Our First Time in URUMQI, CHINA Exploring Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
What a beautiful Sunday day here back in China and a smoky one too it's not pollution we are at the street where there is a lot of food being served being grilled I believe they are grilling lamb that's why it's so smoky yeah it smells like lamb but it's so lively here so today is our first day to really explore Urumqi which is in the province of Xinjiang and this is a place we didn't come to last time when we were here in March of this year I hope you're hungry because this is a very local street where we can find all types of goodies so I thought I'd take you here for lunch and this place is called Hetiener Street and it's a walking street no cars can come here well some cars can yeah if you have a permit you can drive through here because I think there's like residential buildings and stuff in the street as well but they have closed it to be a pedestrian street because it is so busy and it's just full of food and full of people every day let's go get something to eat it's a long line up here wonder what it is what are they serving not sure that looks so good I think it's plov or pilaf oh plov yeah like the rice dish they're making it fresh here wow it's interesting to see it here in China I think that this one has such a long lineup because you can get refills no way I see people bringing their plates over for more it is so interesting to see so many familiar foods actually for us because we just came from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan we spent almost a month in Central Asia and kind of got ourselves familiar with the culture a little bit the food like seeing the fresh pomegranate juice brings back memories of like Almaty for me and I think overall like Xinjiang is just a province that is home to a lot of ethnic minorities from Central Asia like the Uyghurs the Kazakhs the Kyrgyz the Tajikistan people as well like there's so many different ethnic minorities here and yeah you can see the culture and the food reflected on this street oh that's a sheep's head not today you don't want sheep head today no I don't want sheep today oh this one look it looks so good look at that let's get one this one has meat inside that one just plain oh this one has sesame in there it's beef inside you want to get one of these yes what about that one which one you want the beef I mean 10 CNY that's like less than $2 it's still hot we can split it in half I think this is good enough for lunch look at the portion of this you sure you don't want some like grilled lamb or something oh my God and there's also beef and green onions inside nice and salty is it lamb I think so but she said beef though right mhm but it has a lamb taste and it also have a spice taste to it like like cumin or something oh look at the lineup it's finishing what are they lining up for they're lining up for this bread that also has a meat filling inside but earlier I heard that lineup was 30 minutes should we go line up it looks shorter now and maybe let's get this drink look at this and he just shaved the ice from this block of ice let's get one what is it though I want to know what it is I think it's dried fruit tea dried fruit water we'll find out this one was only 5 CNY and it's so funny he poured it in the cup and then that just kept refilling by itself it's like a fountain of tea oh my God it's good it's good oh that's all refreshing what you got nice finally good job most people are buying like 10 or 20 so that's why there's like just not enough supply for the demand let's try it here to see if it's worth it yeah oh it's so hot this is called [... ]which is like grilled bread but another name for it they call it I think it has to do with the way you grab it with one hand and then you stick it into the hot oven and inside is lamb look at this hot so hot cuz is it similar to this not really because this one has a lot more meat hot it has a lot more meat and it's very very tasty the bread dough is so thin you can see it's like super super thin very tasty right this was good this is even better and I look around and majority of the meat that there serving is lamb lamb or sheep cuz I saw sheep heads earlier sheep and lamb in Chinese the word is quite similar so I'm actually not sure because "Yang" I always thought it was lamb but good point it could also be sheep doesn't matter we eat sheep real quick big thanks to Squarespace for continuing to support our channel and if you're not familiar Squarespace is an all-in-one platform for you to build and manage your website to keep things easy you can start with one of their award-winning templates and then customize the look and feel of it to fit your brand with their new technology called Design Intelligence you can work smarter by letting AI personalize your website with tailored suggestions and it can even help with copywriting they also have a Squarespace app that makes it easy to manage your business on the go just head over to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com/floraandnote to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain now let's get back to the video so far I really like this street there's so many things I haven't seen before and I want to try I feel like I only ate from two stalls and I'm full though I am full too but this I want to know what this is oh how you eat it just eat it figs from Xinjiang area oh can we try one he smashed it first oh now it's really soft it doesn't smell like anything does it taste like figs I never had fresh figs before so I can't compare but it's not as strong as the dried one but it's sweet not that sweet but I don't know what to compare it with it's good yeah yeah quite good so how much is it 5 CNY for two so 2.50 each let's see what else we can get is this walnut cake walnut cake looks really good walnut pie walnut tart everything walnuts they all look good which one should we try walnut cake yeah get one walnut cake yeah hey this is a walnut cake our dessert seems like there is more walnut than cake look at that it's completely packed with nuts and raisins this one was 10 CNY you can go first is it yummy