…………….and buses, camels, sleds, horses, Jeeps, cable-cars, tandems, rickshaws and shank’s pony, was how eighteen MVP members moved around China recently.

It was on 8th October when we (Amy Ylagan, Carmel Dael, Carol Clendon, Celeste and Nonoy Gallardo, China Lim-Go, Colleen Mangun, Girl Velasquez, Kezang Penjor, Linda Lupton, Lourdes Mastura, Sonia Krug, Sony Ng, Susanne Wise, Tricia Hoban, Val and Peter Kirk and Wati Kamayana), set off for the far north western town of Urumqi in China. Our effervescent young guide Ping (call me ‘Bunny’) met us during the stopover in Beijing and subsequently controlled our more wayward members, comforted the weary, cared for those with colds, issued reminders and endlessly counted heads throughout the whole trip—at all times cheerfully and efficiently.

Sonia and China had put together an exciting programme to take in as many of the Silk Road towns as possible. Urumqi, a city of over 2 million people and capital of China’s westernmost province Xinjiang, was the first port of call. Although a bleak and rather unfriendly city, it was a convenient starting point, even if it is not actually a Silk Road town. It was uncomfortably cold but we thoroughly enjoyed the foothills of the Heavenly Mountains to the south of the city. Some of us saw snow there for the first time ever (so just had to throw snowballs) when we visited the high grasslands and Kazakh yurts.

Without doubt though, the most amazing sight in Urumqi was the preserved bodies in the city museum. They have on display women, men & children—petrified by the intensely dry desert sands—with hair, nails and skin still intact. Amazingly the oldest one dates from 3,800 BCE and it was interesting to note that they were of Indo-European,  as against Chinese, descent.

But the Silk Road called and our first stop was the most remote city we visited, Kashgar. Situated in the southwestern tip of China, 74% of its 390,000 people are Moslem Uighurs of central Asian origin. Kashgar’s fame and importance rests with it being the first settlement reached on the road to China, after the perilous crossing of the Pamir or Korakoram mountain ranges from Pakistan, Persia and other parts of central Asia. In the other direction it was the convergence of the two Silk Road routes from Xi’an on the way to central Asia. But today it is a remote, arid, bustling city with friendly people, little traffic and lots of donkey carts. We visited an old Uighur village where we were entertained by a nubile (Peter’s addition) young dancer and three 4 year olds as her corps de ballet! We bought some of the locally made hats, admired their splendid old buildings and enjoyed their warm hospitality.

The city’s mosque, reputed to be the biggest in China, was a place of calm and peace but on the street just outside was an interesting little row of shops—dentists from a bygone age. There were gruesome “before and after” pictures beside their ancient drills and outside two dentally-challenged old men sat fiddling with their “worry beads”—some gold teeth. Many of the sights and smells in the nearby market were reminiscent of souks in the Middle East and Istanbul. Friendliness and smiles were given away gratis and while we all came away with some great photos, many had also begun the great shopping spree that was to last the whole trip. A larger and even more impressive market though was the famous Grand Bazaar, said to be the largest in Asia, where, on Sundays, tribes from all round the region bring their merchandise and animals. Healthy looking horses, goats, donkeys & fat bottomed sheep abounded as did exotic vegetables and fruit—and if you wanted a really fresh meat patty you just sat at the end of a table, opposite a recently slaughtered shank of meat, and watched the process from start to finish. Celeste & Nonoy started their culinary adventures here—and have lived to tell the tale. The other half of the colourful bazaar is actually in the town nowadays but has “genuine” pashminas, Polo shirts and the like going for a song. They also had all kinds of nuts, spices and pomegranates as well as pelts from some unusual (endangered?) cats. However, lest the reader think we were there just to shop, I must mention the 14th century Mausoleum of the Fragrant Concubine that we visited. But while such places were obviously of great interest, it was the people in this region and their colourful lifestyle that were so engaging.

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