Muslim Food Street @ Xian

I've been to several food streets around China, however, my experience in Xian was probably the most rewarding. Really it is more than just a food street, the main street is just the center of an entire neighborhood known as the Muslim Quarter which deserves your exploration. Here many restaurants make an effort to show off the days offerings by hanging the carcasses of dead animals from hooks on the street facing side of the shop. It's really an efficient and representative way to advertise whats for dinner, I think if all restaurants were forced to do this it would make people reconsider where they ate.

Carcass decorations

Leaf Brewery @ Ürümqi

Near the end of the highspeed rail line on the westernmost side of Xinjiang, I found the last stop on my trip at the city of Urumqi, which China argues is the geographic center of all of Asia. Apon arrival I noticed that the tonal complexities of mandarin have eroded here, allowing me to relax my tongue while speaking with the locals. This is most likely due to the fact that this is a multi-language city, there is a 3.5 million population of Uyghur minorities here who speek the Turkic language of the same name.

On the Uyghur side of town

Turpan

The further west you go in China the more Muslim influence appears, in Turpan, you reach a tipping point where it starts to surround you. The city still appears to be structured in the same way that makes most Chinese cities similar, however, I would call this a "Muslim flavored" Chinese city. There are landmarks all around the city, including the flaming mountains and GaoCheng Ancient City, however for my stay, I decided to focus on what I was able to find in or near Turpan proper; Jiahe Ancient City(交河故城), The Karez Canal(米依木·阿吉坎儿井) and The Ermin Minaret(苏公塔).

My first half hour at Jiohe had me worried that I might have wasted my morning, the tourist entry gate, tram ride and museum gave me the impression that this attraction was a completely fake modern day representation of an ancient city. When we pulled up to the third tram stop I was relieved to find that there actually was a real ancient city here. It's not just a couple structures either, this is five square kilometer plateau filled with eroding ancient stone buildings and stone paths; walking the whole thing is a less mind-numbing then I worried it could be.

Donglianghua @ Dali

Half way between Dali and Weishan is a little 800 year old Muslim village called Donglianghua. On my way back from Weishan I decided to catch the small green bus and make a stop at there. I've been exploring dusty, crumbling places for the past week; so I was surprised to see that this place was clean as a whistle and in pristine shape in general.