Huatogou to Charklik

7 may 2012

We woke as the sun began to rise

I managed to sleep on the coach which was actually quite comfortable and a very speedy way to travel these incredible distances. We woke as the sun began to rise and pulled into the bus station in Huatogou at around 7.00am. There was no one around in this desolate oil town except for the breakfast stall selling deep fried bread sticks and soya milk. I waited around and then bought a ticket on the next bus on to Charklik. the first Uighur town inside Xinjiang province.We ended up on a mini bus driving around some of the most isolated places - Chinese gravel and quarry pit towns in the mountains. It was so dusty outside it was impossible to see beyond 20ms. How people managed to live here I am not sure. It was cold too - there was still snow on the ground. After about an hour, I was shown onto another minibus. This is when you just have to trust that you are being shown the right directions! Within half hour, we were back on the main highway and on our way through the mountains out onto the desert plain. The only traffic were a few huge heavy goods trucks. These are the modern day camels carrying aggregate and heavy industrial machinery out to the western frontiers of China.

Charklik is such a fascinating town - most people are Uighur so there is a totally different feel about the place. The language and music is soft and lyrical. The people are a real mixture of Turkish / Asian looking - dark skinned and many with lighter coloured hair and eyes. The men wear decorative hats and the women head scalves of multi colours. There are piles of round patterned breads for sale and kebab stalls open as the sun goes down.