Turpan – Day 63

I woke sore from the wooden floorboards and a continuing hangover. “What the hell is wrong with my liver?!!”



There was plenty to see in Turpan, which has been a very important location in the past, as a political centre and a staging post; providing food and water to merchants traveling the Silk Road. We first visited Gaochang, city ruins which were first built in the 1st century BC and used to be the capital of a small kingdom over 1500 years ago.

We decided to drive around the city walls and found a path leading up the side of the southern wall. Climbing to the top we could see that there wasn’t much city inside the walls, but it was still impressive to know that it once housed 10,000 people. Adding to the scene were the flaming mountains in the background.



On the way to the Buddhist Bezelik grottoes (made with the same intentions in mind as those in Dunhuang), we stopped for a break and noticed significant holes and structures carved out of the rock beside the river we had been driving along. They looked like they must have been a small town, maybe part of Gaochang long, long ago.



We got to the Bezelik cave tourist centre and figured out that a lot of the grottoes had been vandalised in the past couple of years, which was a shame. We continued riding through the magnificent sandstone canyon, which opened out to a plain dotted with settlements and vineyards, with the peaks of the Tian Shan in the distance.





We tried making it to Tuyoq, a well preserved oasis village, but we got lost and had agreed to meet our hosts at 4pm to travel around Turpan. But when we got back nothing eventuated because they were busy with work, so I went for a drive by myself to sort my head out.



We had Xinjiang barbecue again, but I wasn’t feeling hungry at all and left most of the food on my plate.
That night we stayed with their mother and father in a spare room at their house, not far from the studio. Thankfully, it was much more comfortable than the wooden floor from the night before.