With the exception of some late afternoon rain at Karakul and morning snow at Khunjerab Pass a couple of days earlier, I had had blue-sky weather for this entire journey. But now on Day 14, for the first time, my luck wavered as upon arrival of my flight, it was overcast in Urumqi and looked as much like rain coming as pollution. But it held off, and I taxied from the airport to my hotel and got checked in by about 20:00 (BJ time), and as it was still quite light out and prime dinner hour, headed off to my night food market discovered previously. Just had a basic relaxing evening doing not much of anything productive.
Next morning after breakfast (included in hotel rate), I ambled around the neighborhood a bit in a different direction, then to a bank ATM to stock up on more RMB cash, as the Kashgar trip had depleted me. Returned to room to pack up my things and check out. Although I had a night train, I’d decided to have the hotel hold my stuff in the bell closet until I returned in the early evening. I’d decided that making a trip over to the Rail Station just to put the stuff in Left Luggage was superfluous. I kept my laptop and valuables with me in the daypack, which would get heavy but they couldn’t be left behind..
Xinjiang Provincial Museum
I had noticed that finding empty taxis in Urumqi wasn’t any easier than most other Chinese cities these days, but I did manage to grab one during lunch time, without too much street waiting. And headed to what is probably Urumqi’s biggest tourist draw—the Xinjiang Provincial Museum. Urumqi is well-known for being pretty thin on classic tourist “sights” but this is widely reputed to be worthwhile. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Museum was free. And not surprised to find there were quite a few people there, including Chinese tour groups. But still not crowded inside. It’s a two-story museum, simply and clearly laid out, and has two kinds of exhibits: those which show the history, ethnicities, and cultural artifacts taken from around the province, and those which are more political and nationalistic in focus—the ones with lots of “Motherland” and “hegemony” and “harmony” types of descriptions. While the latter are worth a good chuckle (or grimace) if one knows anything about the Xinjiang situation, they are also of lower priority if you need to speed-visit the Museum and need to cut out some of the galleries. It’s obvious from the floor plan display inside which is which, so focus first on the galleries with the display of the range of minorities, and the historical artifacts. And above all, the fabulous mummies which have come from various Xinjiang sites around the old cities and desert.
Located on the upper floor, the gallery of unusually well-preserved mummies and associated finds are one of the centerpieces of the Museum’s collection and a big draw for the visitor, particularly the “Loulan Beauty” from the Lop Nur area of the Taklamakan desert, dated around 1800 B.C. Although there are also Han mummies exhibited from later periods, due to the way the mummies of different eras are cleverly interspersed rather than grouped sequentially, you have to read the placards and figure out the timeline of history yourself. This means the critical implication of this part of the Museum’s exhibits are hilariously lost on most of the Chinese visitors—that Xinjiang, in its early history over the millenia....never had any Hans! The place was first settled by European or at least Caucasoid types!
In a large lower floor gallery are the Xinjiang’s ethnic minority presentations, which were decently done and interesting. Curiously, I couldn’t find the Kyrgyz though, unless they were displayed under another uncommon and obscure name. Overall, a decent experience and worth a couple of hours of your time.
Back out on the street, I realized I had a transport problem. My next stop was back downtown for a relaxing mid-afternoon lunch at the western Texas Cafe...one of those modern Xinjiang oases for foreign travelers that have reached lamb kebab overload. Heavy traffic and not an empty taxi in sight. The bus system was inscrutable since I didn’t really know Urumqi, at at any rate were packed out on this Friday afternoon. Then an interesting thing happened while I was standing by the street figuring out what to do. Two Han guys wearing typical business clothes, pulled up and asked where I was going. I told them a well-known landmark nearby the Texas Cafe--the Hongqiaoli Computer Market--and they said would take me for RMB 20. I decided this was a good bet to get going immediately and not waste more time, and it wasn’t particularly risky since traffic was so heavy and slow-moving that in case these two turned out to be scalawags, I could hop out of the car and escape with impunity. We actually had a fun time chatting and I was back to being able to use Mandarin. Turned out they were electronics reps working for a company in Urumqi. They dropped me off and then I fumbled a bit on foot before finding the Texas Cafe.
The Cafe is a nice slice of US rusticana, has comfy couches, chairs, and a book library. It was a hoot talking to Steve, the latest (American) owner. He’s been in China awhile and in Urumqi a few years, so we traded business stories while I enjoyed my chicken parmesan pasta, breadstick, and two dessert sandwich of two chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream. And a cold Zero! A sure cure for lamb overload. My plan was to hang out here until about 19:00, then head back to hotel to pick up my stuff and then off to the train station. So at the appointed hour, nice and refreshed, Steve and I exchanged business cards, said our goodbyes, and off I went. No taxis, so had to attract the interest of yet another
heiche (private car serving as a taxi) who dropped me at my not-too-distant hotel for RMB 10. Picked up luggage. By now it was rush hour (remember, Urumqi time was similar to 18:00-ish), and empty taxis were impossible. Ended up having still another
heiche—this one driven by two Uighur guys who said they’d take me to the train station—and on the way also picked up another Uighur lady dressed to the nines who looked like she was heading for a party.
Note: Apparently in Urumqi, the private car-as-taxi system is quite widespread and accepted, and doesn’t seem to have the stigma of scamming illegitimacy that you’d encounter in Beijing or Shanghai. And the prices I was charged were not too much higher than a legitimate metered fare. So in this city, might be a transport strategy to keep in mind.
It was agony getting through traffic to the train station, but I finally got there about 20:45 so Steve was right to move me along and out of the Cafe when he did. Getting into the station was a bit of a scrum, then my waiting room was on the third floor (fortunately, station has escalators). Everything was a blisteringly hot exercise and I was sweaty already and not looking forward to this overnight train. Ended up getting a porter for an outrageous RMB 30 but it was a long way to the platform and train, and he saved my poor back and took my luggage all the way to the compartment. Train #1086 to Dunhuang left right on time at 21:45. I had the compartment to myself for the first two hours, as far as Turpan, where a group of nine tourists from Guiyang, Guizhou got on and three of them were with me. They were pretty congenial, but by then it was close to midnight and everybody settled in for bed.
I left Urumqi not running for my life, but with piqued interest. I would have liked another day to explore, as I thought the city had an interesting vibe, reasonably friendly people, and I’d missed seeing the modern “International Grand Bazaar.” Something for next time. For now, I was excited about finally getting to see Dunhuang and the Mogao Caves.