Ulumuqi
I arrived in Ulumuqi, xin jiang three days ago. It is a city in the far west of china, circled by the Russian, Kazakstan and Pakistan borders. Exactly whether the city is circled or in the encircling ring outside the chinese border would remain in doubt without a map. Mosques and arab style architecture sprout out above the flattened rows of shops and restaurants which flank the streets. Signposts are in three scripts: pin yin, chinese and arabic writing. The city is a sea of 30 year old decaying high-rises flowing away from the centers. There are two centers, indicative of the nature of Ulumui's duality, the official one is the people's square, a smaller deserted model of tiananmen square complete with stele and smoke colored concrete. the second one is the bustling "basha" (bazaar), a tourist oriented arab market under a tiled muslim building. it has a large quantity of cheap fake imitation jade bracelets naturally supplied with a home printed certificate of their authenticity, tacky sequel muslim dresses and hats along with arab knives packaged like cigarettes. In front of the building, fruit vendor carts vie with cheap sock and cellphone trinket carts for the attention of muslim capped leather featured men and dark eyed-brown haired women.
Just as the bazaar is the favored center, the pakistani/arab culture is the most prominent in the city. People mostly speak we'ar and hassake, guttural, raspy languages which nonetheless flow like italian
"sis guzelle crezzzzzzzzz"=you are a beautiful young girl. "lachmat"=thank you
Their second language is chinese, although it is a chinese branded by the characteristics of their mother tongue: harsh, at times sprinting or slowing down through a phrase where a beijing local would keep the pace clock steady, derisive of the mandarin accents which makes it often incomprehensible. The streets aren't rife with the smell of chinese food but with the smoke of roasted lamb. In front of the restaurants, huge barbecues emit so much smoke that it's hard to see around them. The local's features are as arabic light diffused through a chinese pane of glass: the hair is brown but light, the eyes are a light brown although their form is that of a sharp oval.
