The organisers of the Hallowe’en Party contacted Kieran to tell him about a similar party in Turpan (or Tulufan if you’re Chinese). Though wary of this offer, the promise of free food, a nice hotel and good pay proved to be too tempting, so Kieran came down to Karamay on Friday, and the three of us made our way to Ürümqi to meet Ben on Saturday.

We realised that if the party finished at 8pm on Sunday, we wouldn’t be in Karamay for Monday morning lessons. Tom and I were surprised, therefore, that the school let us take Monday off (after all, we only missed three lessons between us, so keeping us happy was probably worth it). We decided to stay in Kuitun on Sunday night using my key to the girls’ old apartment, also giving me a chance to pick up the stuff they’d left behind.

Ben met us at the station armed with Burger King takeaways, though there were no chips (what sort of place runs out of chips on a Saturday?!). While we waited, a friendly security officer asked us to vote for her in a station survey (run through WeChat, the most popular form of messaging used in China), then led us to the VIP waiting area.

The train we got to Turpan was High-speed, and more like an plane on the inside. Very soon we were met at Turpan station (out in the sticks, like in Karamay) and taken to the school. I was struck by the number of outdoor markets despite the time of year. Fruits that I haven’t seen this side of Ürümqi since October were being sold by the crate-full. Turpan is warm (for Xinjiang); in the summer it’s unbearable, but in the winter it is highly pleasant: hats and scarves were quickly removed in the warmth of 0 degrees Celsius.

The training school itself was slick: nice rooms with whiteboards and projectors (better equipped than my school) all lit up for Christmas. We were shown the dances in which we had to perform, and asked to pick a song for our ‘solo’ dance. This party was a series of dances, so they just wanted some token Westerners to join in, with which I was honestly fine. We were so bad at one dance, they found the dance teacher who gave us a lesson. After a couple of hours, we were taken to a hotpot restaurant (free food: tick).

The next morning we were fetched (nice hotel: tick) and given more practice time. We chose to dance Peanut Butter Jelly, and filmed our practice attempts, which was when I realised how incredibly camp I am when I dance. Before attending the party, we were given Santa costumes; the beards were later removed as they hid our Western-ness. We were given a sack of sweets and told to mingle, handing them out (‘to the parents as well!’). Our dances came around and went fairly well given how quickly we’d had to learn it.

We were rushed out for our train and given a wad of cash on the way out (good pay: tick). We missed the train due to driving at the speed limit and a jobsworth ticket officer and had to swap tickets (there’s no ‘Off-Peak’, only ‘Advance’).

We got into Kuitun at around 3am and reached the girls’ apartment. Even after a month it felt desolate. Ben was with us, having missed any means of transport to Fukang, but by the time I got up the next afternoon he was long gone. Tom took half of the girls’ things for posting to them, and Kieran and I wandered to a shopping centre for food and a supermarket run. We ended up on the Karamay train which got us in quite late, and soon after getting back, Kieran left for the 2am Fuhai train (on time this week).

—TJC

Featured image: Four Santas at the party… LTR: me, Kieran, Ben and Tom.