Chinese Long Distance Train to a Uyghur Village in Xinjiang Autonomous Region ️
I have come inside the station. There's a long queue. This is the top class of the train. There are doors everywhere.
There's a lady sitting in front of me. She gave me a toffee. The police stopped us! They are not ready to go according to meter. They are fighting with each other. They are still fighting. I am seeing this for the first time in China! They have put India's flag on two places. Hey guys, very good afternoon and welcome back to the new vlog.
My name is Tourvashu. Currently, I am in Hotan which is the autonomous town of Xinjiang. I am checking out from this town and its time to go to the next city. It's 1 in the afternoon and I have a train at 2 o'clock. The place where I'm going is 1500 km away from here. And my train is about 20 hours long.
Let's go to the train station. I will tell you the details after going out from the hotel. This is the hotel where I stayed in hotan. So now I have to take a taxi from the hotel to the train station, it will be around 6-7 km.
Madam Gulmira is going to get me a taxi from here. She is a local here. The major ethnicity of Uyghur here. The people here are very friendly and helpful. The lady who came to drop me off at the taxi station was asking me why I was in such a hurry.
She asked me to stay here for at least 4-5 days or a week. It's not allowed here but she wanted me to stay here for at least 2-3 days. Finally, I'm going on a long-distance train journey in China today. It's a sleeper train.
I have no idea how it's going to be. I'll find out once I get there. The hotel gave me a complimentary breakfast in the morning. There are a lot of police officers at the entrance.
I don't think I'll be able to vlog from here. I think I'll vlog from the platform or when I reach the train. I'm inside the station.
There's a long queue to board the train. I think it'll be done in 10-15 minutes. I've bought some food and drinks from the station. There's coffee, tea and other things. This is China's long-distance train.
My carriage number is 12. Maybe it's at the end or second last. It should be somewhere there. This is a China train.
This is the washroom at the entrance. This is the washbasin. I will tell you the rate and class of the train once I settle down. There's a 3x3 seat on this side There's nothing on this side like we have in India.
There's a window on this side My seat number is 10. I was in China's Southern West or Extreme West Now, I'm going to China's North Western I am in Xinjiang because it is a very big region. The biggest province in China.
Now I'm going to a very unique place in China. It's a semi-urban area. It's in the middle of urban and rural areas. Now China has turned it into a city overnight. It's a small town or village.
You'll get to know when I go there, Now I'm going to Turpan. I booked this ticket around 11.30 or 12 last night. When I was booking the ticket, there were 3-4 seats left in the train.
This is the upper, middle and lower seats. I got the upper seat. If I had booked it in the afternoon, I would have got the lower seat. I booked this train online for 55$.
You can book it from Trip.com because it's an e-ticket Everyone else is taking direct entry but the police is separating me. They are checking my passport and asking some questions.
I'll tell you about the police because they don't know English. They are opening the passport randomly, They think this is my Chinese visa. They are writing the information. I have to tell them everything.
Today, they opened the passport randomly and took a picture and told me to go. It's 1.45 pm and the train leaves at 2. Most of the people haven't come yet. I don't know where they are! There are around 15-20 stops in different towns.
I have stored my main rucksack. You can store your bags here Some people have stored their bags here I was booking this train, It was the cheapest with No seat. You just have to do reservation, and you can sit wherever you want. You can sit here, it was the cheapest. It was around 25$.
People have started to lie down on their beds. There's a physical thermometer here. It's showing around 27-28 degrees centigrade.
I've taken a water bottle to drink. There's a filter machine here. I think it's hot water, It's written here. You can make something with hot water. Tea, coffee, whatever you want to make is the same as Russian trains. Now I've understood that the 9-seat ticket is cheaper.
I think some people are going to sit here. I can also sit outside and enjoy the view. Hotan is the last stop of this train route, the last station. The train starts from here and ends here. The train has started at exactly 2 o'clock.
On all the seats, they have given a pillow with pillow cover and a blanket. And this is also an air mattress type thing to lay down. It's on all the seats. I don't know why they have kept a steel tray or bowl here. If someone wants to have something to eat, they can come and eat here.
The pantry people are coming with me, I can take my stuff from here as well. If I need it later, I'll take it. My class is a hard seater. In the next carriage, I'll show you what a soft seater is like.
So now we have come to the soft seater class, that is, the top class of this train. There are doors everywhere. There is a difference of two things. There is a difference of a door and there is a 2x2 seat.
In Xinjiang, in the Uyghur Autonomous Region, there are no fast trains like in other parts of China. If there was a fast train, we would have reached in 4-5 hours. I told you in the video about China's high-speed bullet train. That China has the world's second-longest railway network after the US. There is a railway line that is 155,000 km longer than the entire China.
And if we talk about high-speed railway, China has the world's 2-3rd high-speed railway network. The rest of the world has 1-3rd, China has only 2-3rd. So let me give you a little update. It's 6 in the evening.
Because it's a slow train, it's stopping at a lot of stations. Every half an hour, the train stops here. So a lot of people are coming and getting off. All the people who are coming are sitting here. There are a lot of people getting off and getting on. This train has become like a passenger train.
Look at this. There are around 14 carriages in this train. And in every carriage, I think there are 2-3 officers who are doing all the work, same as Russian trains. They have walkie-talkies, cameras, checking tickets, checking passports, IDs, etc. If you have any complaints, they will listen to you. And every half an hour, they are cleaning the entire train.
Sweeping and cleaning. And every hour, they are cleaning the toilet as well. All of them, 2-3 people in every carriage.
