The Dragon-boat festival warranted a national holiday from Thursday to Sunday. Technically our school started on Sunday (the Dragon-boat festival is a single day’s holiday, so schools tend to shift the weekend to make a three-day weekend); Cindy assured me that it was perfectly reasonable to request an extra day off, so I did. Tom and I got the Wednesday night train up to Fuhai to see Kieran. This time we splashed out for a sleeper, which meant we were only a bit tired when we reached his house (even with a bed, 2am to 7am does not make for a particularly refreshing night’s sleep).

On Thursday we got a bus to Beitun (baozi – steamed dumplings – for breakfast on the way), which is about half an hour from Fuhai. Technically it’s a city, but it’s still small. Deciding that buses were an unnecessary convenience, Kieran guided us on foot to a hill on the outskirts of town with a large horse statue at the top. Several photos later we wandered down and made our way to a supermarket for ice-creams. Altay is further North, which meant it was relatively cool, coasting at 33 degrees (Karamay is currently 38, and rarely goes below 30). On our way back we passed an alcohol shop selling Skyy and Bacardi for the equivalent of £5 per bottle. It’s probably not fake. Probably.

Beitun is also home to the only double-decker buses I’ve seen (other than sightseeing ones in Shanghai). I’m not sure why they’re in Beitun, but they remind me of home (they’re bright red, too) which was kinda nice. The bus back to Fuhai took an hour to leave, as they wait for the minivans to fill up before setting off. That evening we entertained ourselves with a film night and fresh Xinjiang watermelon (incidentally, the Purge is a ridiculous concept but makes for a few decent films, in my opinion).

On Friday we visited Altay City armed with baozi for the two-hour journey. We had two goals: eat ‘hold-pizza’, an ice-cream-cone-shaped pizza (not a traditional local speciality, just a decent business idea), and climb another hill with mountain views to the North. They were out of hold-pizza and we couldn’t find the path up the hill, so we achieved neither and eventually got the bus back to Fuhai after another hour-long wait. Altay City is pretty (boring). They’re currently building an extension to the Fuhai line which might bring more ‘stuff’ to the city; it might just make the daily train a bit more crowded. That evening we went for noodles. As well as ban mian (mixed, thick Xinjiang noodles) I got ding ding chao mian: exactly the same as ban mian, but with the noodles cut up into small bits. We made a start on the booze from Beitun in a game in which any personal pronoun (I, you, he/she/it etc.) or this or that were eventually banned. Nightmare.

Saturday was going to be a beach visit, but we couldn’t be bothered, so we watched bad horror films. Tom headed back to Karamay while Kieran and I drank with some friendly Uighurs and Kazakhs who were cooks at the restaurant we’d been visiting. Later we moved to Fuhai’s club (surprised it even has a club) where Kieran got to try DJ-ing, and we eventually got home rather late and very merry. Sunday followed much the same, with dinner at Fuhai’s Western restaurant before leaving for Karamay.

On Monday we woke up to the horrific news of the mass-shooting in Orlando. Though Xinjiang feels far removed from the rest of the world, news still arrives unfiltered. Students – and anyone else – could not understand why guns are a constitutional right in America, a view which I share. In the wake of such tragedy, however, it was heartening to see the world uniting behind the LGBT community and the families of the victims.

—TJC

Featured image: Tom and Kieran by the Kelan River, in Altay City.