The flight from Shanghai to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang "Autonomous" region (Uighurs` country occupied by China), was ridiculously cheap (a bit over $100), the trick was to order it a month ahead. The temperatures gap was ridiculous as well - from chilly early-fall style Shanghai I landed straight into the snowy streets of Urumqi, brought me some childhood memories from Russia.... It was -8.

Urumqi itself has not much to offer, though the winter definitely leaves its mark and adds some charm to this otherwise typical Chinese provincial capital.  With a local girl I met a took a day exploring its highlights, which are not much, and it was FREEZING cold!

Xinjiang is 2 (in some places 3) time zones after Beijing, but the communist government doesn`t give a shit. Therefore, we had sunrise at 10:00 in the morning. Bizarre.

From Urumqi by bus to Turpan, Uighur city with some cool ruins to see around. I was the only foreigner there (as well as in Urumqi at that moment and on until Kashgar), so having no-one to share a taxi with (the only way to get to the attractions), I spent pretty much, even after hard, Jewish bargaining. The ancient garrison town ruins were totally worthy, so was the Baziklik (caves with some ancient Buddha paintings). Most ancient treasures of Xinjiang were robbed by 3 generations of vandals: first it was the Muslims, who spent some time, though not too much, destroying everything they saw as sign of paganism. Then came the most sophisticated (and the most damaging) vandals - western archaeologists, particularly German, who simply stole everything valuable they found to museums in Europe. And last, but not least, was Mao Zedong with his stupid Cultural Revolution. So, today not much of ancient Buddhist culture of the Silk Road remains, and what remains is in poor conditions, but still impressive.

From Turpan I decided to follow the Southern Silk road and went from Turpan through boring Korla to amazing and totally of-the-beaten-track (it`s not in the Lonely Planet!) Cherchen. A totally Uighur town (with a few Chinese communist officials to control them), it was very authentic and funny. I got open mouth stares everywhere I went, however, it was NEVER as bad as it sometimes gets with the Chinese. The main attraction of Cherchen, ancient indo-european mummies, were recently removed from their original tombs and put in a boring newly opened museum. But, they are still impressive.

The next stop was Hotan. Actually, there`s nothing much to do there, but the center is very colorful, with a huge marked and some nice mosques, and it`s yet another town where you can see the uighurs just being themselves.

Next - two ancient Silk Road towns, Karghilik and Yarkand, with mosques, nice locals, goats and chickens and old Uighur architecture in the old parts of the towns, slowly pushed, suppressed and removed by the new Chinese-style buildings. I noticed that traditional Uighurs put much more attention to the door/gate than the rest of the house - old houses are all muddy-Grey, wile most gates are colorfully painted and designed in Aladdin style. Funny.

Finally, from Karghilik I arrived to the amazing Kashgar, the last big stronghold of the Uighurs, who, together with Kazahs, Kirghiz and Uzbek still form a fragile majority in the city, which is being more and more populated by stupid and unfriendly Chinese.  But, the old unique atmosphere still remains in many parts of the city, the market and especially the livestock market are amazing and the old tomb is definitely worthy visiting.

In general, strange phenomenon: almost all Uighurs in Xinjiang are very friendly and helpful, but most Chinese that live there are just disgusting, unfriendly;y, always frustrated and angry assholes. A friend of mine has a theory that they`re not happy to be there - well, sorry, but if you`re not happy, it`s nobody`s fault but your own. And frankly, it`s the land of uighurs, so if you`re not happy being a Chinese there, please do everyone a favor and fuck off. Needless to say that Chinese that move to Xinjiang never even bother to learn the local language or understand the culture.

Another thing that kinda amazed me was the friendliness I encountered even after telling them that I`m from Israel. Some laughed - "Hamas...." but not even one expressed any hostility, and many of them are very, very strict Muslims!

Most women in Xinjiang cover their hair and some even their faces in ninja style, but some have no problem to breastfeed a baby in the middle of a street in Kashgar.

In Kashgar I finally met another crazy foreigner - a cool French guy named Pascal, that lives and works in Shanghai. We had some funny time together (also later in Urumqi) with lots of beer.

From Kashgar I went to Kucha - a mistake, there`s nothing to do there - and back to Urumqi. Met up with Pascal and some new foreigners there, we went to a funny night skiing (on a tiny "resort" with not much snow and -18 degrees), then spend the New Year`s Eve in a taxi, try to warm up our bones. But then, back in the hostel, we warmed ourselves more with some beer and long night discussion, which mostly centered around how ridiculous the Chinese sometimes are. Sorry....

Xinjiang is over, next the journey continues to Yunnan through Xian.