day 383: [昌吉 (Changji)] = 0 km

Today, we got in a car and went to 吐鲁番 (Turpan) in the South. It felt weird to be going 100 km/h  in those places where I had been silently walking and suffering almost exactly two years ago.

Anyway, today it was all about sightseeing!

We visited the famous 葡萄沟 (Putaogou – grape valley):

This is a totally commercialized area, where you can wander in the shade of the grape vines…

…and maybe pick a grape or two:

I enjoyed the signage:

…

Then we went to 交河故城 (the city ruins of Jiaohe):

This place is about as old as the neighboring city ruins of 高昌 (Gaochang).

I found it a bit bigger though:

Apart from that, the two were remarkably similar.

Here too, the Buddhist statues had suffered quite a bit…

…and most buildings consisted of earth or clay that was slowly withering away:

Their basements were pleasantly cool though, which was pretty nice:

Then we visited the 坎儿井 (Karez, or Qanat). This is an ancient irrigation system which was designed around subterranean canals to transport fresh water from the mountains to the lowlands:

There are roughly one thousand of these irrigation systems in the area, and while many of them have already been deserted or silted up, this one in 吐鲁番 had been made into a tourist attraction.

Obviously, it was pretty dark and moist down there in the canal, and in the associated museum it was all about complicated drawings and maps to illustrate the wonders of ancient engineering.

I liked the upstairs better:

And of course, the grapes.

Soundtrack: Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”

—total: 4927,5km

Posted on Thursday, September 30th, 2010 08:39 ;Filed under Leisure, Xinjiang.

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