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Beijing – Mutianyu – Beijing, China
There are numerous places one can access the Great Wall. After all the Great Wall is called “Wanlizhangzhen”, meaning “Ten …
Newer: Day 369: Journey to the West →
Urumqi – Turpan – Urumqi, China
Turpan is boat-shaped basin located in the southeast of Xinjiang. It is the centre of a fertile oasis and was …
Day 368: An Actual Solid Itinerary For the Week
Beijing – Urumqi, China
Despite my constant refusal, my cousin Xiaoyun in the Xinjiang province booked me a flight ticket from Beijing to Urumqi.
I’ve had wanted to visit them in Xinjiang since I’ve never met this part of my relatives before. However, I couldn’t for the life of me get hold of a train ticket to go there. Flight ticket cost a whopping USD 300 one way and even if I got there, I’d have problem coming back to Beijing. Yet, Xiaoyun convinced me that securing my train ticket back to Beijing would be a mere matter of a finger snap.
In any case, my flight ticket was booked on their end and all I needed to do was to get to the airport, show my passport and board the plane.
Three and and half hour later, I arrived in Urumqi at midnight. Xiaoyun and her husband Baoming and daughter Wenwen picked me up. After a quick introduction, I was brought to a hotel where I’d be staying the next three nights. I was also briefed on my itinerary for my next few days.
Xiaoyun would have a driver pick me up the next morning and bring me to a desert town of Turpan for a day trip. The second day would be another day trip with my private driver to a mountain area called Tianshan Tianzi. By the third day, they had booked me a 4-day tour 15 hours away to northern Xinjiang.
So much for a budget backpacker eh? Private hotel room? What what. Private car and driver? What what? And all paid for? That’s where I got a bit uncomfortable… My relatives insisted that I paid for nothing, not even for my meals and admission tickets. All would be taken care of and I was to just enjoy myself.