Barely into Ürümqi with the school, I was straight back on a Lanzhou-bound train with Kieran, this time to Jiayuguan. A bit depressing, crossing Xinjiang twice in one day, both times past Jiayuguan, but never mind. It meant Kieran had company for the 12 hours it took to get back (hard seat, arriving at 2am). En route we fixed some hostel booking errors, while fielding eclectic questions from a fellow passenger ranging from Bible scripture to Special Relativity.

Beth arrived later than us, at 5am, leading to a late start. We wound our way by bus to the high-speed rail station just out of town. Kieran joked about forgetting his tickets (needed to correct the booking boo-boo) then actually forgot his passport. That evening we ate street food: Lamb and Chicken-Something kebabs with fried potatoes. Both tasted great, but the chicken had the texture of spit-roasted rubber.

The next day was meant to be Jiayuguan Fort, but at half one we realised there wasn’t time. Instead, we wandered around riverside parks, enjoying fountain displays and dolphin statues, revisiting the food market that evening for more potatoes and fried noodle pieces. I’m glad to see Gansu and Xinjiang both give generous portion sizes!

Saturday dawned at 9am, which meant up and off to Jiayuguan Fort. The expensive ticket was fingerprint-validated, while the fort was windy and heavily restored, making for a very impressive spectacle indeed; a fitting start to the Great Wall of China, not that we could walk along it. We soon found what Kieran had really come to see: camels. 20 minutes later we heel-clicked, danced and twerked our way back into town.

That evening was more noodle squares followed by card games in a bar, the owners of which seemed surprised to see customers, quickly going back to their game. The next day involved seeing Beth onto her train, a little exploring and, since it was bitterly cold (snowing, in May!), lots of killed time inside playing cards.

We narrowly missed the Karamay train, and with our tickets declared ‘useless’, we settled for a bus. Just outside Karamay itself we were held up for half an hour while our phones and passports were scrutinised. I was unimpressed by the inefficiency of a passport checkpoint at actually checking passports! Chinese people all have automatic ID cards, but foreign residents would really benefit from them too. That evening we ate at Essen with Doris and Rosie, who were mortified to see their teacher eating there too.

We had to be in school at 9.30 for Friday-timetable lessons on Tuesday. I arrived to find my class already occupied. Erm. Tom was equally confused; someone clever had changed the day back to Tuesday (why was it meant to be Friday in the first place?!), but forgotten to tell us. At least I only had to teach two lessons instead of five!

Wednesday was nicely rounded off by an evening meal with the other foreigners at a Uighur restaurant by the Bus Station. We were led down a corridor with banquet rooms along its length, each one uniquely furnished. Ours was easily the largest and the walls were groaning under the weight of several ornate bowls precariously stacked on top of each other. After a while the food started coming: chicken and pizza, noodles, and just when we’d all pretty much finished, plates of kebabs and joints of mutton. Good food it was too; I’m definitely going back there before we leave Karamay!

—TJC

Featured image: Kieran, Beth & I on camelback outside Jiayuguan fort.