Urumqi, China

Urumqi is the capital of, and largest city in, Xinjiang Province but culturally it’s a world apart from the other places I have been in Xinjiang thus far. It is also a world apart from the rest of the world geographically in that it stakes a claim as the "most landlocked city in the world". That is, it lies dead right in the middle of the Eurasian landmass, equidistant between the Arctic and Indian Oceans and between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Xinjiang’s administrative, transportation, and commercial hub, Urumqi has the largest population of Han Chinese in Xinjiang, many of whom are new arrivals in search of work and opportunity. The Chinese governments has engaged in a great deal of boosterism lately in its Western provinces, encouraging immigration, investment, and stronger linkages to the rest of China’s economy. Xinjiang enjoys a position today relative to the rest of China not unlike that which the American West enjoyed during the Nineteenth century, when millions of Americans moved westward, largely driven by economic opportunism. Xinjiang literally means "New Frontier" in Chinese, and it contains a great deal of wealth in untapped oil and natural gas deposits, as well as in mining and agriculture. There are also some parallels between the relationship between the Han migrants and the local ethnic groups, and the effect American Manifest Destiny had on America’s native populations.

Urumqi looks for, all intents and purposes, like any other Chinese city. It is rather bland, sprawling, modern city of three million people. There is some interesting modern architecture, and a lot of bland concrete high rises and nondescript buildings as well. There are freeways. There are wide six lane avenues. There are some glitzy public squares, shopping malls, hotels, and office towers. Urumqi, like so many other cities in China, would like to emulate metropolises like Shanghai or Beijing as much as possible.

My first impressions of Urumqi were colored by some negative experiences involving transportation and accommodation. I disembarked from my 24 hour train ride and immediately tried to secure a hard sleeper seat on the 52 hour train to Shanghai two days later. The train station was terribly crowded, and after waiting in two different lines for an hour, I learnt that hard sleeper seats to Shanghai were sold out for a week! I could have gone by hard seat in three days, but somehow the thought of sitting upright for 52 hours didn't sound like my idea of fun, and besides, I wanted to get out of Western China and back to the east as soon as possible because my time in China was rapidly running out. So I booked a ticket on China Southern Airlines for a one way, nonstop flight to Shanghai. At 1930 yuan, or $240, it was my biggest single expense in China yet, and pretty similar in both cost and distance to a cross-country flight within the United States. Then, when I went to check into the hotel that Let's Go said had dorm rooms, I found out they were charging 60 yuan for them, a ridiculous price for a dorm which can only be justified in Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong. The second hotel I tried which was supposed to have dorm rooms simply didn’t have them anymore. They upgraded from a "2 star" to "3 star" hotel and converted the dorms to private rooms.

I was eventually steered by the friendly concierge to a new youth hostel which had opened up on the outskirts of Urumqi. It’s in a nice, recently developed area, with lots of attractive modern buildings, a great big public park and lake, views of the snow-capped Tian Shan Mountains in the distance. There's also a Carrefour supermarket. I have come to love supermarkets in China because the prices are set and there’s no need for bargaining. In a way it’s a shame, because I'd rather buy things from street vendors, who represent a more human-scale economy. But unfortunately, a naïve waiguoren like me tends to get severely overcharged whenever prices are negotiable (to be fair, not every vendor overcharges…some have given me what I thought were very fair deals). I have tried to hone my bargaining skills but it is an art that probably takes many years. Bargaining is a longstanding cultural norm in China (as in many parts of the world), but I find it can be frustrating and tiring. There’s an almost-scripted song and dance routine to bargaining, wherein the vendor feigns offense when you name a price that is “too low”. I’m told the best way to go about it is to just play along, keep a smile on your face, and not get angry.

The old Uighur district of Urumqi is my favorite part of the city. But it's nothing like the Uighur parts of Kashgar. The architecture here is made to look traditional and Islamic, but it's all quite new. There are none of the traditional adobe structures like there are in Turpan or Kashgar. Furthermore, the Uighurs in Urumqi mostly dress in modern clothes, unlike their counterparts in the rest of Xinjiang. There is a Carrefour and KFC right in the heart of the Uighur district, adjacent to a mosque.

I met up with Paul, whom I'd met a week earlier on the train. We went out to dinner my first evening in Urumqi, and sat at a beer garden in a big public square. The next day we went to the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Museum. There were exhibits dedicated to each of Xinjiang's fifteen or so major ethnic groups, from Kazakhs to Uighurs to Mongols to Russians, with wax figures, costumes, mock dwellings, artifacts, etc. The archaeology wing traced the history of Xinjiang, through archaeological evidence, from the prehistoric times to the Silk Road era to Chinese colonization and influence (which began 1500 years ago, but didn't solidify until 100-150 years ago). Archaeological evidence (including mummies) of ancient Xinjiang inhabitants suggests Indo-European roots.

Thousands of children and their parents descend upon the great public plaza near my hostel in the evening in a carnival of merrymaking. There are carnival games and amusement park rides. There are rollerbladers. But strangest of all are the battery-powered vehicles in which children zoom around the square. The vehicles take the form of giant bugs, ducks, pandas, and, in one case, a hot dog! These are China’s “Little emperors”, the spoiled children that result from China’s one-child policy.

Getting to the airport involved three buses, two transfers, and one wrong bus. I had no idea that Urumqi sprawled so much. The bus doesn't stop at the airport itself, but two km down the road, leaving you at the mercy of the army of motorbike taxis. I walked it instead. Urumqi International Airport truly is an international airport. Because of its strategic geographic location in western China, it serves as a hub and articulation point for over 100 flights to points west, in other Asian countries, as well as Europe. As we sped down the runway on takeoff, I noticed soldiers stationed in each grassy patch on the tarmac, poised at attention. What a horrible place to be stationed! The flight on China Southern was comfortable. It was my first time flying within China. I didn't know this when I purchased the ticket, but China Southern is the largest airline in mainland China, and consistently rated the best. Next year it will become the first mainland Chinese airline to join an international airline alliance when it joins "SkyTeam". The aircraft was modern and new. The service was better than what one gets on U.S. domestic flights these days. The view from the airplane included desert, mountain, and plateau, but unfortunately I was stuck over the wing. Country western music played over the plane’s loadspeakers, and the entertainment lineup included old Tom and Jerry cartoons, and Mr. Bean.