateau bounded by two verdant river valleys. Here's one of the river valleys. The Jiaohe ruins sit on the plateau to your right.




Among the ruins in Jiaohe are a Buddhist temple built around the 5th century (picture on the right), and a stupa (picture on the left), reminders of the early Buddhist influence in this region that came via the Silk Road through India. I also couldn't resist putting in a picture of what looked like Homer Simpson's profile (did he come on the Silk Road?), and a picture of the site of what is thought to be the Jiaohe government office.



























































As my wife remarked to me later, one amazing thing about these ruins is that many of the structures remind you of the present dwellings you see all around Turfan. I've included here a picture of a present-day cemetery in the village of Tuyoq on your left, and a picture of the ruins on your right. A reminder of how little things have changed out here in the hinterland.



























We then asked the driver to take us to the village of Tuyoq which is off the beaten tourist track. On the way, we stopped to snap a picture of Flaming Mountain and got back quickly into the (barely) airconditioned car.



The village of Tuyoq was an fascinating place that looked like it had been preserved for centuries. It mainly produces grapes (what else!) and has been a pilgrimage site for Muslims for centuries. Below are some pictures of the village. The picture on the left is facing the village mosque. Note the beds on the roof in the foreground. When we asked about this, we were told that people often sleep on the roof in the evenings because it's cooler. The picture on the right is taken on a hill behind the mosque.

































As noted, Tuyoq has been a destination for Muslim pilgrims who go to the village to visit the mazar, or symbolic tomb of the first Uighur Muslim. The mazar is up on a hillside above the village surrounded by earthen walls. When we ventured up, there were a number of people inside the mazar (the structure with the green roof). They did not allow us to go inside. Up on the hillside, there were poles with pieces of clothing tied to them which function as prayer flags.






















Further upstream from Tuyoq are a series of Buddhist caves dating back to the 3rd century B.C. Some of the art was damaged, we were told, by Muslims and Japanese soldiers. I tried to take some pictures of the cave art, but a guard was standing there telling me no pictures. When I tried to take one, he tried to take my camera away. I told him no way, and then agreed to delete the picture.























HEAVENLY MOUNTAIN (TIANCHI)

After several days in Turfan, we hired a car to take us up to Tianchi (Heavenly Mountain) which is part of the Tianshan mountain range that runs east-west across central Xinjiang. Tianchi is a picturesque glacier lake about 7,000 feet in elevation, though some of the peaks around the lake reach over 16,000 feet. We stayed in a Kazakh yurt by the lake and hired some Kazakh guides to take us up the mountain by horseback. This area is settled mainly by Kazakhs who raise sheep on the mountainside. Below you see the two guys who led our horses up the mountain. Note their facial features which are more akin to people of Central Asia than to Han Chinese. Also below are pictures of the outside and inside of the yurt where we slept. The wood stove inside the yurt came in very handy as temperatures even in August went down to the 50s.













































































We asked the people who managed the yurts to kill a sheep for us and roast some lamb kebabs for us. They were the best kebabs I've ever had. We shared them with some other backpackers who were staying there -- an Israeli, a Dutch couple, and two Afghan New Yorkers who were working in Kabul for the U.S. government -- along with a simple meal of rice pilaf, carrots and tea.

Xinjiang -- part of and apart from China

In August, my family and I went to Xinjiang for a week. We went to the capital, Urumqi, and the adjoining Turfan Basin and Tianchi (Heavenly Lake) up in the Tianshan mountain range. Xinjiang is a huge chunk of China. It is bigger than Alaska but more important to China than Alaska is to the U.S. It sits on about 30% of China’s oil reserves and adjoins that volatile but oil and natural gas-rich region known as Central Asia.

While Xinjiang is part of China, it also stands apart from China in many ways – culturally, geographically, historically and politically speaking. Culturally, the different ethnic minorities that populate Xinjiang are Turkic-speaking people who have more in common with their Central Asian and Russian neighbors. Uighers, Kazaks, Mongols, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Russians are some of the major ethnic groups living in Xinjiang. We saw displays of these different ethnic minorities in the provincial museum in Urumqi. The food in this region is very different from typically Chinese food, and again shares more in common with Central Asia and the Middle East as you can see in some of our pictures in the Flickr website.

Geographically, this is a region that is very different from either the rice fields of southern China or the loess plains of northern China. Much of it is inhospitable land, consisting of desert or high mountains with pockets of oasis towns, as you can see from our pictures from Turfan and Tianchi.

Historically, Xinjiang has only been part of China since the Qing dynasty when the Qianlong emperor’s military campaigns succeeded in defeating the Zunghar tribes (also known as Western Mongols) that had given the Manchus fits since the start of the Qing. By 1759, with the capture of the cities of Kashgar and Yarkand at the far western edge of Xinjiang, the Qing had expanded China’s territory further than at any point in China’s history. Indeed, Xinjiang literally means "new frontier" in Chinese.

Before the Qing, this region was an important part of the Silk Road that connected China with central Asia, India, the Middle East and southern Europe. Some of the places we visited – Urumqi and Turfan – were important stopovers on the northern Silk Road. The Silk Road was not only an important conduit for the trade of goods such as silk and jade, but also for the exchange of different religions and values such as Buddhism and Islam, of which we saw many influences. Here are pictures of an ancient Buddhist stupa and relative more modern mosque as examples of those religious influences. Up the valley from that mosque were caves dug into the hillsides filled with Buddhist scupltures and art.

Politically, the inhabitants of Xinjiang have posed challenges for China’s attempts at integrating them into the Chinese nation. Since Xinjiang became part of China, China’s rulers have had to contend with Muslim uprisings. Most recently, a group calling for the establishment of a separate Turkestan state (Turkestan is an old name for this region) has been active in this region. A few years ago, they conducted some bombings of buses in Urumqi and even once in Beijing. The government responded with a harsh crackdown, executing several leaders of the movement in Korla, the second largest city in Xinjiang just south of Urumqi. In talking to the Uighers here, you certainly sense resentment of Chinese control, especially of the oil resources. Uighers often learn their own language in schools and are not required to learn Mandarin. As a result, Xinjiang is a satisfying place for Americans to go because you feel this is one place in China where the natives speak Chinese about as well you as do! But they love it also when you try to speak Uigher with them.

We had a great time in Xinjiang, and only wish we could have had more time. We will definitely be back. A few impressions about Xinjiang from our brief time there.

Xinjiang is huge. One week was clearly not enough to see this enormous province. We only travelled around central Xinjiang, but there is a very different Xinjiang to the north and particularly to the south where the southern Silk route winds around the Taklamakan desert to meet the high mountains separating Xinjiang from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. We also never got to the far western city of Kashgar and its famed bazaar which is seen as a meeting point of Eastern and Western cultures.

A sense of how much Xinjiang is not a part of China and the challenges that face China in integrating this province and making the Uighers and other minorities feel that they are Chinese above all else. Urumqi was the only city where one felt that this integration and Chinese settlement was working. Urumqi was not that different from other Chinese cities, increasingly modern and quite liveable.

The natural beauty of the region. Getting out of the polluted environs of Beijing, we were struck by the clear, blue skies especially in the high altitudes of Tianchi, and the unspoiled beauty of the mountains and desert. At the same time, the life of many of the people outside of Urumqi is not that easy. Life looked pretty spartan in the village of Tuyoq, although the explosion of the Chinese tourist industry seems to be bringing money into this region.