Difference between revisions of "Xinjiang"

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Earth > Asia > Eastern Asia > China > Xinjiang
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While hitchhiking with Chinese people works just as good as anywhere else in China, hitching with Uyghur people is more similar to [[Central Asia]]: They will be very likely to stop, but they will also be very likely to expect some money from you. While many will just stop, ask "How much?" and drive off if you say "nothing", some of them will just pick you up, say nothing, be friendly all the time and at the destination suddenly ask for money, often ridiculously high amounts. That said, it's very important to make it clear that you don't want to pay, before entering a car.
 
While hitchhiking with Chinese people works just as good as anywhere else in China, hitching with Uyghur people is more similar to [[Central Asia]]: They will be very likely to stop, but they will also be very likely to expect some money from you. While many will just stop, ask "How much?" and drive off if you say "nothing", some of them will just pick you up, say nothing, be friendly all the time and at the destination suddenly ask for money, often ridiculously high amounts. That said, it's very important to make it clear that you don't want to pay, before entering a car.
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== Cities ==
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* [[Urumqi]], the capital
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* [[Kashgar]], an Oasis in the desert, gateway to [[Kyrgyzstan]] and [[Pakistan]].
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* [[Turpan]]
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* [[Hami]]
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* [[Hotan]]
  
 
{{IsIn|China}}
 
{{IsIn|China}}
 
[[Category:China]]
 
[[Category:China]]

Revision as of 12:42, 19 January 2012

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of China. It is the biggest province of China but not very densely populated. Most of the province is desert. There is one major motorway going all the way from the border of Kyrgyzstan via Kashgar, Urumqi and Turpan to Gansu province.

Xinjiang is inhabited by the Uyghur people and their language, written in Arabic script has official status here. That means, unlike in the rest of China, motorway signs are not Chinese & English but Chinese & Uyghur. It will help a lot to learn at least the major city names in either of them.

Hitchhiking

Hitchhiking generally works quite well. There are big distances between cities, which means there is little traffic, but also that many cars go very far. It's very possible to get lifts of 300 - 1000 km.

While hitchhiking with Chinese people works just as good as anywhere else in China, hitching with Uyghur people is more similar to Central Asia: They will be very likely to stop, but they will also be very likely to expect some money from you. While many will just stop, ask "How much?" and drive off if you say "nothing", some of them will just pick you up, say nothing, be friendly all the time and at the destination suddenly ask for money, often ridiculously high amounts. That said, it's very important to make it clear that you don't want to pay, before entering a car.

Cities