Urumqi Off The Beaten Path

Make time to see the REAL grape valley, not the fake one designed for the tourists. You can talk to some of the farmers there and they'll likely invite you in to see how they live - this is outside a farmer's house, where they sleep and eat under vines in the summer.

JOHN'S INFORMATION CAFE
Johncafe@hotmail.com
John's Information Cafe is the centre of tourist life in Turpan. 'John' is in fact a Chinese entrepreneur who seems to know better than anyone in China how to cater to budget travellers - he also has branches in Kashgar and Urumqi. The cafes also double as useful travel agencies, though there are rumours that John reports on the activities of travellers to the authorities. If you are planning anything illegal (such as crossing from Kashgar to Tibet), you might be advised not to talk about it here. They have internet too: 2$ for 30 minutes.
As for the food, Western breakfasts, buttered toast, cheese omelettes, yogurt with honey, and coffee are all available here under the trellises - as well as quite reasonable Chinese dishes. John's is also a nice place to try the local Turpan wine. The red stuff is sweet and thick like port, but some of the white is very drinkable indeed if you are willing to stretch to about ´30 a bottle. The outdoor cafe at the back of the Turpan Guesthouse also has an English menu, and is quite a nice place to drink beer, especially in the evenings when you can listen in on the live Uigur singing and dancing performances taking place nearby.

FASHION SHOPS
The shops in this area are very caractheristic. They show big painted signs in the outside but have no windows showing the clothes. Go inside and discover it yourself.

WATER MELONS
If you go to a local market (highly recommendable) you must try the watermelons. They are everywhere, you'll see them in big piles on the floor. They are very sweet and, in summer, very refreshing too!

THE BORDER
Any border has a sense of 'nowhere land', desolation and solitude, but this one in the middle of the Taklamakan Desert was specially isolated. You could fell like being in the middle of nowhere!

not many travellers travel out of urumqi when they go to xinjiang. there's this lake called bosten in heshuo county about 7hrs away by bus. it is commonly known as golden sands beach since it's surrounding 'beach' has golden coloured sands although the sand isn't fine. quite a nice place. they have speed boats to take you to some island in the lake although i couldn't quite see it.

A tower of Ivory from Xin Jiang







the view on the highway from Tolfan to Urumqi, do't fall asleep during the journey otherwise you will miss this.

No. 1 Glacier The trip to No. 1 Glacier depends on the weather greatly. Because the roads are winding and dangerous, there won't be tours on rainy days or windy days.To visit the place it is better to join the local tour.