And all of them are females, I haven't seen any gents yet. These people from the pantry have come with fruits. This is the right thing to do, to buy fruits.
It has a lot of different types of fruits, cucumber, apple, peach, tomato, I'll take a banana. It's for 10, it's okay. Last time they didn't have any change in the bullet train, so we couldn't get any change at that time. What is this? I think this is dry fruits. They are also selling earphones and data cables. These 4 bananas are for 2$. I thought it would be 5-6 but it's only 4.
The landscape is changing so fast, sometimes it's desert, sometimes it's greenery, sometimes it's muddy. Sometimes it's lush green. So guys, look at these beautiful views of China's countryside.
There are a lot of mud houses, mud bricks houses, a lot of gardens, a lot of farms. Here in Xinjiang, there is a lot of fruit and dry fruit farming. You can see here, I think they are farming grapes. As far as I am concerned, it could be something else as well.
I's night and the train is full. My compertment is full. It's 10 in the night and there is still a little light. It will be full till 11 at night.
There is a lady sitting in front of me. She has given me some toffees to eat. She has given it to me. She is not talking much. She is feeling shy. There are two stations in Turpan. One is normal Turpan and the other is Turpan North. We have to get down at Turpan North. Normal Turpan is a little far. So guys, we have reached where we were supposed to be.
It's around 8.30 in the morning, the train reached 10-15 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. So this is the railway station of Turpan where I have come. Turpan is a very small town, but look at the railway station here, it looks so good.
Looks like I have reached some airport. Even the domestic airports of many countries are not so good. as much as there are railway stations of small towns here.
I'll talk to you after exiting. I have to do a good police check-in and enquiry here. I'll meet you after that. This is the exit.
After exiting, the police stopped us. We did a lot of enquiry for about half an hour. They were mainly focusing on our profession. They were asking about our trip.
'Which all places did you go?' 'What route did you follow?' 'How long are we in Xinjiang?' 'When are we leaving from here?' They asked everything. Finally, we took a 20-hour train and travelled 1500 km from Hotan. We have reached Turpan. We are still in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
That's why there is so much enquiry going on here. There won't be so much outside. The problem is that the police stopped me for about 20-25 minutes.
The bus from here goes to the city center of Turpan. Turpan is about 20 km from here. And the bus leaves once in an hour.
It's around 9:10 AM. They said the bus will come at 10 AM. So I'll have to wait for an hour to take the bus. So I'll have to take a taxi here. They are saying that they won't go by the meter, they are fighting. As soon as drivers see tourists, they start fighting.
The same is happening here. I am the only one left. There are no other tourists here. Everyone has gone to the local bus. Everyone is fighting for me to go here. They are still fighting. How much will they fight? I am seeing this for the first time in China.
Someone is fighting especially for tourists. There's a public bus here, and it only charges 1 yuan. That is 0.15$ So, we are travelling with the help of a meter.
Rest of the people were not ready to travel with the help of a meter. They were telling 35, 35. Let's see how much it takes with the help of a meter. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more, maybe a little more. Let's see. They have brought us ahead. We had reached but they have brought us ahead and now we are going back.
Okay, look at this. 32 yuan was the fare. That is 5$. Taxi dropped me here And this is my hotel right in front of me. It's also a hostel.
This is the location shown. We are now at a very traditional place in Xinjiang, which is also known as China's Death Valley. There's a dog here. What kind of dog is this? Golden Retriever maybe? So the madam at the reception is telling me to wait for 10-15 minutes, her boss will come and give you the entry Because we can't register as foreigner, so I'll wait here. Till then I'll show you this hostel, I liked this hostel so much in the photo, that I came to stay here. There is a refrigerator here, some water, drinks, fruit juices, beer, everything is available here.
There is such a hostel here, I didn't expect such a hostel in such a small town like Xinjiang. There are flags of many countries here, look at this. India's flag on the second line. In 200, there might be 100 countries flag here.
They have put Indian flag 2 times. 1 in the starting and 1 more is here. So this is the lawn, a common lawn, anyone can come and sit here and do whatever they want. Everything here is of a traditional type, of the Uyghur people. So the traditional houses of the Uyghur people are of this only. They have maintained it a bit.
I think she is the boss. She will do my checkin. I have already checked in at the hostel. It's around 10.15 pm.
They said the hostel is empty, just one or two people. What an amazing view of the hostel! There are 1, 2, 3, 4 rooms There is a common space to sit It feels so good, there is a carpet of Shenzhen This looks so good, there is also a carpet here. Some people can be like that.
This is the hostel room. There are 6 beds in total. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I have taken this one. It costs me 9$ per night.
You can see how much I paid in Yuan. I have paid in INR. I have booked it from trip.com And the boss here is saying that 'You are the first tourist, who is non-Chinese, who has gone out of mainland China' No foreigner has come here yet.
I don't know when this hostel opened or after the pandemic. People here are also surprised to see me. Everyone is asking that 'Are you are studying in China or you have a business or work' I told him that I have come here as a tourist. No one believes me. People are surprised. There is a window here outside the hostel.
I will show you the view outside. There is a net here. So the camera will not go outside.
There is such a view outside. There are old mud houses there. Look at that. There are old mud houses there. There is a ruin roof here, actually it's a roof of the garden. It's very old.
So I'll get ready, we'll leave after some time to explore Turpan. So guys, it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I have a guest from China with me and this is the owner of this place.
2023-07-13 16:22
