Xinjiang... Wulumuqi

Two fellow Olmsted Scholars also studying in China and I planned a trip together to go travel to the Xinjiang Uygher Autonomous Region of China, or simply Xinjiang province (Uygher is pronounced "we-ger"). The three of us set out on our 10-day trip from Friday, March 27th, until Monday, April 6th. So that puts me at one month behind in my blogging! Hopefully I can make that up soon...

We flew from Shanghai into Wulumuqi, the capital of Xinjiang province in western China. Wulumuqi is about 2,000 miles west of Shanghai, a relatively long five-hour flight for us. Xinjiang is depicted in red below...

A little background on the Xinjiang province

Xinjiang province is bordered by Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Tibet, so Xinjiang definitely has a central Asian feel to it, and not a traditional Chinese feel.

China, as most people know, has the world's largest population with 1.3 billion people... 93% of the population is ethnically Han. Xinjiang province, with a land mass accounting for 15% of China's size, has a population of 19 million (only 1.5% of China's population)... a population less than Shanghai's!

Xinjiang province is 45% Uygher, 40% Han, and 7% Kazakh, 4% Hui, 1% Kyrgyz and 3% other ethnic minority groups. The Han population in Xinjiang has grown from 6% in 1949 to 40% today due to a controversial government policy of moving Han Chinese into the province to make it more Chinese.

The Uygher language is a Turkic language, descending from Turkish and related to the Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Tajik languages. The language and people came to this region along the Silk Road from Turkey and settled in these areas. The Uygher language is written using Arabic script, while the Uygher people look completely different from Han Chinese. So traveling in Xinjiang is really like being in a different country.

Speaking of it being like a different country, it was until China conquered the area in the mid-1700s. There are still strong separatist feelings in the area, with two attempts of independence in 1933 and again in 1943 to form the country of East Turkestan. Separatist demonstrations, including terrorist bombings, are not uncommon in the region today. The targets of their attacks have generally been Chinese police stations.


The Travel Plan

Xinjiang is basically seen along the Northern Silk Road or the Southern Silk Road. The Silk Road entered the region in Kashgar and then split into two routes to get around the desert, and reunitied in the city of Wulumuqi. Our plan was to fly into Wulumuqi, then fly to Kashgar and travel the Southern Silk Road back to Wulumuqi.

Wulumuqi

Wulumuqi is the Chinese pronounciation of the city's real name, Urumqi. When thinking of traveling to Xinjiang, Wulumuqi is a HUGE disappointment. It has a population of 2 million, 75% Han Chinese, only 13% Uygher and the rest "other." The city was a bit of a disappointment because we wanted to see Central Asian culture and this was simply another Chinese city...

The train station is typical of buildings here, with writing both in Chinese and Arabic script.


The one exception to the Wulumuqi disappointment was the Grand Bazaar (Chinese: da baza). Here's an overview pic...
A picture of the mosque at the bazaar...

Fresh squeezed pomegranate juice... better not wear white around this stuff
KFC in English, Chinese, and Uygher...

And now for the best part of this place... the dinner theater.

Inside the theater...

The dinner buffet was huge, and good! This goat meat was surprisingly great!

The dancing show was fantastic... an hour and half show. The guys were good...

The ladies were...

uh, uh, wow! What can you say about belly dancing with a snake?

Why would the Chinese government ever want to destroy this culture?

And to think that they are Chinese? Yes, they are.

Then the embarrassing part, with pictures to prove it. At the conclusion of the show the dancers came down into the crowd to get partners to dance with on stage. Enrique was the first of us to go...

I couldn't get away with just taking pictures. Soon my other friend Ryan grabbed my camera and away I went...

All in the name of cultural immersion...

Like I said, you can simply pass through Wulumuqi and not miss much. However, after a five-hour flight to get there, spending a night to eat at this dinner theater is definitely worth the layover. The next morning we flew out to Kashgar.

Shanghai's Skyscrapers

Being the largest city in the largest country in the world, Shanghai has a lot of people. Where do you put them all? In really big buildings.

One of the fun things for us has been looking out our windows and watching the the skyscrapers being built day-by-day. In some ways it's like living in a Bob the Builder episode just watching everything that is involved.

The three "big" big buildings in Shanghai are within a 10-minute walk from our place: the Pearl Tower, Jin Mao, and the World Finance Center.

When the World Finance Center was competed last October, it was the world's second tallest skyscraper, second only to Taibei 101 in Taiwan. Here's a depiction of the world's biggest buildings... the black buildings are completed, the red are under construction.

As you may be able to see from the picture above, the World Finance Center actually has the highest occupied floors in the world. The observation deck is on the 101st floor, in the top of the "can opener" shape of the building.

I hadn't been to the top of the World Finance Center, so Bryan and I decided to go together.

Walking to the WFC, we saw that the window cleaners were working that day. You can see various cranes extended from the building...

And here are the crazy window washers doing their job. You can see the Pearl Tower in the lower right corner of the picture. This is on the 95th floor...

Going up to the 101st floor, we could look down to see how the window washers hang from their cart as they wash the windows

Bryan on the top floor with the Pearl Tower and Puxi in the background...

Something you don't see everyday... getting off the elevator on the 100th floor.

A view from the top... looking down on Jin Mao and the Pearl Tower... along the river on the other side is the Bund.

See the two big buildings on the right? Those two buildings were two of the Shanghai skyscrapers featured in the movie Mission Impossible III, where Tom Cruise jumped ("fulcrumed") from the building on the left onto the triangle-shaped building on the right.

