Travels with Kathryn

It is now Tuesday, and I have safely arrived into the city of Kuqa. Firstly, I am very pleased to report that the temperature has dropped considerably to the low 30s with a breeze. I might need to start wearing a jacket!

Kuqa has a population of around 84,000 (so tiny by Chinese standards) and is 80% Uygur and 15% Han Chinese. Up until 1997, it was a relatively small town, but gas deposits were located, and it has rapidly expanded to become a large industrialised city. However, it was once a thriving city-state known as Qiuci famous in Tang-era China for its music and dancers. Today, the main draw nearby Subashi as well as a recently renovated old town (more on this below).

In a stroke of excellent organisation, again we were able to check in very early to our hotel rooms to have some downtime. I had a much needed shower and than had a lie down secure in the knowledge that I do not nap. Well, I did – and 1.5 hours later I decided I have time to treat myself to a hotel breakfast (which I have generally been foregoing in exchange of more sleep), and we have an interesting selection:

At 11am we drove (on a much newer and shinier bus for this leg of the journey) to Subashi. This is an ancient city which was abandoned in the 13th century. It was originally built in the 1st Century CE and by the 4th Century CE had become a renowned centre for Buddhist practice and teaching – when the 7th Century monk Xuan Zang (remember him from Xi’an?) travelled to Subashi, stayed 2 months and reported on the endless stream of devout pilgrims who journeyed through Subashi. Not much is left today, so again, we shal be using our imaginations:

The city was abandoned as residents converted from Buddhism to Islam and what little was here of value was “acquired” by Japanese archeologists in 1903, and then later a French team. For a change, its not the British…

After enjoying the imagining of what this city might have been, we drove into Kuqa old town. Well, this has certainly been given the tourist updating overhall (apparently this was during the pandemic). It is very tastefully done, with lots of nice photo opportunities, but its still a bit odd:

Our last stop was to Kuqa’s newest museum. I cannot say I was overly impressed with either their collection, curating or labelling of their exhibits. Somewhat disappointingly this museum used to contain a collection of mummies from Subashi (which I understand are tall with red hair and green eyes) which have been moved to Kuqa’s other museum, which is currently closed for rennovation. Oh well… However, they did have a nice mural on the wall:

So, we are travelling east, but China operates a single time zone and we need to start adjusting our body clocks to get up earlier and stay up later so it was a return to hotel for another resr and for me to get up to date on my blogging even if I cannot publish. Tonight, we visited the local street market and I was much happier with what felt like a realer experience with all local people and lots of excellent snacking options (I went with  samsa which is a Central Asian bread filled with minced lamb). There were the usual few intrepid children wanting photos with the wierd looking foreigners, although we are starting to see more variety inn the faces and there was one girl in particular with pale skin and pale green eyes.

Then it was off to bed as tomorrow we are off to Aksu. Aksu does not even make the guidebook, but its a useful stop from here to the Kizil Thousand Buddha caves and towards Kashgar apparently.

And the answer to the question in the last post (countries of the world that have another country with their name): (1) Guinea and Guinea Bissau, (2) Romania and Oman, (3) Sudan and South Sudan, (4) Guinea and Equatorial Guinea,  (5) Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo, (6) Dominican Republic and Dominica, (7) Somalia and Mali, and (8) Niger and Nigeria.