Urumqi, Xinjian

After a pleasant 4 hour flight in which my cup of tea was refilled 4 times, I arrived in Urumqi, Xinjian, in the far west of China. The city has a bit of a San Francisco in 1849 feel. On the ride into town the streets were lined with shops selling today's equivalent to head-torches and pick axes-- new buckets for your backhoe, a new blade for your bulldozer, and lots of cable. There is a bit of a mineral boom out here and it attracting Chinese from the east.
After founding a place to stay, I dropped some bags and tool a trip around the city. The population here is largely Uyghur, the eastern-most of the Turkic people. Clearly, their ethnicity is closer to the -stans to the West than to the rest of China. As I was making my way around town, a young Uyghur saw that i was somewhat disoriented and stopped to help me out. He spoke excellent English and suggested I go to a bazaar on the other side of town- even hopped on a bus with me to take me other. He showed me around briefly and then we went our separate ways.

Wandering the back alleys of the bazaar, I found the people to be quite friendly once I picked up a few words in Uyghur. Everyone welcomed me to take a photo of their booth or shop-- something I am often hesitant to ask for fear of treating people like zoo animals.

Tomorrow I will heading up to a scenic lake in the mountains to do some camping with the local Kazakh population. Then I will return to catch a train to Dunhuang, Gansu. My visa only has 21 days left on it so I have to travel quickly.

This young fellow grabbed some of this excellent bread and posed for me (right after he washed his hands in warm water with soap).
A mosque on the left. The mural on the right depicts a traditional Uyghur music performace. My understanding is that the complete performance takes 24 hours.
Pomegranate Juice.
"how bazaar, how bazaar.... spread your love and fly"
Fedoras Fesale

My guide book warns of a a somewhat obsessive interest in knives.
The boy selling the butcher's knives insisted I take a shot of these domes.
I was skeptical of traditional Chinese medicine but this blows it out of the water. This dude was filling these viles with the liquid at the bottom of this tub which was filled with dead snakes, scorpions, an unidentifiable reptile, and some hooves of some sort. I will post a link to a close up so those who don't want to don't have to see it.
A shot of the city from a nearby hill.