Haven't seen MI3, yet? If you want to see a pretty sight of Shanghai at night, get the movie and jump to the last half-hour of the movie. After hanging out in Shanghai, Tom Cruise's chase went out to a water town as well, although the movie depicted the water town as being in downtown Shanghai.

Looking down and seeing "our" shadow

Close-up of Jin Mao. You can see it's giant crane on a rail to move it around the building. You can also see their window washers are out working...

The observation deck on the 101st floor is designed pretty slick. The windows slope out so it gives you a leaning/falling sensation as you look out the sides. The middle of the deck has a glass bottom...

Another view from the top, looking to the south of Shanghai. Do you see the brown buildings with the red roofs at the bottom of the picture? That's our apartment complex...

Zooming in on our building... ours is the tallest brown building in the picture, there on the right.

But I need to get a big telephoto lens. I called Morgan while up here and she and Chelsie were out on the porch while I was taking these pictures. When I cropped in on the porch, I could see two human figures, but definitely couldn't tell who it was. Maybe that's enough justification to buy the next lens (or at least borrow a friend's for the day).

Walking back from the WFC to our place, we walked right past the building site for Shanghai's next tallest building, called the Shanghai Tower. The construction zone of the Shanghai Tower is behind the wall (our apartment complex are the brown buildings with the green glass behind).

Pictures on the wall show what things will look like when the building is completed in 2012.

The Shanghai Tower was not included in the depiction above showing the world's tallest skyscrapers. When completed, it will be the world's second tallest, second to the building in Dubai.

I really like this next picture of the Shanghai Tower because it shows our building... the "little" building all the way on the right. We live on the 31st and 32nd floor of a 33-story building. How can a 33-story building look so small? Only in Shanghai!

Sometimes "things happen" in the construction of these new buildings. While Bryan and I were talking in our living room, I noticed huge black smoke billowing that could be seen from our patio, so we went out to see what was going on...You can see flames in this next picture.

Do you see the white buildings with the red roofs? That's where the migrant construction workers live. They come from the countryside and work here for 50 weeks of the year living in those temporary dormitory buildings. One of these had caught fire and completely burned down.

While we're looking at the view from our patio, flashback to when we moved in to see how things have changed...

See all those new buildings in the picture above compared to the picture below? Soon our completely unobstructed view of the Pearl Tower will be completely blocked. Must be time for us to move...

The WFC when we moved here in 2007...

The view from our porch back then...

and now...

Bryan, Chelsie and Madden visit!

Morgan's sister Chelsie came out for a visit with her husband Bryan and 8-month-old son Madden. They had the beautiful Delta non-stop flight from Atlanta to Shanghai... here's a picture of them in-flight.

Bryan had read about Shanghai "baozi" and wanted to eat some. So we took them to our favorite little baozi place here...
I can only compare it to the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. These things are so good, but you have to know the process of getting in the right line to pay for them first, then get in the other line to pick up your order. And with the courtesy typical of Chinese restaurants, you definitely feel like you're getting scolded for asking questions.

The little seating area was so crowded that we just decided to eat them on the steps of the next building. You just have to be careful eating these things because baozi are filled with a meat and vegetable ball surrounded by a boiling-hot soup. So if you bite directly into the thing, you will get burned by scolding-hot soup pouring down your chin.

Adayla ate the most of any of us...

Another day we went out to another favorite part of town... Taikang Lu. It's a little art area in a restored, older setting of town. It's just a fun area to go to, with fun things to look at, fun shopping and great food options.

Our favorite food option in this area is, however, not Chinese food... it's a pizza place called New York Pizza. This place is owned and operated by Chinese, but surprisingly it is the best pizza in Shanghai hands down... while Shanghai has Pizza Hut, Papa John's and Dominos, it's not even close... New York Pizza blows them away.

Bryan hanging out a the restaurant...

Chelsie and Madden...

Some pics of from around the Taikang Lu area...

I didn't realize it at the time, but see the sign above, "Ling Life." The character and word "ling" is Chinese for the number zero. So I guess that translates into "zero life" or "no life." Sorry Bryan, I didn't mean to put you under the sign that says that you have no life. Next time I'm out there I'm going to have to look and see what kind of store that place is.

This was our first chance to meet little Madden and we had a fun time together.

Chelsie has posted several times about Madden's hair and that nobody really knows where his red hair comes from...

Here are the six people responsible for Madden's genes.

One thing we can definitely say is that he doesn't get his eyes from his grandpas...

But while little Madden was here, several times I stopped and thought I saw Bryan's mom in miniature form looking at me.

You decide for yourself, but I think this little guy's mouth, chin and smile are totally Sharon's. I just wish I had a better picture to show that...

One evening we took the ferry from our place across the river to hit the Bund and Nanjing Lu.

The walk along the Bund...

This next picture was a picture that I actually "blew" the focus on. As you can see they're not in focus, but the buildings behind are. One day when I have some time I'll try cutting Bryan & Chelsie out of the above picture and putting them in the below picture. I think it would be pretty sharp...

The Bund is where East meets West, and where the Old meet the New. On the west side of the river you have the beautiful European-styled buildings that were built in the early 20th century as the Westerners moved into Shanghai. On the east side of the you have all the big new skyscrapers. I'll detail the big buildings later.

This area is also a very popular place to take wedding pictures.

We walked the Bund up to Nanjing Lu where we continued our walk, taking in all the neon lights and stores.

As you know by now, foreign babies are attractions here. Red-haired Madden was a huge attraction!