AS A HEN GATHERS HER CHICKS UNDER HER WINGS..Matt23:37

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

20260927 Reflections of Xinjiang

20260925 D12: Turpan - Tuyugo/ Jiao He Ruins & Karez wells!

25/9/26

Left Urumqi for Turpan.

1. This highway route boasts of long stretch their Wind farms !

2. ⁠interesting Grape drying houses along the road. Cos Turpan is a Grape City

3. ⁠Turpan is very hot in summer ! HOw Flaming Mountains got its name and the filming of the Sunwukong crossing this mountain.

4. ⁠More interesting is their ancient city called Tuyugou. The home of the Uighurs. The canals built around their homes are from the Karez wells

5. ⁠Karez wells and irrigation system was a well thought out by the Turpan people for survival in ancient times. The place was just too hot. Evaporation rate of water high. Hardly any rainfall. Yet they managed to grow grapes thru this irrigation method! And they stayed alive !

6. ⁠The other ancient ruins we went is Jiao He. But this one was built below the clay area. Sunken ancient city to avoid the heat!

7. ⁠Urumuqi-Turpan by car took us more than 3 hours. So we decided to buy a train ticket back for RMB78 first class today. ( standard is 48) To cut travel time by 1/2. To see Urumqi city a bit more before we return to spore Tomo!

***********

Tuyugou!

25/9/26

Left Urumqi for Turpan.

1. This highway route boasts of long stretch their Wind farms !

2. ⁠interesting Grape drying houses along the road. Cos Turpan is a Grape City

3. ⁠Turpan is very hot in summer ! HOw Flaming Mountains got its name and the filming of the Sunwukong crossing this mountain.

4. ⁠More interesting is their ancient city called Tuyugou. The home of the Uighurs. The canals built around their homes are from the Karez wells

6. ⁠The other ancient ruins we went is Jiao He. But this one was built below the clay area. Sunken ancient city to avoid the heat!

%%%%%%%%%%%%

Oh Turpan!

********

20260924: D10 Kuitun & Tian Ci?

This is Kuitun city. Over 200k population. Both directions are 4 lanes!! FOUR! And both sides have e-scoot plus grand dad cars lanes! Very well planned city. Clean. Neat. Lined with trees!!!! Think not congested Cannot imagine 4 lanes each direction! Gosh

24/9/26

After visiting Sayram lake ? Think can actually skip this Heavenly Lake which is about 2 hours from Urumqi. Smaller lake on top of the Tian Shan range. 😂 cos travelling up to the mountain top needs the bus and the cable car again. That itself took about An hour. So this place can skip !

Whatever, Xinjiang is just too big! Entering into Urumuqi yesterday was an eye opener! Despite its 6 lane for each directions? There was still a jam of half hour or more entering into the city centre due to peak hours!

****************

20260923 D10 DUKu ! 4 seasons!

23/8/26 : The Duku Road

Only opened for 3 mths from June to mid Oct

Long 500km plus. But we only did the 200km cutting across Nalati grassland thru their Tian Shan to Kuitun passing by their Duksanzi canyon.

The Duku scenery changes 4 seasons from base in green to Snow White at peak. Quite a view! Took us 5 hours to cross over with times for stop views. A bit like NZ this time. The cows and horses definitely have their great time here grazing. Huge huge huge place.

Arriving at the Duksanzi canyon , we were reminded of our age! lol. Earlier at Kanas? We could not ride the horses! PAst 60! Here at the canyon? We were banned from taking the slide! What a reminder of being a SENOIR!!! 😢 😂

Well well. Got to accept this great 60 over!

The Nalati grassland was huge. We decided to cable up again to hv another aerial view before we leave. Unlikely to come back again yah

####@@@@@#

Beautiful DUKu!