Auto Bild India GLA Day 18: From city of fragrant pear to city of sweet melon
As the team heads east along the Silk Route, they come across the ancient cities of Turpan and Yar and get a crash course in Chinese history.
I am yet to discover whether every city in China is known for something but both Korla and Hami, two important staging posts on the Silk Route, are famous for the fruit grown there. And in this region every city has two names - a local Uyghur name and a Chinese name. So Hami, for example, is known as Kumul in the local language which is written in the Arabic script.
As we forge eastwards on the Silk Route we also stop by another ancient city, Turpan, which comes after we cross quite a big spur of the Tien Shan range. The altitude gets up to over 3000m and the conditions are treacherous. The roads are iced over with the temperature falling well below zero and black ice is a constant threat as the cars squirm and slide as the electronic control systems keep our GLA on the road. Others are not so lucky to have cars equipped with the latest stability programs and for the first time in China, we come across a couple of road accidents. Both are involving trucks and there are dates strewn all over the road. Considering that China is also a recently developed country, it is surprising that we haven't seen any other road accidents.
The climate continues to be arid and the conditions are desert-like and most of the architecture continues to be of mud, just like in Ladakh. But most of the habitation is in the plains and Turpan turns out to be a small town by Chinese standards. On the outskirts of Turpan, we find the ancient city of Yar. A nice clay model depicts the well-planned city, though now all that is left is broken walls and remnants of houses - all made of mud and still surviving for over a thousand years.
This is because it never rains in this region and when the rain gods do come calling and try and shed some of their weight, the rain never reaches the ground. There have been instances of people's shoulders and head getting wet but the feet and the ground have not got even a drop of rain.
From the ancient city, we head to the Sugong Tower, the tallest minaret in China and like everything else in this region is made of sun-dried yellow mud bricks.
But the most important treasures of Turpan are the Tarim mummies from the 2nd century BC that were discovered in a relatively well-preserved form due to the unique dry climate of the region.
But our destination is Hami and we soon discover how sparsely populated this region is. With range showing over a couple of hundred kilometres as we head into Turpan, we are in for a rude surprise as the road climbs and the range falls and kilometre after kilometre shows no habitation, just the Tien Shan range on our left and a vast expense of barren land on our right. The range drops to zero but we are able to spot a petrol station in the distance and save our day.
Hami turns out to be beautifully decorated city with colourful lights and lamps adorning every major street and bathing the city in a warm colourful hue though the temperature has dropped to well under zero. Already over 2000km into China and we are still in the autonomous region but at least the roads are good as we get closer and closer to home.