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The next day we headed to Turpan, a place mostly just read and heard about. Statistics show that there are over 175 historic sites in the Turpan Basin. We were pressed for time so we were only able to visit a few of them.

I have read lots of stories about Turpan since I was in premier school, but this was the first time I was able to see it with my own eyes. We first visited Grape Valley which lives up to its name. The smell of grapes came from kilometers away before we walked down into the valley. A long and winding gazebo of grape trees led us into an earthly heaven of serenity and a large feast of grapes. Grapes were everywhere. All kinds of them, some were as green as emeralds, some as red as carnelians, and some too beautiful to resemble anything. However, no matter what shape they took, nourished with the water from the melting snow, they tasted so sweet that your tongue couldn't handle the deliciousness. The one thing you should not miss is the raisins. They come in many different colors, yellow, green, brown, and even black. Even more interesting are the raisin's names, like fragrant lady, fragrant gentlemen and more. They taste just like their names describe them.

Before we could enjoy more of the delicious raisins and grapes, we had to continue with our trip. The next stop was the Jiaohe ancient sites. Located 10 km to the west of Turpan city, it used to be the capital of the ancient Che'chi Empire and has a history of at least 2300 years. It covers an area of 430,000sm, with temples, office buildings, towers, houses, workshops, wells and so on. Amazingly, all these buildings were dug from out the ground, no bricks or stones were used. Everything seemed to be made clay or pure earth.

Because of the dry weather conditions in Turpan, the construction of the Jiaohe ancient city has been kept in good shape. We noticed that half of the buildings in the city were built underground, and the other half above ground. It must have been a prosperous city; unfortunately a big fire leveled everything to the ground. Today, almost 2300 years later, we could hardly figure out the exact shape of the buildings, yet the city's magnificence can still be imagined. We were shocked by a tomb for a group of new-born babies; it is still a mystery of how these babies died. In a war? By a plague? Archaeologists have different opinions. Perhaps we will never know the answer.

Time flew by. The sun went down before we knew it, and we had to hit the road. We had to fly back to Beijing the following afternoon. As the airplane took off, the beautiful land of Xinjiang gradually faded out of sight, what will never fade are the indelible memories I have in my mind. "Xinjiang, I will be back."

(CRIENGLISH.com)

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