October 1st is Chinese National Day and all students have a week off from school. We celebrated by taking a trip out west to Xinjiang province… It is China’s largest province and shares a border with Mongolia, Russia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (as well as 3 other Chinese provinces). So there are a ton of different peoples/cultures that have helped to create this amazing place.
View from the train on our way there
Kristen and I are definitely not “foodies,” but we appreciate trying new foods and Xinjiang is a great place to do that! Take a look:
I’m holding lamb lung (seriously). Lung has the consistency of a potato, but not quite the same flavor! Kristen took my word for it.
For roughly 5 dollars you can purchase a lamb skull and brain. We decided to pass on this deal.
This family sprung for the lamb head 🙂
For the times when your stomach is feeling a little queasy, you can choose from an array of Uyghur medicine concoctions. See if you can recognize the animals hanging in the window…
On a more serious note, Xinjiang does have some of the best food in China. The markets are full of fresh bread/nan, nuts, berries, and lamb!
They use these drum ovens behind the lady to bake the nan bread… and I’m guessing they use that coal to heat it!
This guy is doctoring up lamb kabobs. They were amazing!
But our favorite were the “Shawarma’s”… Shaved chicken from a rotating spit, placed inside a tortilla with french fries and some other goodness…
If we had these in our city, this would be a weekly (if not biweekly) feast.
One of the places we visited was called Turpan. It’s famous for their grape production, ancient ruins, and a water canal system built in 200 BCE that they still use today.
View of an ancient city built out of the top of a mountain.
As you can see, this place is super dry! How did they live out here??
The ancient people’s place of worship.
Workers picking through grapes. We just missed the main harvest.
These were dried grapes…I guess they’re raisins now. The building in the background is where the grapes are hung to dry. Turpan has thousands of those brick buildings.
The Emin Minaret. It was built in the late 1700s and is the tallest Minaret in China.
One of the coolest things we found was this little guitar shop (although they are not guitars…I just forgot what they are called). These instruments are famous among the Uyghur people.
Here is a video of a 10 year old boy rippin’ it…I’m pretty sure we were watching a prodigy!
The Uygher guys are manly men, into boxing and wrestling… and maybe arm wrestling? I’ll be ready for this guy next time…
nomadic texan 