Xinjiang 新疆

(Snow capped mountains outside the plane, somewhere near Urumqi. I couldn't take my eyes off these until the plane was slowly enveloped in clouds.)

(Aerial view of Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang. I took this on the flight to Nanjing.)
(This is what the apartments looked like that Jesus's host grandmother lived in.)
(Family portrait with foreigners! When we visited Jesus's host grandmother's house. Someone decided that a photo was in order. The grandmother [maternal] is seated in the middle, with her youngest grandson in front. Her son is to her left and so is her daughter in law.)
(Jesus served as my loyal bodyguard. Don't I look the part of a Middle Eastern King? At touristy stops (like this) one can have their pictures taken in great costumes for a small fee.)
(For about $1.50 I was honored with the privilege of wearing clothes not unlike the king who once lived in this "historic" palace.)
(A REPLICA [super disappointing that it wasn't authentic] of the palace where the king of Hami once lived. He had visited the Forbidden City and liked it so much that he had his palace made in the style of the Forbidden City. However there is a mosque up there.)
(The aftermath of the fireworks in the little alley outside of Jesus's paternal host grandfather's house. People still continued to light fireworks for about 2 weeks after New Years. LOUD fireworks.)
(You can buy fireworks like these on the street, I think in the USA you have to be specially trained to light these? Or have some kind of permit maybe? Oh well who needs regulations!)
(Making Jiaozi [dumplings] in Grandma's kitchen. Chinese traditionally make Jiaozi [jee-ow zuh] on New Year's eve. It sort of brings the family together as they sit around and pinch the dumplings together.)
(Fireworks anyone? All kinds! And the tradition is to leave the red wrappings on the street after you have finished with the fireworks...it has something to do with keeping the luck from leaving, or keeping the demons away.)
(We killed some time by ice skating on nature-made ice! Okay for those of you who have skated on real ice, leave me alone! I am from California!)
(The kitchen of the house we were to celebrate New Year's in.)
(The first meal we had after arriving in Hami, unfortunately the main dish was mutton. Which tastes like vomit deep fried in expired curry and then dipped in some kind of oil. That is Mr. Gao, Jesus's host dad, behind us! He is really nice!)
( I thought it was really interesting to see this really bright and clean picture above a gas pump. It talks about cleanliness etc.)
(Roadside 清真寺 [ching-juhn sih] mosque on the way to Hami.)
(rough translation: Let's both participate in the prevention of AIDS. [below]:(This) community is my home, prevention depends on everyone.)
(By far the filthiest gas station toilet in the whole world. Or at least in the whole of Xinjiang! There was poop all over the floor and god knows what else! Jesus and I just decided to use the gravel piles around the back and take a rain check on the exposure to several diseases.)
(I thought this was interesting, if you look carefully you can see that half of the mountain has been sliced off!)
(We passed a Uighur graveyard on the way to Hami, the pictures would have been better if we had actually stopped. But a 7 hour drive is a 7 hour drive and we had to keep moving!)
(On the way to Hami we stopped for pictures at Asia's largest "Wind Farm." Sort of reminds me of the drive to Palm Springs. It was freezing, and definitely windy!)
(Jesus's host father teaches Uighur students Chinese Literature in Shanghai. One of his students heard that he would be going to Xinjiang for the New Year so they invited him to see their home. However! Uighur students aren't allowed to leave school until the summer months, the student wasn't even there. They were very nice people, very hospitable. The little cakes and nuts on the table were delicious! The Father spoke English better than most Chinese people, but he was shy about it. He doesn't have much trouble with the pronunciation because his mother tongue is more related to Turkish, not even related to Chinese.)
(Two little girls playing in a village that we stopped in on our way home from ski slope.)
(Me, Jesus, and Gao Chengyu [Jesus's host brother] getting ready to slide down the slope. It was different at this ski slope, there were no ski-lifts. There was a special cable that you held onto to be pulled up the slope.)
(People getting ready to go skiing, I chickened out and just decided to sled down the hill in an inner tube.)
(Road to the ski slope. Snow!)
(Having famous Xinjiang beef noodles for breakfast before departing for Jesus's host dad's ski slope.)
(Ice sculptures of Santa Claus in front of the Uighur [say wig-uhr:Uighur people are the native minority to Xinjiang] market. we thought it was odd that Santa Claus was out here considering most of the people practice Islam.)
(Jesus and his host dad in the living room of our flat in Urumqi. The floor was heated, despite its white-wallness it was a very warm and cozy place.)
(The apartment complex we stayed in while we were in Urumqi. Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang province.)

Pictures are meant to be viewed from the bottom of this article up! 请从下面开始读。读完了之后随便看照片

This trip was a bit of a culture shock for me. It felt like there was a seperate country inside of China, and some people actually feel it should be that way. I flew here directly from Beijing, and I noticed immediately that I wasn't in the China that I thought I'd be in. Many of the signs were bilingual. (Which I like because I support language diversity!).
The reason the signs are bilingual because the "ethnic minority" that lives in the province of Xinjiang speaks a language that is not related to Chinese at all. They are the Uighurs [say wig-uhr]. Thsi minority looks more Middle Eastern than Chinese, and their language is related to Turkish. However Arabic script is used to write Uighur.
After spending only two days in the capital city of Urumqi, [once again not Jesus the Biblical figure but my fellow American AFS'er] Jesus's host family (and some other friends) took us on a 7hr drive to Hami. Hami is a city famous for it's 哈密瓜[ha-mee gwah] melons. Unfortunately it's winter and we didn't have any! Just loads and loads of lamb.
I found it slightly off. Chinese New Year is supremely awkward. Members of the family seem extremely uncomfortable with each other. Awkward and smiling. Not at ease with each other at all! No warmth! Chinese people like to compare Chinese New Year with Christmas but really it lacks soul I felt. I felt as if the family felt obligated to be with the rest of the family. All we really did was eat and watch a very tacky Chinese TV program that just about everyone watches on New Year's Eve. I am proud to say that I understood most of it! The Chinese subtitles helped as well!
Now you're probably thinking..."Don't generalize Arthur! All Chinese families can't be this way!"
Well, after talking to my other foreign exchange student friends...it sounds like all the other families were! Most AFS students suffered extreme bordem. Thank God I was not alone on New Years, and that I went with a friend! (Jesus's host father and brother had invited me on this trip to Xinjiang because they knew that my host family isn't exactly dedicated.) This whole family-discomfortness that I sensed during the trip was a bit of "Culture Shock" for me! I thought surely people who are related would get along swimmingly...apparently not. Still it was interesting though.
The night we returned from Hami, all the friends of Jesus's host dad got together and went out to party. Jesus's host dad grew up in Urumqi. He wanted to meet up with old classmates. We "children" were sent off to a roller disco! It was awesome! All the kids on the floor just wanted to have fun! They were carefree and not as uptight as many students in my school in Chongqing.
We had so much fun that we decided to go back the next night, our last night in Urumqi.
At the end of my stay in Urumqi I realized I didn't want to leave. I don't really know why I didn't want to leave, maybe it was because Urumqi is so diverse?
Went we visited Jesus's host dad's Uighur friends I was not very comfortable at first. The Uighur people had once had their own country and society. Now they are being oppressed by the Han Chinese. Visiting houses of Uighur families with two Han Chinese felt strange. How would you like it if your country was taken over by some foreign population and then you were expected to be hospitable to them? I knew that Jesus's host dad was not oppressing them directly, but still.