Getting Out of Urumqi

A hot shower, BBQd chicken on the street, a/c, and beds hard as rocks (really) were followed by a breakfast of rice, seaweed, and coffee-we stayed at a Chinese business hotel. 

Leaving town was no easy task with construction blocking most of the GPS suggested routes. Once again, as has become a daily realization, our local guide is anything but, being absolutely clueless about location and directions. It took two full hours to find our hotel last night.  It's frustrating because the lost time means missing out on things one could have done within our tight schedule. Ok, enough bitching...maybe. 

Urumqi is the capitol of Xianjing province, the largest in China, and home to three major ethnic groups-Uyghur, Kazakh, and Chinese. The Uyghur being the largest accounting for the numerous mosques and the signs still in both Arabic and Chinese. 

Urumqi's 2.5 million people live in a city undergoing huge changes in infrastructure and development.  A new high speed rail system will soon link it with the east. Major freeways will and already weave through old and new skyscrapers. Huge wind farms with hundreds of generators (possibly more) supply new energy to feed the growing need. And theres the nuclear power plant in the centet of the city!  Yikes!  All bing said, it was a pretty city with lots of green space and beautiful people-a blend of eastern and western Asia ethnicities. 

The air was surprisingly clear. The traffic jams were amazing. It took us more than two hours to get out of the city-mostly because we were constantly lost. Frustrating!  Dave and Frenchy have amazing patience!

 

 
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