Ürümqi and the heavenly lake

Arrived into Ürümqi / Wulumuqi (depending on who you're talking to) after a long journey from Dunhuang. Two hour minibus from Dunhuang, in which we narrowly avoided being thrown up on by someone who mercifully got off before he really got going, then two hours waiting in the train station while a lot of children stared at us with their mouths open and then 5 hours to Ürümqi for a little more staring from more children. 

We were astonished when we got off the train to experience the first hassling we'd had in weeks, from crowds of taxi drivers. Managed to get to our hostel by about 11pm, on the 23rd floor of one of many tower blocks, and then had to wait another 45 minutes while they security checked our passports. It's very noticeable how much more security and policing there is in Xinjiang, with security scanning bags on the entrance to most shops and armoured police vans across much of the city centre.

We had a day in a half in Ürümqi and had intended to go to the Heavenly Lake the next day but after all the travel and going to bed late we didn't get up and out until nearly 12pm. We decided to go the next day instead, which was a good idea, as we later discovered. Instead explored the city, which is a strange combination of far more obvious Uyghur and Muslim influences than we'd seen before, but most of the Mosques are boarded up and there is a lot of obvious Sinification of many of the cultural references to make it palatable for visitors and tourists, especially in the Grand Bazaar. 

That night we had Chuanr (street kebabs) from next to our hostel and after failing to pay for it with WeChat, some men on business from Zhangye said hello and invited us for a drink of some bizarre rice and starch liquor. They were very excited to meet us and thanks to google translate we chatted for a while and got accidentally smashed. 

We still managed to make it out by 10am to go to the Heavenly Lake, but in the end it took 4 hours to get there, after trying to get a bus that potentially didn't exist, then getting a shared taxi, then two shuttle buses. The lake was, at least, very beautiful - like some of the more dramatic European lakes in Switzerland or Montenegro - although like everywhere else in China, also accompanied by the inevitable enormous crowds of tourists, blaring megaphones, music and yelling. Still, we had a couple of hours wandering around the lake before heading back, and it took us 4.5 hours to get back to the hostel and we only just made it to the station in time for our night train.Read more