We are now in Urumqi at the end of our travels along the Silk Road. Today I will post a collection of photographs of the group at various sites from Beijing to Urumqi.

The first set will be in Beijing:Biking around Hou Hai Lake and the Hutongs; The Bell Tower; Tiananmen Square; The Forbidden City; The Temple of Heaven; Lama Temple.


Next was Xi'an: a modern commercial city where one of China's largest auto manufacture's (BYD) has a strong presence, but it is also a city with a deep history that makes it a tourist center.
From the massive city of Xi'an we flew to the relatively small city of Dunhuang in the middle of the Gobi Desert. Here we visited the Singing Sands mountains, the Crescent Moon Oasis, the Mogao Caves, the Han era Great Wall, Yumen guan ruins, and the Yangguan Museum. 
From Dunhuang we took the night train to Turpan (Turfan) another historic oasis city between the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts and one of the lowest basins on earth and the place in China with the highest average temperature. Here we visited the Flaming Mountains (pictured behind us); the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Ruins of the Ancient Kingdom of Jiaohe, the Karez well and irrigation sytem 
Picture
Finally, we took a bus from Turpan to Urumqi the capital city of Xiangjiang Province. Xiangjiang is in fact the largest province in China with over 1/6th the total territory of China. It is larger than the state of Texas.




Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am Mark Pitner, Assistant Professor of Asian History and instructor for the course HIS 1977, China East to West-Past to Present