Most people pass through Urumqi (pronounced wOO-loo-moo-chee), the capital of Xinjiang, as quickly as possible. I suspect this is because most guide books describe it as an awful place with nothing to see. Although it isn’t teeming with tourist sites, besides it’s excellent museum, the town is an interesting mix of Chinese and Uigur personalities and customs. Even so, I probably wouldn’t have spent more than a few days here if it wasn’t for my need to apply for a visa to The Kyrgyz Republic (sometimes referred to as Kyrgyzstan).
After arriving by bus in the early afternoon from Turpan it took me nearly four hours to find a hotel that would take me. At the time I was still traveling with Angela, a woman from Taiwan I had met in Jiayuguan, which made it easy to take the public bus to our preferred hotel. They told us they were all full (which later was almost confirmed as a lie to keep foreigners out) so Angela talked to the travel agent near the entrance. She booked a tour to the far north and checked with two German travelers who confirmed that 650 yuan for four days was the cheapest price in town. I waited while the negotiations took place because each hotel she called seemed to be full or not take foreigners. Because the Chinese view her, a Taiwan native, as a foreigner she was in the same boat as me. We finally set out on a bus to the train station where the two Germans were staying. They claimed it was cheap and clean and with a phone call they confirmed they would take us.
The hotel turned out too good to be true. When we arrived and called for more directions we were told that we would be met by a “military-looking man” to take us to the hotel. Each time Angela called she was asked where she was from and she said “here” not wanting to get ripped off. Soon a man in military uniform arrived and told us that the hotel was not sanctioned to take foreigners and that everyone staying there were being kicked out. Apparently the owner had been getting tourists from the train station even though the hotel was not licensed for foreigners. The military was tipped off when he saw four Americans walking out that morning. I have heard of the government run hotels in the 1970’s and the limited hotels open to foreigners in the past but I have never run into this problem before, not even two years ago traveling during Phase 1.
We gave in and stayed next to the train station because it was of the few places left that would accept foreigners. We were told the dorms had no access to showers so Angela and I shared a double room. She was told that 120 yuan was the absolute lowest price but I managed to get them down to 100 somehow, everyone else seemed to be paying 120–180. I think that her Chinese actually makes bargaining harder for her. I usually just shrug and smile because I have no idea what they’re saying to me.
By the time the hotel situation was sorted out it was too late to visit the Kyrgyz consulate (open M–F, 1:30–1:30 Beijing time) and I still had no idea where it was. Angela and I went on errands and had KFC for dinner before I found an internet cafe to look up directions to the consulate. All of the guidebooks say there isn’t one but I had been told by many people that there is one and was able to find vague directions on a message board.
By day two Angela had left on her tour and I was desperately trying to figure out where the Kyrgyz Consulate was on my Chinese language map. The girls at the hotel’s front desk had no idea, and didn’t even know where one of the largest hotels in town was. The travel agent was also no help and shooed me away. I gave in and took a taxi to the Hua Ling Binguan (hotel) for 13 yuan and asked at the front desk. The great thing about expensive hotels is that the staff usually speaks English and is extremely helpful. A woman took me outside herself and pointed out the building and the path I should take. Inside were only a few applicants and English-speaking agents who offered me the choice of getting the visa in 3 days for $112 or 5 days for $56. Either way I would be stuck over the weekend (three days turns into five and five into seven) so he offered to process the 3-day visa overnight for $112. I was tempted, but looking on the calendar, if I got the visa on a Friday afternoon I would miss the day’s train to Kashgar which would have me arriving on Sunday, a little late for me to really take in the famous Sunday market. The bus to Kyrgyzstan is on Monday so I would be pushing myself to make it. I decided to stay a week, having time to relax, get over my cold and coordinate my time in Kashgar a bit better.
With so much time in Kashgar I thought about taking a two day trip to the mountains but decided that I would be seeing that sort of thing (sans Chinese tour groups) in Kyrgyzstan. Instead I rationed out the tourist sites in Urumqi at no more than one a day. The museum covering local ethnic groups was excellent, with a large amount of costumes and objects that I always enjoy seeing. This wasn’t written about in any guides, but I found it the highlight of the museum. Artifacts from caves and tombs in Xinjiang were also represented as well as the famous Loulan Beauty and her other mummy friends. The descriptions of a “fair haired beauty” are exaggerated—the woman had dark brown hair and a Western (ie “big”) nose and looked of Middle Eastern descent. I thought the other mummies were more interesting, especially their clothes and painted faces.
One of the days I had decided would be a “computer day” got turned around completely. I was sitting outside my hotel eating a popsicle and waiting for the maid to clean when I met two students from Harbin who spoke surprisingly good English. Toddy and Vivi (their assumed English names) were traveling on break and wouldn’t spend more than 10 yuan each for a room and were talking to me while they took offers from the train station touts. I haven’t seen anything less than 40 so it must be so much cheaper to travel as Chinese (or at least mainland Chinese). Vivi hadn’t told her parents she was traveling during break and they certainly didn’t know she was traveling with her boyfriend because she hadn’t told them she had one. They were both very scared to be traveling in Xinjiang and thought that everyone would rob them.
The couple invited me to go to The International Bazaar with them after they got a hotel and I decided it was best to change my plans and take advantage of the free interpreters. Vivi told me her major in college is Dutch, to which my reaction was “why?” It took me a few hours to figure out she was saying Deutche, as in German. Her rationale was that not as many people learn German as English so she would have a better shot at the German companies in China. She had lots of questions about German people’s “character” and sadly noted that her German teacher was “a gay” and that made her sad. She wanted to know if this was normal and I tried to explain that the majority of people are not gay but that some people are and it’s pretty widely accepted these days, especially in Europe. She acted very young for a 21-year old and pouted a little and repeated that she didn’t want him to be a gay because he is alone and the rest of the school’s teachers are women. I decided that she was mostly upset that he didn’t have enough dating prospects and had some sort of romantic idea about life in general. Still, she didn’t understand the concept of “being gay” which was pretty funny. I tried to explain that some people just like different people and she just couldn’t grasp the idea. Toddy was a bit more reserved and usually had a little smirk on his face when conversations like this one came up.
I mentioned Tibet when I was talking about my trip plans and they laughed when I said many people think of it as a different country. Their reply was that it was a different country a few thousand years ago. When I mentioned the 1950’s they had no idea and replied that I probably think that Taiwan is a separate country too. I replied “of course it is!” They laughed really hard at that. I didn’t push the conversation at all, they were openly talking about it, but with the expected Chinese opinions. Besides the serious discussions we also talked about pop stars (the only Chinese band I know is S.H.E. which disappointed Vivi) and I watched them eat a lot of fruit—mainly watermelon. We ate at a noodle shop where the staff gladly posed for photos and the promised “not spicy” dish had chilies in it. They told me many times that this bazaar was very famous and I had to see it. They even made me pose for a picture in front of it. It looked brand new to me and they agreed that it had only been built a few years ago—which explains why it’s so famous in China I suppose. They love to see touristy things but not real things. In my experience most Chinese prefer to see a replica of something rather than the original.
The rest of my time in Urumqi was taken figuring out the train schedule, getting two massages and spending an afternoon at Hongshan Park. The park is on a large hill in the center of the city with lots of trees for shady picnics and good views from the top across the city. I found a young Chinese tourist with a professional-looking camera to take my cartwheel photo at the top of the hill while an Uigur couple looked on in amazement. A man was selling photos with a monkey dressed in a costume for 5 yuan but I didn’t go through with it. Although I love trained animals dressed in clothes I still felt like it was mean to the poor monkey and didn’t want to support his abuse.
