TURPAN, Xinjiang, China — During their stay in the far-western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, BYU-Hawaii concert Choir members took the time during their three-week tour of China and Mongolia to visit a 2000-year-old engineering feat that ranks with China's Great Wall and Grand Canal, and also to see one of the country's best preserved archeological sites.
As the group left Urumqi, where they had performed a concert at Xinjiang University the day before, the three-hour outbound bus ride quickly showed the BYUH group that Xinjiang province is mostly a very dry desert, with snow-capped mountains in the far distance.
Everyone was surprised to see the first dromedary camel calmly sitting by the side of the road; but by the end of the day the animals had become a familiar sight. In one instance, we saw a local man rounding up his herd of them on a motorbike. It was easy to imagine how valuable these animals must have been during the heyday of China's "silk road," which passed through this region.
Before entering Turpan, the main city in this area with approximately 70% Uyghur population — a people of Turkic heritage, we noticed the desert gave way to fields of green — primarily grain and grapes. This is made possible by the ingenious Karez, an approximately 2,000-year-old irrigation system that allows water from the distant mountains and, at one time, almost 200,000 wells, to free flow through over 5,300 km (more than 3,400 miles) of underground canals. There are still about 400 wells in the area, and visitors to the Karez oasis can still climb down to see one of the canals.
Mr. Pang, our local Chinese guide, explained the canals would have frozen during the winter if they had been built above ground. "It helps maintain the water at a better quality, too. It is still so important to our people," he said.
Following a multi-course Uyghur luncheon and lots of their exotic singing and dancing as entertainment, the students joined the cast onstage to exchange talents. One of them said, "I thought I was in the Middle East."
Joseph Moore, a senior vocal studies major from Littleton, Colorado, agreed. "I didn't think I was in China any more. I also thought I was in the Middle East. I really enjoyed getting to know a small place in the middle of nowhere — and getting exposed to a new people I never knew anything about before."
"Uyghur dancing is so interesting, because they performed so many different varieties. At lunch we saw elements of Russian and even Irish dance, blended with their own. The food was really good, and spicy, and I really enjoyed everything.
After lunch, the group visited the Turpan Jiaohe Ancient City archeological site, which was established about 200 B.C. and is a remarkably preserved adobe-type complex.
"Going to the ancient city was cool, to see something that we've read about in school, in a culturally diverse place," Moore added. "It's amazing how people lived out here in the desert."
— Top two photos by Mike Foley: (Upper left): a grape arbor at the Karez oasis; (middle): Joseph Moore and a "friend" take a short camel ride in the Grand Bazaar at Urumqi; Lower photo by Monique Saenz: part of the ancient ruins of Jiaohe city.
