tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202Fri, 18 Oct 2024 05:16:00 +0000gannangansuTianjinbeijingbeijing getawaydaliandandongdatonggrottoeshuiincheonkorealabrang monasterylayoverlinxiamuseumsnanxiagunorth koreanorth korean borderrestaurantsseoulshanghaisun islandtibettibetan buddhismturpan bazaar market daheyan busxiaheyungangz-trainzhangfangadventures in the people's republic of china and beyondhttp://backinprc.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Pravit)Blogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-3334724917808315402Fri, 30 May 2008 02:15:00 +00002013-01-10T01:22:13.606+08:00 I haven't updated this blog in a few years. Most of the stories and photos on this blog are about my travels in Xinjiang and other parts of China in 2007. Out in the Taklamakan desert, our last adventure in Xinjiang. From Hotan, we rode a little minivan out to Niya, called Minfeng in Chinese. Minfeng is a small town on the edge of the Taklamakan desert; there are two hotels in town, of which http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2008/05/taklamakan-desert.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-5832389550511178340Sun, 11 May 2008 18:24:00 +00002008-07-12T17:23:17.313+08:00Again, sorry for the huge delay. I've only got a month left in town here, but I'm only planning on one more post after this one, so hopefully it'll work out. Funny I'm writing about things that happened almost a year ago!Selling dried fruit and nuts in YarkandWe left Kashgar in the morning on a bus for Yarkand (Chinese name 莎车 shache), our first stop on the southern Silk Road. The scenery on the http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2008/05/southern-silk-road-yarkand-karghilik.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-6673355244215094147Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:47:00 +00002008-03-10T07:54:03.084+08:00The stone fortress in Tashkurgan.There were a lot of Tajiks on the bus up to Tashkurgan; the women wore an interesting headdress that looked like this(Wikipedia link; not my pic). Tajik, unlike the Turkic languages of most of the -stan countries, is an Iranian language, related to Farsi and Pashto. The Tajik spoken in China is actually different from that spoken in Tajikistan; it's an Eastern http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2008/03/tashkurgan-and-khunjerab-pass.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-7661253040297173402Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:57:00 +00002008-03-10T07:04:57.490+08:00Karakul lake in the morning.We arrived at Kashgar's international bus terminal, noticing they had departures to destinations in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan. We were tempted to get on the next bus to Bishkek, but lacking a visa for Kyrgyzstan, we requested tickets for our original destination, Karakul lake. The ticket lady informed us we had arrived at the wrong bus terminal (there are http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2008/02/on-road-up-to-tashkurgan-karakul-lake.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-1967584688386892927Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:55:00 +00002008-02-15T14:36:45.780+08:00We had a quick lunch (liangpi, cold and spicy noodles) then headed out to the Yusup Has tomb. I thought it was really beautiful - it's a large domed building covered in glazed tile, surrounded by a courtyard of white arches. There was almost nobody about, unlike the Abakh Khoja tomb, so we had the place all to ourselves. I really liked it - the LP guide claims that it's in a state of disrepair, http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2008/02/yusup-has-tomb-ha-noimor-lam-and-middle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-5334309807141439908Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:37:00 +00002008-03-10T07:42:13.126+08:00Also see these posts about Kashgar: Yusup Has tomb, Kashgar part 2, and Kashgar part 1An Uyghur bagel maker at work.I really liked walking around the old neighborhoods, so the next morning, we did just that, getting lost in the branching, twisting alleyways of Kashgar. It's so noisy and busy on the street, and then you go into these alleyways and it's so quiet and peaceful. Groups of kids are http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2008/02/kashgar-part-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-8799286903618076025Sun, 09 Dec 2007 22:32:00 +00002008-02-02T14:37:38.809+08:00The Abakh Khoja tomb.Next, we headed out to the famous Sunday market all our guidebooks had been talking about, although it wasn't Sunday. In fact, we managed to just miss the weekly market of every city we visited in Xinjiang. Before going to the market, I wanted to walk around some old neighborhoods first, so we decided to walk in the direction of the market, cutting through old neighborhoods. http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/12/kashgar-day-ii.