The Silk Road Diary 2: The Lowest, The Hottest, The Driest, The Sweetest

MANILA, Philippines - These four superlatives apply to Turpan, a city in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region along the northern route of the Silk Road. It was an important city that served as the hub between the eastern part of China and the Silk Road as it wound its way west through Xinjiang.

Turpan means “the lowest place” in the Uyghur language (“the fertile land” in Turki), and it is the lowest point in China at 154 meters below sea level. It is the second lowest place on earth, after the Dead Sea. Turpan is also known as Huozhou, a place as hot as fire, with temperatures above 40ºC a common occurrence in summer. The highest temperature ever measured in Turpan was 57ºC. It is also the driest, with annual rainfall of about 20 mm (less than an inch). On the other extreme, winters are biting cold, with the lowest temperature ever recorded hitting -49ºC.

The harshness of these conditions – extreme heat and cold and minimal precipitation – have amazingly turned into positives for the largely Uyghur population of the Turpan basin, producing the sweetest fruits – from the famous Hami melons to pomegranates and peaches, including the flat or donut peach. But it is perhaps most famous for its grapes, over 500 varieties, “some as green as emerald, some as red as agate, some as small as pearls while others are like olives.” The wuhebai or white seedless grape is small and round, indeed like a green pearl, and really extremely sweet – it is said to have sugar content of 22 percent. Another favorite of our group was the horse nipple grape, a green oblong variety with skin as thin as onion skin – and many bunches were consumed as we discussed the etymology of the name.

Such impressive agriculture is made possible by an amazing irrigation system called the karez (“well” in the Uyghur language), an ingenious system believed to date back to 103 BC. A series of vertical wells are connected underground by culverts or canals, which channel water from the melting snow in the Tianshan mountains down to the vineyards in the Turpan valley. Such an underground system is most efficient as it reduces evaporation due to the extreme heat, prevents pollution and needs no power source, as water flows naturally by gravity.

Karezes have also been found in the Sahara and in Iran, but the system in Turpan is probably the most extensive, exceeding 5,000 kilometers. It is sometimes referred to as the “underground Great Wall.” Currently, about 600 karezes are still in use in Turpan, and a model of this system can be seen in the Turpan Water Museum.

The famous wuhebai white seedless grapes which are incredibly sweet but have an unfortunately short shelf life of just a few days, so most of the produce is dried in stone drying houses to make the famous Turpan raisins. Every year, Turpan produces over 300 tons of raisins. Not surprisingly, Turpan also produces a range of wines

The hottest place in China – where locals say you can cook an egg in the sand and bake bread in the rocks, and we certainly would not dispute this – is the Flaming Mountain, where surface temperatures at the top of the mountain have been recorded at 75ºC. In the scorching sun, the red rock of the mountain glows, hence its name. The mountain was made famous in the classic tale “Journey to the West,” recounting the monk Tangseng’s journey to bring Buddhist sutras to China. The monk and his three disciples encountered a wall of flames – a good description of the mountain – and the Monkey King used a magic palm leaf fan to put out the flames.

The Silk Road adventurers pose for a photo in Qingnian Lu, a street or corridor in the Grape Valley shaded by grape trellises.

On the north side of the Flaming Mountain are the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, one of the most important Buddha grotto relics and center of Buddhism in the western regions for seven centuries since the caves were built in the Northern and Southern dynasties (386-589). Only 57 of the original 83 caves remain, and of these four are open to the public. The caves contained thousands of beautiful murals and Buddhist art. Many of the caves were desecrated and destroyed in religious wars, and in the early 20th century explorers like the German Le Coq and the Brit Stein stole many of the treasures in the caves, some of which are reportedly in the British Museum.

Stone ruins bear witness to the once glorious city of Gaochang.

Not far from Bezeklik is the magnificent ancient city of Gaochang, a garrison town and key point along the Silk Road built in 1 BC and destroyed in 13 AD due to war between the Uyghurs and Mongols. Skirting the vast and desolate Gobi (an Uyghur word meaning “no life”) Desert, the 2.2 million square meter city is composed of an outer city, an inner city and the palace city. The outer city is surrounded by a wall 12 meters thick with nine gates, and in the southern part are the ruins of two temples. The southern and eastern parts of the inner city walls still stand, while in the innermost palace city many large cornerstones can be seen, relics of a four-storey palace, as well as an imperial residence called Khan’s Castle. Gaochang was also an important religious center, and the famous Tang dynasty monk Xuanzhuang stopped here on his way to India.

Considering the heat and the dust, we thought it foolhardy to explore the city on foot, so we hired two “donkey taxis” to take us around. This taxi is a basic flatbed cart with a flimsy cloth canopy pulled by a donkey that often does not know when to stop, so if you are sitting in the rear of the lead taxi you may suddenly find a donkey literally in your face.

A visit to an Uyghur family in the Grape Valley is a multi-sensory experience, with local song and dance, and raisins of different varieties.

Among the ruins are laid out boarded walkways, although one is free to explore the often awe-inspiring ruins. A lone Uyghur musician playing among the old stone walls lends an otherworldly aura to the otherwise deserted city. After 2,000 years the weather beaten ruins still give a glimpse of what must have been the glory of Gaochang. Gaochang and Jiaohe, another set of ruins west of Turpan, are the best preserved ruins of ancient cities in China.

This experience with Gaochang was a good introduction for us to the majesty and magnificence of the deserts of China, which we were to discover in the next days.

To be continued