Wul-um-u-chee.... I dont know why but that is how they say it. Something about it being the old name but with new spelling?
Urumqi's only claim to fame is it is the furtherest city in the world from an ocean. (2250km) The place is known as a s***hole in Bumcrack North West China and there is no reason to come here except to get a visa. Home to 2.5mil. The flight here was Ok. For about the last 45 min you fly up a valley of the Tian Shan mountains so I was lucky, as it turned out, cos I got an isle seat so I got to see bits of both sides. This was one of the few airports where we used a sky bridge but when we landed ground was covered in snow so it was cold. The aircrew anounced it was 2pm a balmy 1 deg.
I showed the taxi driver where I wanted to go in my Lonely planet, the Kyrgystan embasy, and he said he knew where to go, so we bartered the price and settled on 50y and took off. He got lost, made a phone call,still couldnt find it, made another call, still couldnt find it, made a call, still couldnt find it. showed him the hastel and he he said he knew that and took me there. I had to show him cos I knew it was behind the Parkson shopping centre and I saw that as he sailed past. The hostel is a s***hole but it is the only one near the Kyrgystan embasy so I stayed when I normally wouldnt. With hindsight I should have stayed uptown and caught the bus down to the embasy. I bartered the price down to $13/night and that is still overpriced.
I asked the girl at reception where the Kyrgystan embasy is? She made a phone call then wrote it down for me. "Go to the police station, take bus number51 and get off at Fong Shan stop" Beautiful. Ive been in town for 2 hours. Where's the police station? Theres one that way and one that way. How will I know the Fong Shan stop? Will it be marked? No! That was the kind of help she was for the whole time I was there. So I walked. I was trying to follow the map in Lonely Planet and as usual the scale is all over the place and they are a bit vague. I stopped to ask a couple of women and showed them the map and asked where we were. Hahaha women and maps, I dont know why I bothered. To cut a long story short I finally myself where I thought I was pretty close but still couldnt find it. There was a huge stone hotel and one thing I have learned is that all 5 star hotels ALWAYS have someone who can speak perfect english. This hotel was Russia but one of the comrads spoke perfect english. When I showed him where I wanted to go he said "certainly I will show you"/ I followed as he walked out the door and he pointed to the doorway next door "that is it" The sign on the door said closed in 6 languages except english, open 12 - 2. So I gotta come back tomorrow. I then took a cab to CITS (China International Travel Service) to see if they could help and that might be quicker I was shown into an office where a Russian sounding woman took my passport then ignored me while she made a few phone calls. After about 20min I asked if it was going to be long and she said "manager will come soon" I said how soon?" she said he was out driving and would be back soon. Not on my holiday he wont, I grabbed my passport and left.
So Im thinking I will go for a walk around town. The place is dirty, the streets are full of potholes and mud. The snow is not crisp and white like I expected, it is dirty and black fromthe mud and dust and grime of the city. Another thing about snow is it melts. On the roof it melts and drips off, when it hits the pavement it freezes again into ice. I nearly did a Kim Beazley and came a gutzer a couple of times. I can confirm the place is a s***hole/
This is not good for me. I was hopeing for global warming and an early onset of summer. It might be too early for me in Kyrgystan with this late blast of winter it might be too early to get up into the jailoo's.
In the morning to kill some time I went for a walk through the parks. I went to Peoples Park, I went there last night but it was minus5 so I went home, and Hongshen Park. The Peoples park is huge with a frozen lake in the middle and a few frozen streems. Hongshen park is on the side of a steep rocky hill and has a large amusement park at the top. In fact ALL the parks in China have some sort of amusement rides in them but all are still closed for the winter. Also all the parks I have been into have excercise equipment built into then for the people to use and there is always someone doeing Tai Chi. Both these parks look great and I would like to see them when they are thawed out.
I went to the Kyrg embasy at 11 cos I knew that is when they open and I was first in line. The bloke gave me a form to fill in and a blank piece of paper and told me to fill it in and write a letter. I said a letter about what? He said "your story" He got 3 lines..Im aussie, I wanna go to Kyrgystan for a holiday before I go home. He charged me 735y for express service to pick it up tomorrow and I was expecting $100us for the visa so I thiought it was a great price. He said "come back tomorrow at 1pm Beijing time"
Officially there is only one time zone in China. That is Beijing time. Like Australia most of the population live on the east coast so this is fine for them. Out here they have 2 times.. Beijing time and local time. Imagine if we were on the same time as Sydney. The sun sets 2 hr later and comes up 2hr later. It is dark here til 9am and still light at 8.30 or 9pm.
In the arvo I took a bus up to the long distance bus station to see it I could book a bus to get out of here tomorrow to Kashgar. Urumqi is built on the side of a hill and I am staying down the bottom and the bus station is at the top. The top of the town is the old Uighur section and is full of Mosque's and markets and people cooking on the streets. I decided to walk back and it took about 6hr just looking around. Maybe I was a bit hasty when I said the place was a s***hole. If I HAD to come back again I would deffinitely stay up here even though it might be a bit dodgy cos this is the area where they had the riots last year. there were heaps of police and army being deployed for the night so it should be OK.
The weather today was beautiful. Maxabout 10-12, abitcold in themorning.Today is the first time I have seen the sky since I have been in China. The weather on the last day in Urumqi was perfect. Fairly cool in the morningbut T shirt weather in the day.
My last day I walked into town to find an internet cafe, which isnt there, and went a different way. I went down some dodgy back alleys and there were these old women cooking up a storm. I had breakfast, more than I could eat for about 48c. Who knew all this was going on behind the high rise buildings/
At 12.30 I went to the Kyrg embasy and had to wait in line butmy visa was ready so I legged it back to the hostel, picked up my pack and to the bus station. Im outa here.