We hop on our train to Urumqi, China, and are pleasantly surprised to find there is no one else in our cabin. We spread out our stuff, plug in the computer and spend the next 30 hours watching movies, sleeping, eating junk food and watching the desert out the window.
On arriving in Urumqi we quickly realize we are now in China. Each country has seemed to have flowed quite nicely onto the next, but here everyone stares at you, anything you can imagine is being sold on the sidewalks and the streets are exceptionally crowded. We find the one hostel in the city.
Urumqi was a major centre on the Silk Road during China's Tang dynasty and you can see it is now a very multicultural city, with often four languages being printed on street signs. They use Chinese characters, Russian alphabet, Arabic script, and. We spend the next couple of days in the parks, as they are so entertaining. We spend our evenings trying sometimes delicious but sometimes also disgusting snacks at the lively night markets, with food ranging from very tasty veggie dumplings to a selection of roasted bugs.
The structure has temples and is the most. That evening we head out to watch the sunset at one of the dunes. We pick up a couple of beers and some food from the street market and leave for what we expect will be a quiet evening watching the sunset. It turns out to be packed. There are thousands of people doing the same thing and a lot of tourist activities as well; camel rides, paragliding and flights are all on offer.
Still, we trek up the dune with everyone else and do get to see a stunning sunset, with a beer, lying in the warm sand. We had forgotten their recommendation until now but prices to cover the tourist spots we want to go seem to be expensive, so we decide to cut costs by hitchhiking. The next day we walk to the toll bridge with our sign. Our next stop is Zhangoue and we had the receptionist from the hotel write a sign for us in Hanzi. We are picked up by the first car. Unfortunately we have no common language to communicate in but we are able to make some very basic conversation with our translator.