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-3719948853822735859Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:38:00 +00002007-12-10T07:40:15.424+08:00Ah, Kahsgar!After several days of travel, we had finally made it all the way from Xi'an to Kashgar, a historic Silk Road hub and major Uyghur city lying far out in the west, near the border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. We had arrived early in the morning on the bus from Aksu, so we checked into a cheap room at the Qini Bagh hotel and rested a bit before going out to explore the city.Our hotel http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/12/kashgar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-8044823945266823209Fri, 23 Nov 2007 01:47:00 +00002007-11-23T15:19:54.603+08:00The Grand Mosque of Kucha.Compared to Urumqi, Kucha feels quite dusty and run-down, but it isn't without its charms. After returning from the Subash ruins, we had some mediocre Sichuanese food for lunch and took a bus to the old town for a walk. The entire town feels old, really, but the west part of town is the historical city center.Ah, Kucha.There were lots of old men riding around on donkeys http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/11/kucha.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-3572520648633925030Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:19:00 +00002009-02-01T04:41:26.207+08:00Note: Apparently, these ruins are sometimes called the "Subashi ruins"(transliteration from the Chinese name 苏巴什, which is a transliteration from the Uyghur name, which may not actually have an ending "i."(e.g. the Chinese "Ta-shi-ku-er-gan" for Tashkurgan) Our cab driver certainly didn't pronounce it with an ending "i", at least).The Subash ruins.Onboard the sleeper bus to Kucha, I read Uyghur http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/11/kucha-and-subash-ruins.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-1261865818697983406Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:51:00 +00002007-11-13T06:02:32.897+08:00We spent our last day in Urumqi hanging around downtown, just walking around. If you walk down from the Erdaoqiao market, there's an impressive mosque and a lot of Uyghur music stores, groceries, and restaurants. We had lunch around here in another fancy Uyghur place, although I think the waiters were dressed up as a different minority, Kazakhs maybe?These buns are covered in honey and filled http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/11/uyghur-mullet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-6826841849685292593Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:48:00 +00002007-11-11T03:27:12.875+08:00Coming back from Tian Chi, we walked around in uptown Urumqi for a while. This area of Urumqi is quite new, and other than the Uyghur and Russian signs and Mt. Bogeda in the distance, looks just like any other large Chinese city.We headed downtown to check out the night market, but were a bit early, so we stopped in an internet cafe for a while. Coming out, the previously empty street was coveredhttp://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-3-urumqi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-5589127894654665983Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:13:00 +00002007-11-02T11:05:38.173+08:00Hey everyone! Apologies for the long delay; I finally took the GRE and got a bunch of grad school admissions stuff taken care of, so I should be less busy now.You can see the snowy Bogeda peak of the Tian shan mountains all the way down in Urumqi if you look in the right direction - if it's not too cloudy, sometimes you can see it peeking out between two skyscrapers. The next day, we headed up tohttp://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/10/tian-chi-heavenly-lake.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-1868626892987460483Sat, 20 Oct 2007 06:30:00 +00002007-10-20T15:54:05.774+08:00From the bookstore, we took a bus all the way down to the Erdaoqiao market. I mentioned before the streets of Urumqi are confusing - there are two long roads that connect uptown and downtown, and we hopped on a line heading all the way down. The bus was quite new and had announcements in both Chinese and Uyghur. I wasn't too sure where to get off, but seeing all the golden-domed mosques around, Ihttp://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/10/evening-in-urumqi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-2151900608300639945Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:32:00 +00002012-12-11T12:26:53.187+08:00 Wow, that's probably been the longest time I haven't updated my blog! Apologies again - things will get a bit less crazy after I take the GRE next Saturday. From Turpan, it was a two-hour bus ride over the mountains to Urumqi, during which we got to enjoy some Uyghur VCDs played at extremely loud volume. Arriving at the long-distance bus station, we grabbed a taxi and drove off to the hotel http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/10/arrival-in-urumqi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-1335843762417342271Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:55:00 +00002007-10-25T04:09:18.599+08:00Apologies to my regular readers(i.e. Rebecca's mom) that I haven't updated lately - been busy with preparing for GRE, grad school apps, etc...By the end of the day, Rebecca felt well enough to go out and see more of Turpan. We hired a taxi for only one-way and headed off to the Jiaohe ruins, figuring it’s always easier to find public transportation from a given place to the city than the other http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/10/jiaohe-ruins-emin-minaret-and-night-out.