Turpan

I still want to post a bit more about our vacation, since it was our "big trip" of our tour here in China. I may post a few more before I get back to writing about real life again. 

Turpan was our last stop on the trip-- and definitely one of the highlights. Geographically, it's a really interesting place. It's a really deep valley (98 feet above sea level) right below the Tianshan mountain range, which has peaks at 12,000 feet above sea level. So it's quite the valley! It's absolutely dry as a bone. We had people tell us it only rains one, two, or three times a year. And yet this is where China's grapes, raisins, and incredibly good melons come from. Marco Polo wrote about this area, and while he didn't write much about each place he visited, he did mention both the melons and the raisins. Yes, they are THAT good!

The courtyard at every home and even many streets were covered in these grape trellises. They provide sun for the grapevines and shade for everyone else. Plus, the grapes hang down so they're easier to pick. My family grows grapes. They need some of these!

Back in the 1300s, people dug wells running from the Tianshan mountains (where the water table is really high) all the way down into Turpan and the surrounding valley. There are still open irrigation ditches running all through town. This is the museum showing the old wells and how they were dug. When I went 10 years ago, there was just a well to look at. Now there's a whole museum, with an underground section where you can see the water running through the wells.

Penny running down the terrace. See? I NEED one of these trellises!

They don't grow grapes just for decoration-- even at the Karez irrigation canal museum. These women were sorting grapes and raisins. We went to go watch, and they filled Penny's hands with raisins. When her hands were full, they filled her pockets, too. I swear, these little girls get more freebies than I ever thought possible!

We went to the old city of Jiaohe. It was the capital of this area from like 100 BC until the Mongols invaded in the 1300s. And it was a big city! The ruins kept going and going and going!

It was dry and dusty, which must be why they are so well preserved.

But right down the cliff face (natural city wall), there is the greenest of fertile valleys. It was cool and fresh down there, which was such a stark difference from the city above! Being in this part of the world just reiterates how vital water is to life! If I was a traveler on the Silk Road, I would be so grateful to find a place like this!

We wandered through the city of Turpan. The residential areas have dirt streets and brick buildings. 

Every spare space has grapevines, and every home has a raisin-drying shed (that's the room with holes in it on the left).

We wandered around, and after we took a picture of their vineyard (above), this family came to say hi and invited us into their courtyard. The daughter (on the right) spoke Mandarin, so we spoke mostly with her.

We stayed for a total of about 5 minutes, but they brought out raisins, tea (from Islamabad), homebaked Naan, and some fried noodles for the girls. We ate a bit to thank them for their gracious hospitality, but we feared if we stayed much longer they would start up the stove and cook us a meal! It was a really neat visit.
We didn't have anything to give them in return, which we felt awkward about. We decided in the future, we should ask for their mailing address, and then we could send them pictures from our visit. Oh well... next time!

I peeked inside the family's open doors, and they had a bed like this in the main room. (This was at the Karez irrigation museum in the courtyard.) Honestly, I don't know enough about Uyghur culture to know if it's the dining table or a bed or both. But it was cool to see that they had BEAUTIFUL carpets on the bed and adorning the walls of their home. It would have been a beautiful picture-- but not one I'd take of a stranger's home!

Some courtyards had some beautiful decorated doors.

In Kashgar and Turpan, we heard music throughout the day wherever we went-- traditional drumming along with a piercing reed instrument melody. Since we never saw the people playing, we just assumed it was being played on speakers. But eventually we found the source: trucks driving around town with the band playing in the back. Of course, right?
We asked someone about it, and he said it was a wedding. Since it's fall and the grape harvest has been sold, the farmers have money, and it's a big wedding season.