Going Again

So after about a year, it's time to dust off the blog again and get ready for another trip to China. That's one a year for 4 years. Not getting sick of this yet, though one of these days I will have to find somewhere else to go.

However, it's important to remember that China is larger than Europe (and has more than twice as many people, depending on how you count it), and there's no shortage of variety in things to see. So, I can probably keep this up for a while and continue to see new things.

Anyway, I should clarify my plans. The main point of this trip is to visit Xinjiang, meet my girlfriend's family, and attend a friend's wedding. We will go via Beijing and Xi'an, and spend a couple of weeks seeing Xinjiang. I am still a student, but less poor than last time, so we will be flying around and staying in nice hotels. The fastest train from Xi'an to Urumqi is around 28 hours, so flying will be nice.

Beijing is of course familiar territory. We will see the friends who are getting married (they both work in Beijing), hopefully catch up with some friends from last time, and maybe find something new to do. We only have a couple of days, but since we are staying centrally and have already seen all the big sights, it should be enough.

Xi'an is new. I had hoped to get over there during my last trip, but ended up going to the North Korean border instead (worth it!). It was one of the ancient capitals of China, and considered the eastern end of the Silk Road, the trade route linking China with Europe through central Asia. It is near where the terracotta army is buried (and being excavated), and retains a lot of old buildings and walls through the city. I'm looking forward to seeing it, as a historical city, and also as my first northwestern city. Different regions feel different, and the only feel for the northwest I have so far is the food (which is good).

More than that, I'm looking forward to seeing Xinjiang. Xinjiang is the province taking up most of China's northwest, and is China's largest. Much of the province is desert and mountains, with some steppe and grassland closer to the Russian border. It also borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and has passed through many hands over the centuries (the name Xinjiang literally means "new frontier"). National borders don't reflect cultural ones in this part of the world, and so there are sizable communities of Kazakhs, Tajiks, Mongolians and others, but the native people of the land are mostly Uyghur. If this sounds familiar, they were in the news around the world for rioting in 2009, and there have been many cases of political unrest and violence before and since in the province.

I'll be spending most of my time in Urumqi, the capital of the province. It is the closest major city to the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility (the furthest point in Asia, and the world, from the ocean) but I'll be closer to it if we go to Kanas Lake further north. From what I gather, Urumqi is not particularly historic, but hopefully we can spend some time in Turpan, which is surrounded by ancient ruins and desert. Unfortunately it looks like we won't be going to Kashgar, as it's a bit dodgy, but this may change (rest assured, if I were going on my own, I'd go there).

This is the plan, anyhow. It looks like I won't be able to post regular updates while I'm there. I'll be staying with locals, and Xinjiang being unstable as it is, the authorities will probably be keeping a closer eye on internet access. I expect bored cops to be more of a problem than terrorists, so I'll avoid causing that sort of trouble (more for my hosts than me). I'll be writing while over there, and in the worst case scenario, I'll post everything up when I get back.