Turfan

Turfan is an oasis set well below sea level in the Turfan basin. It is famous for its grapes and the raisins that are made from them. While Turfan is now perhaps only about 50% Uighur it still retains much of its old original appeal and atmosphere.

Behind our hotel is a westernised restaurant / bar called John's cafe. John it turns out is a Chinese man we met in Kashgar in 1988 when he was running his first cafe there. John now has 4 such cafes that cater to the basic dietary needs of the budget travellers in Kashgar, Turfan, Lhasa and Dunhuang. The one in Turfan is managed by one of John's drivers and his wife.

We showed some of our old photos to our hosts and explained our trip of 20 years ago. They were fascinated by it all and somewhat amazed that we had managed it back then, particularly given the restrictions on travel at that time. I think they were a little more bewildered though as to why we would want to do it all again.

We had one picture of 2 kebab sellers at a stall in Turfan and asked them if they knew of the men. They did not as they had only recently moved from Kashgar to manage this place. Another man did recognise one of the men in the photo though and said he now ran a clothing shop near the market.

The next morning we headed to the market place to see if we could find him. Sadly we could not although several people recognised the same man in the picture but all said he had since moved away from Turfan. It was a bit disappointing after our success in Da Ban but hardly unexpected.

Turfan is famous for one other thing and to me it is one of the most fascinating things I have seen in China. To provide for their water needs (drinking, washing, farming and irrigation) they have long used a system known as Karez. Karez are undergroung channels dug by hand that lead from the mountains to the town. In Turfan the nearest mountains are the Bogda Shan about 20 kms away. This system allows the water to reach the town without evaporating and allows the whole Turfan basin to be so well irrigated despite the excessive heat and the desert around it.

We took a bike ride a couple of kms to a Uighur part of the town where we saw one such Karez that is reportedly 200 years old. It supplies all the water needs for the people in that part of the town. In the heat and dust of that place it is amazing to see so much cool fresh water flowing.