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-3580824759278570082Sat, 06 Oct 2007 06:10:00 +00002009-02-28T15:15:29.833+08:00Freshly baked nan bread.After I had recovered from heatstroke, Rebecca began feeling quite sick and had a craving for juice. I was pretty hungry, so I went out on the town to do some shopping.I picked up a nan bread, and noticed that in front of the market there was a stand with a sign advertising fresh homemade yoghurt! I sat down and a blue-eyed Uyghur fellow served me up the most amazing http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/10/turpan-day-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-3866601399860759636Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:39:00 +00002007-10-25T04:08:53.598+08:00The Gaochang ruins were the next stop on our trip. It was mid-afternoon and exceedingly hot. I waited around for Rebecca to finish using the bathroom. Uyghur donkey cart drivers sat at the entrance to pick up crowds of tourists, and a driver relaxing on his cart enjoyed himself by making loud guttural noises at passing females.We walked off into the ruins, ignoring the drivers who, in broken http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/10/gaoche-ruins.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-4466562290577997842Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:25:00 +00002007-09-29T14:52:15.330+08:00After the Bezeklik caves, we headed to Tuyoq, a small Uyghur grape-producing village nestled in a valley of the Flaming Mountains. Both Lonely Planet and my Chinese guidebook had raved about Tuyoq, claiming that it was little-visited by tourists and offered a truly “authentic” experience. But given so much positive press, I was expecting the place to be overrun by tackily-dressed Westerners and http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/09/tuyoq-town-in-flaming-mountains.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-5682570356117582118Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:34:00 +00002007-09-27T13:35:17.641+08:00Inspired by the South Korean who found my blog by searching for "yalu one step crossing", I found this important piece of news! "In the last two days China has erected a barbed-wire fence near the "one-step crossing" - where the Yalu river border is so narrow that you can almost leap across. " Which means: HAHA, suckers! I was the last one to get across the North Korean border! Anyway, back to http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/09/having-procured-breakfast-we-headed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-2072759579211550834Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:04:00 +00002007-09-26T10:01:27.260+08:00And now, for something completely different...I've noticed a huge amount of people get to my blog by googling "La Belle Province restaurant locations." For some reason I'm the #1 result for this search, despite having no information whatsoever on locations of this fine poutine eatery. I guess it's due to this post a while ago, where I happen to use the term. I can't help but feel a little guilty,http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/09/la-belle-province-restaurant-locations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-7162908040042555128Sat, 22 Sep 2007 04:05:00 +00002007-09-23T03:45:03.983+08:00turpan bazaar market daheyan busSorry I haven't updated for a couple days - had a busy week.A busy morning at the bazaar in Turpan. The people here are selling dry nan bread, as opposed to oily nan bread - more on this distinction later.After a 31-hour train journey, we got off at Daheyan station at sunrise. Turpan isn't actually connected by rail, so if you buy a ticket for Turpan, it actually lets you off at Daheyan, a littlehttp://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/09/arrival-in-turpan.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-4448465858333955453Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:15:00 +00002007-09-18T06:23:02.350+08:00Man, having a stats counter is great. I used to think nobody visited the page, since there were no comments, but now I've discovered plenty of people visit my blog, and actually look at all the posts I've written, too! :D This is the last post about being on the train, I promise. Perhaps it can give you some feeling of how long the train ride was ;)Did I ever mention I once went to Henan provincehttp://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/09/31-hours-to-turpan-part-33.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-2251523813034352909Sat, 15 Sep 2007 03:23:00 +00002007-09-16T02:33:40.508+08:00Again, the pictures are unrelated to Xinjiang. Don't worry, we'll be there soon enough :D It's a good way for me to blog pics that I like but don't really warrant a blog entry on their own, at least.Coming at you all the way from Chongqing, 重庆盆盆虾("Chongqing Crayfish") specializes in delicious, mouth-numbingly spicy Sichuan-style crayfish. The restaurant provides you with gloves so you don't burn http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/09/31-hours-to-turpan-part-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30029202.post-4832628295684118931Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:36:00 +00002008-06-01T01:15:09.054+08:00I haven't had much time to blog - I've been pretty busy - but I've decided to write long blog posts on the weekend, then break them up into shorter parts to upload over the week. Because a post without pics is boring, I just uploaded some random pics I took in Xi'an. Stay tuned for more!Good old downtown Xi'an. I'm sure it will look entirely different by the time I return.Our journey to Xinjiang http://backinprc.blogspot.com/2007/08/31-hours-on-train-to-turpan.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Pravit)0