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Chop Suey - "A vegetarian dish made with snow peas, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower cooked quickly in a broth of soy sauce."

From China Glossary

Xinjiang Travel Guide

/ Asia / China / Xinjiang / Introduction

Perched in the Mongolian Uplands northwest of China, Xinjiang is the heart of Eurasia, the heartland of the nomadic Uyghur tribes, and the cultural bridge between the East and the West during the cheery days of the ancient Silk Road. This sparsely-populated province eats one-sixth of China's total land mass, about the size of the whole Western Europe or Iran, thereby providing a spacious arena for tourists to discover terrains like dry steppes, oases, lakes, valleys, nature reserves, deserts and more, that are as varied as the culture and the folklore thriving in them.

Since Xinjiang borders Russia to the north, Tibet and India to the south, Gansu and Qinghai in the southeast, and Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tijikistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to the west, the province is a gateway to these regions and countries as well as a shortcut to these places' people and culture.

Many immigrants from Xinjiang's bordering nations have found a home in Urumqi, the provincial capital and home to the mummies of the Xinjiang Uyghur Regional Museum; parks and temples of Hongshan (Red Mountain); hot springs of Shuimugou; Silk Road history at Xinjiang Museum, and to Russian and Mongolian artworks of Erdaoqiao market.

During the Tang and Han Dynasties, silk and other products were shipped to Xi'an, where Silk Road began, before being transferred to caravans en route to Xinjiang, where there are routes leading to Europe's Hexi Corridor without having to pass the Taklimakan Desert. These three routes can still be explored today.

The first of the routes straddles along Kashgar and Turpan, towns included in northwestern Xinjiang's "land of carpets, song, dance, succulent melons, grilled lambs, and precious stones." Kashgar is a 1000-kilometer desert town lying at the tail end of China, making it known as "The End of China's New Frontier." It serves as the cultural crossroads between diverse ethnicities, including the Han Chinese, Uyghurs, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Kyrgyz, whose kilims (carpets), doppa and kalpak hats, and other arts and handicrafts, have made the city the largest bazaar in Asia. Turpan, meanwhile, has the Earth's second lowest point (Turpan Depression) and China's hottest place, Flaming Mountain.

Unique landscapes, habits and customs are the promises held by the second path, which includes Hotan and Kuqa. Kuqa is a historic interest area for its grottoes while Hotan is an oasis town with three rivers that provided sustenance to survive the world's "Death Sea" or second-largest desert, the Taklimakan.

Xinjiang photography

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