, here we are...Kathy, Mary Jo, me and Chuck.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
urumqi
Just three years ago, four of us found ourselves in Urumqi
, Xinjiang, China, as a stop on our tour of the China portion of the Silk Route. One of the more remarkable facts we learned as we approached Urumqi was that it is considered the most remote city from any sea in the world i.e. its about 1400 miles from any oceanic coastline. So its a bit of a drive to the beach. The biggest surprise for us, though, was the sheer cosmopolitan size of the place with over 2 million inhabitants.Our local Hui guide was most accomodating and we wandered throughout the city prior to catching a plane for Kashgar where our guide was Uyghur. I'll have to post some additional photos to show you where our Urumchi guide, "Joseph", took us for a very tasty meal of noodles, lamb kabob and I can't remember what. But it was all good and the atmosphere unbeatable.
I post this now because of concern about the people we met in both Urumqi and Kashgar and the violence reported during the last month there. It appeared during the several days we visited both cities, that the Uyghur inhabited only the old, gradually ebbing, stone part of the city while the Chinese, many of them, recent immigrants from the east, lived on the modern, steel, neon and concrete side of the street. The demarcations were abrupt and vivid in that respect; a century or so between curbs.
However, our days so far from the beach, as on other stops along the Route, was rich and inspiring. Who knew?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Happy New February!
his year over the holidays. I hope its readable. If not, well, let me know and I'll send one directly to you. I may also get around to more posting...later...that will include dome of the individual photos and/or substance of what's been happening. [I once considered creating a superhero by the name of ANDOR! or, AND/OR, the Great Equivicator!). I'm also considering a Facebook presence. Will it make my life easier? Later.
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