We drove the 2-3 hours to Turpan on the 113 mile expressway, passing vast wind warms that, judging from the lack of motion from the turbines, were generating about as much electricity as a Toyota hybrid breaking.Turpan is a basin in the mountains of east Xinjiang, has the lowest elevation of any place in China and is the third lowest depression in the world at 154m below sea level.It is insanely hot and the temperature in the summer reaches over 40°C, which is why it is also known as 'The Fire Prefecture'.The highest recorded temperature there is 49.6°C.

We reached the Turpan Hotel, which looked pretty ok judging from reception, but we left the bags in the car just in case we decided not to stay there. We rejected the first twin room they showed us as, you've guessed it, it was dirty. The second one was marginally better, but still not what we expected but decided it was good enough for the one night's stay. We dumped the bags and headed to the lobby for the coffee stand and couches, not wanting to spend any longer in the room than was absolutely necessary.

Lucy took us to a local Uighur restaurant for dinner.As soon as the car pitched up the sound of drums could be heard coming from the restaurant entrance and we passed traditionally dressed dancers who said hello as we got taken to a massive dining room, where we sat at an equally massive round table. We noticed that guides tend not to sit with tourists here in China and eateries seem to like to sit 'guests' in private rooms.We suspect it's so that westerners are kept separate from the noisy, slurpy Chinese diners.

The food arrived slowly, dish by dish, and it truly was delicious.Maria made a note to get Lucy to write down the names of her favourite dishes for future reference so I expect she'll be eating scrambled eggs with tomatoes from now on!! I started to get worried when a brightly dressed male dancer entered the room complete with stereo and extension lead. 'There's no way I'm dancing' I worriedly told Maria. 'Besides, it will look pretty silly with just the two of us in here!' I continued.The music started as we were wrapping up the meal then the man, accompanied by 4 female dancers, entered the room. 'There's no way I'm dancing' I told l myself. The Uighur women were extremely flirtatious and danced their traditional moves in a refined yet provocative fashion while the man kept smiling with his eyes and winking with his eyebrows at Maria. 'There's no way I'm dancing' I internally implore myself.

The girl wearing a tight red dress moved towards me, grabbed my hands and got me to stand up. b*****! Well, if you're gonna do something, give it your best shot I thought so I did my utmost to wiggle my hips, twist my hands and wrists and move in coordination with not only my partner but the music as well. Of course I was hopeless but kept smiling, letting them know how much I was enjoying myself, all the while secretly praying to be swallowed up by a giant man-eating bowl of noodle soup.

At last the music ended and I sat down to finish my dinner. The entertainment continued and Maria and I were totally absorbed by another young woman dancing with four soup bowls on her head, stacked on top of each other. No, she'd not just brought a take-out but was demonstrating fantastic posture, poise and balance as she moved with the music. As the dance ended she removed the bowls one by one, the uppermost of course still containing all the water that she'd been carrying from the first note. We clapped in appreciation, genuinely impressed with her demonstration.

It was Maria's turn next and her protests went unnoticed as the moustache-clad man prised her from her seat. She just adores this kind of thing! I joined her a few minutes later as we were all dancing together, me having no clue until the lady in red gestured for me to just follow what the man was doing. I tried. I failed. He then picked up one of the ladies and whirled her around and around and I was told to do the same with the bowl dancing girl. She looked worried. In fact, they all looked worried but she jumped into my hands and I started to spin her, faster and faster. Maria told me to put her down but I was totally confident that I was strong enough to continue for a few more turns. Not so confident in my ability to avoid dizziness, however, I put her down before I dropped her. I was impressed with myself but don't think that my enthusiasm was shared by the rest of the room.

When we left we noticed that the dancers had already changed back into their 'non-working clothes so it appears that we were there sole performance of the evening. We stayed up 'til gone midnight, chatting with fellow travellers and drinking tea, doing our best to avoid our room.