Here's what the team shares with us
'We left at 9.30 am and first stop was the famous Karez water system or Turpan water system.
The word Karez means "well" in the local Uyghur language. Fascinating system, we visited one of the original Karez sites. In Xinjiang, the greatest number of karez wells are in the Turpan Depression, where today there remain over 1100 karez wells and channels having a total length of over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi).
The local geography makes karez wells practical for agricultural irrigation and other uses. Turpan is located in the second deepest geographical depression in the world, with over 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi) of land below sea level and with soil that forms a sturdy basin.
Water naturally flows down from the nearby mountains during the rainy season in an underground current to the low depression basin under the desert. The Turpan summer is very hot and dry with periods of wind and blowing sand. The water from the underground channels provides a stable water source year round, independent of season.
An hour and half well spent and and another 45 mins haggling with the shopkeepers. Good fun learning the numbers in Chinese! End of our stint in China, we'll know them well I'm sure!
Realising we were running late , made a rush for the car, stopped at a grape orchard.Turpan is huge for grapes and raisins.
Something that I must mention here is all petrol pumps are heavily guarded. We are told that these parts are highly sensitive. Ku er la is administratively, a county-level city and the seat of the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, which is larger than Great Britain and is the largest Chinese prefecture.
Also they speak a local language Uyghur.. the script looks like Arabic. We are stopped many times on the roads for passport and license checks! We have been paying Tolls everyday anywhere from 200 Rmb to 400 Rmb !
Reached Ku er la at around 4 pm
All hotels in China do not accept foreigners, only a select few do . Abby does her research everyday and finds us one! Small cities like Ku er la only have 2 or 3 hotels what will take in foreigners and they are not always good. Happy to put our feet up and relax!'
'We left at 9.30 am and first stop was the famous Karez water system or Turpan water system.
The word Karez means "well" in the local Uyghur language. Fascinating system, we visited one of the original Karez sites. In Xinjiang, the greatest number of karez wells are in the Turpan Depression, where today there remain over 1100 karez wells and channels having a total length of over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi).
The local geography makes karez wells practical for agricultural irrigation and other uses. Turpan is located in the second deepest geographical depression in the world, with over 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi) of land below sea level and with soil that forms a sturdy basin.
Water naturally flows down from the nearby mountains during the rainy season in an underground current to the low depression basin under the desert. The Turpan summer is very hot and dry with periods of wind and blowing sand. The water from the underground channels provides a stable water source year round, independent of season.
An hour and half well spent and and another 45 mins haggling with the shopkeepers. Good fun learning the numbers in Chinese! End of our stint in China, we'll know them well I'm sure!
Realising we were running late , made a rush for the car, stopped at a grape orchard.Turpan is huge for grapes and raisins.
Something that I must mention here is all petrol pumps are heavily guarded. We are told that these parts are highly sensitive. Ku er la is administratively, a county-level city and the seat of the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, which is larger than Great Britain and is the largest Chinese prefecture.
Also they speak a local language Uyghur.. the script looks like Arabic. We are stopped many times on the roads for passport and license checks! We have been paying Tolls everyday anywhere from 200 Rmb to 400 Rmb !
Reached Ku er la at around 4 pm
All hotels in China do not accept foreigners, only a select few do . Abby does her research everyday and finds us one! Small cities like Ku er la only have 2 or 3 hotels what will take in foreigners and they are not always good. Happy to put our feet up and relax!'