Xinjiang - A Whole New World
Part II - Urumqi, Hami, Dunhuang, and Turpan Words seem to fail me when describing the above towns. It's not that they were simply so beautiful I can't find the correct words to describe my awe, but it's rather that they were more Chinese than the Middle East feeling you get in Kasghar, that I simply don't want to go into too much detail about them. I am a bit disappointed, I guess you can say. I flew 7 hours from Shanghai to go to Xinjiang. Seven hours. Spend that much time on a plane from Germany and I'm almost in my mom's front yard in South Africa. You can experience an entirely different world in that distance, but I didn't really have that when I flew to Xinjiang. Kasghar overwhelmed me because it was such a complete contrast to Shanghai and other Chinese cities I've visited. Once I left that small city and traveled to Urumqi, I was right back in China. The buildings, the people, and the food - everything was just like any other Chin