Green City

After three days of eating the sand and reaching the easternmost corners of Taklamakan, I decided to postpone my eastbound trip and instead of Golmud I returned to Urumqi. Partially it was affected by my impatience and dislike of bus travel (Golmud is allegedly several 'bus-drive' days and transfers away from Rouqiang) and partially glum description of Golmud in all travel books available. Furthermore, it would be highly unlikely that I would make it to Shanghai in time to pick up my friend with whom I was supposed to travel afterwards. Of course the main reason was my relatively low adrenaline level and high desire to be at the right time at righter place (bad English intended). Below you will find my observations about Urumqi after being swamped with army personnel. Description of my travel through desert will follow in the next post.

Green
First things first. Whatever you think and it might be a lot, consider Urumqi a safe city. Four days after July 5 protests there were something like half milion soldiers patrolling the streets or at least it looked like that. In a city center where main riots happened and in Uighur part of the town, each corner saw its own squad of soldiers taking watch or resting. Other squads of policemen or soldiers walked the main roads from corner to corner. Back ups and reserves rested idle in shades of subways, bridges, overpasses and in front of buildings casting the biggest shades. Outter suburbs were patrolled by passing army trucks keeping to their predetermined loops. Soldiers walked and guarded all major parks, and crossings. Basically anyone trying to lift a stone would be uprehended within seconds. My personal guesses as of today are: (1) zero crime rate (including pickpockets) and 1 to 5 soldier to citizen ratio for greater Urumqi (Urumqi has population of two millions...). Everything made me feel totally safe and my only worry was that I would get caught while trying to take pictures of soldiers (prohibited) and would have to suffer consequences (expatriated).

Of course most of the army was deployed in haste and closer look revealed deficiences but everyone has to admit successful gualling of public disorder. Hastiness caused some soldiers carrying sticks instead of batons (mostly in suburbs and Chinese parts of town). Most of the soldiers were 18 years old and looked in their oversized equipment more scarred than those they were supposed to scare and their officers had full hands of keeping their morale high (I guess that was the reason for regular exercise, wartime shouts and singing - besides announcing their presence to potential protesters). One had to admire particularly those in full body armor in 30-35 degree heat and constant scorching sunshine. Of the all units I have seen, the most respect generated Uighur policemen with shotguns and machine guns in and around Uighur dominated streets. Looking menacingly and ready to use their equipment against slightest trace of disturbance, they towered above everyone in sight. I guess that was caused by their regular meat diet as compared to rice diet of their sleepy army colleagues deployed from other provinces.

City
After two days of walking around city I discovered certain hidden and not-so-hidden gems worth visiting. Besides those described in previous post about Urumqi I visited Hongshan park and wandered all over the city proper. Hongshan park is large hilly oasis with many adrenaline and not-so-adrenaline entertainment options for youngs and elders alike. It also offers multiple cultural sights (Budha temple, Dragon spring pavillion, tower and pagodas) and incomparable views of the city skyline and with mighty snowy Tian shan as a backdrop.

Walking through the streets you can try to discover 10 sights Urumqi municipality considers important or of high inner or outter value. Among those discovered by me is oversized bronze statue of Lenin in the lobby of Bank of China at Jiefang Road. Kept in shades of this historical building it is protected by brave security staff from flashlights of picture hungry capitalists. Sculpture was discovered by local branch manager at scrap yards of Tacheng and restored to its former glory from funds of comrades welcoming institution it currently resides in.

Other discoveries included great minority building which is supposed to house minority traders and shops. Dome built and funded from money provided courtessy of government and momentarily shut down by it in order to prevent gatherings of those minorities (same fate met local grand bazars and night market). Furthermore, I realized that my original observation about ideal melting pot of cultures was at least partially correct as there is no animosity between older generations of Hans and Uighurs. Any Uighur men or youngling would stand up and vacate his bus seat for Han older or lady - a sight almost unheard of in Shanghai, the place where fights for seats in bus or subway are accross weight and age categories and resemble more UFC bouts.

Although only wildly guessing, I can conclude that protests demanding justice (as reported by media) turned ugly and galvanized into full fledged riots upon joining of hot-headed young guns and mishandling of situation by unprepared police. Thirst for protesting is shared by all young people across the world and unless chanelled to some better purpose it results in bloodbath (1, 2, 3) and very rarely in something good (1, 2). The exeption to this is current generation of soulless brainwashed zombies who can be found lingering in university campuses east of west and feeding on everything served by big brother media.

All above said, the display of power was impressive and it efficiently subdued any attempts for further disturbance of peace within two or three days (there were some reports of Han retaliation and Uighurs lively demanding less harsh treatment and information on missing). We can say (borrowing from old Slovak proverb) that any protester would be beaten to ground by cap-wielding policemen as quantity once again trashed quality :). Unfortunately, the numbers made whole situation boring and I left Urumqi with feeling that I was at the right place but in a wrong time.

To Spice up my life and make the end of my journey more adventurous I took hard seat two days train ride from Urumqi to Shanghai. And believe me, it was all worth it (all 389 RMB) as it was right there among my best journeys by train yet - fun and gamble thing - playing cards and talking with my Chinese compatriots, sleeping on tables, eating all possible snacks and rubish food and watching children pee in cans, on floor of the train, and virtually any surface imaginable except for hole in the floor of the toilet. Awesome!