Silk Road - Xinjiang Turfan, Toyoq Valley people

We came for the door, but we got more than what we came for!

I can't write about Toyoq Valley without telling the stories of the people we met here.  The lady in red, with her upmost resilence to upkeep her feminine in a pair of heel on a rocky road. The old granny who came and open the big orange door, she was at least hundred year of age.  It shows you that life is more matter to the Uyghur here than anythings.

As we walked, we were also peeping into the Uyghurs' house to see how they work on raisin production.  As though we should not have, it is offensive to these people, they are muslim.  However, we were surprised by the friendliness of the people here.  Work is done together in a family as they normally have big family and stay together.

This couple saw us passing by and taking photos.  Without stopping us, pulled us into their roof top, show us how they worked on the raisin and offered us to eat their raisin. When we were reluctant to take their raisin, they got angry with us.  :-) so, lesson learnt - never refused a kind offering from Uyghur, they will get angry!

We met Abdullah at the end of the road where the mosque is.  Abdullah goes to school here.  Even though they are Uyghur, the class is in Mandarin as it is a province of China.  I asked Abdullah why is he not in class and going around.  He said - very few students at school, teacher is off and he does not like the Mandarin class so he is skipping it.  He only can communicate in very basic Mandarin.

We met this family on the way back.  They have one of the newest door, thus, the paint is still fresh. The daughter can speak proper Mandarin and is the only person I can fully communicate to.  The father is no longer around and the mother takes care of her 3 children alone.  According to her, life is not easy, but peaceful in Toyoq Valley.  Again, they were so friendly they invited us in, offerred us tea and raisins.  We visited her house but didn't have anything as we were heading to catch the bus back to Turfan.

Kids here love to be photographed.  They will ask to be photographed and once you show them the photo on your digital camera, they will laugh and laugh.  It was 2004, not quite a digital age yet and they were surprise to see themselve on the digital camera. But, they will do it over and over again.


Every house we peeped in, the Uyghur family will pull us in, offering us raisin is a must, some offered tea.  I wrote about the people because recently I saw many incidents of violence in Xinjiang betwen the Uyghur and the Han Chinese.  I can't help but to doubt the cause is the Uyghur for the reason of my experience with these people.  They might not be the most civilized, or educated, however, they are the most honest and friendly people I have met in my travel.  They have a very different kind of culture, but hey, who are we to judge them. Give it a thought!