Xinjiang

Ürümqi / Urumchi / Dihua / Tihwa

To prepare my trip to Tianshan mountains, I had to stop over Wulumuqi, the capital of Xinjiang autonomous region.

The big bazaar is a “souk” with stalls of fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts, spices and Chinese medicinal herbs.

When I visited in october 2011, the police were carrying firearms around the mosque after several riots between Han and Uyghurs.

Tianshan GLACIER NO 1 (冰川一号)

Glacier no 1 sits in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Located within the Tianshan Mountains 120 kilometers southwest of Urumqi, this natural wonder is the closest glacier to an urban community in the world.

For more info, please read: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1414

We arrived in the afternoon, early enough to hike the 2 km that separate the Glacier from the main road. Normally it is strictly forbidden to enter the area with vehicles, since the pollution is fastening the melting of this cold beauty, however we saw people in SUV easily getting in by just giving few kuai to the guard at the entrance. Glacier no 1 is a scenic view with stretch of 2.4 kilometers, covering an area of 1.85 square kilometers. It was formed about 4.8 millions of years ago at tertiary stratum of Ice Age. It is famous for being considered as a”living fossil of glacier” because of rich deposits from different periods.

Turpan

Thanks to the tourist who rented a camel that day, I managed to get this dramatic shot

In one of the Chinese classics, “Journey to the West“, one of the obstacles faced by the protagonists is the fire mountain. This might be it.