wow everything on this street is delicious that is like full of ingredients honestly this is the best power bar that's what it feels like probably high in calories and fats did you have enough to eat for now yes but there's another place that I want to take you it's going to have more food it's like food everywhere basically is it a market you'll see look at this big army truck it's like a tank all right yeah I guess we're in one of the most popular spots here in the city that's why we need this kind of security it is AAAA Scenic spot I think the most A's you can get is 5As this is a 4A Scenic spot we are at the International Grand Bazaar look at how grand it is beautiful and we just go in through here we have to go through security but you don't have to pay to go in so let's go thank you thank you wow security is strictt here I think because it's like a very popular place for people so course they want to make sure it's safe for all the tourists and all the local people it doesn't feel like we're in China right now feels like we're in the Middle East that's a mosque right I have no idea it looks like but I don't think there's a mosque in here yeah I think it's just the color of the bricks and the store selling rugs and dried fruits give off that Middle East atmosphere it's quite nice so this is the entrance to that big building it's not a mosque it's it's just bunch of shops selling beautiful colorful stuff wow look at this see this is what I mean it's like we're in the Middle East this is like Aladdin yeah the genie is inside this little lamp imagine having this at home that's beautiful and when we have guests coming to our house we just pour them tea yeah wow just look at this red one yeah red one look so nice but is it for tea for wine probably for wine it's like a little shot really or it's good for both it's for tea okay I think for wine for wine yeah I think for like wine I'm not sure she actually speaks another language mixed with Mandarin coffee or tea oh this one for coffee and tea oh okay thank you thank you did she say get something for your mom yeah this reminds me of Kyrgyzstan because when we go to the homestays they all have these plates at the table filled with different dried fruit and candies and chocolates just like this how much would this be I think he said this was 280 CNY yeah it's heavy duty the thing is if you live in China then they just pack it up and they send it back to your house you don't have to carry this in your luggage to waste your space and the weight but for us this is really heavy to take but it's so beautiful all of this is so beautiful it's a lot more peaceful out here yeah I think we spent about 15 minutes walking around the Bazaar but it's not really the type of destination that we enjoy it's really set up for tourism like lots of good photo opportunities lots and lots of souvenir choices but it's a bit chaotic yeah a bit chaotic and not much to see for us but we came to see it for ourselves yeah I mean the architecture is beautiful but just walking around the streets outside of the bazaar Urumqi feels like a very lovely city and the buildings are not futuristic looking like in big city like Shanghai a lot of the building and the vibes are kind of like cultural lots of domes we're about two blocks away from the Grand Bazaar and we've stumbled across this local looking mall it's called Jinquan and it's a lot of textiles and souvenirs a lot of local people kind of roaming these streets but this is what Urumqi is known for right textiles yeah and I think a lot of the ethnic minority clothing as well is very very beautiful I know lots of people come here to buy them let's go take a look around even this place doesn't feel like China walking through that alley there I hear three different languages I didn't even hear Chinese what other languages do they speak I also know noticed the same so there are some people who are speaking Mandarin but I do hear another language and it doesn't sound Kazakh to me cuz we've been getting familiar with that language but it sounds probably like Uyghur's language wait or is it Arab because I see all the signages have Arab writing on it I'm actually not sure as well I'll hold your purse what do you think with like a white shirt inside you actually match with dark blue really yeah you like it yeah I'm going to get it how much she only has one size left so she said 50 CNY oh that's very good yeah this one can I actually wear this out this one looks nice I think it might be too long if it was like up here and like but that's not the style of it 22 cm yeah she can alter it right and this is 120 CNY so if she's going to alter it for you then I think it's a good price and how long does it take she'll do it right now she's not just going to cut it and that's it right she's going to sew it too thank you this is it I got it this is what you're buying I got a scarf you buy one get one free she's funny do you know how to sew I did at one point in my life in Grade 8 had Home Economics Class where we learned how to sew pajama pants that was the only time that was the only thing I ever made but my sister is really really good at sewing I think sewing is really cool it is really making your own clothes yeah that is so cool like now my sister makes clothes for her kids her husband for me for my mom oh she made me boxers too yeah she made you boxers too tell her it's too short no I'm scared tell her it's too short I'm scared just tell her it's too short she said I told you you didn't believe me no it looks good I like it I like it very good hey I think we both did really well we got something something that we can wear when we go to the desert yeah so where to next I have no idea let me look it up For a little change of scenery we are now at the Yamalike Mountain Forest Park it's quite a popular place for young people for couples yeah like us to walk up the trails and then enjoy the sunset from one of the platforms up there this park is so pleasant it is it's so green lots of trees lots of shade and I'm glad I got this keeps you a little bit warm I do have my vest too I guess if I need it I see it I see the platform you see right there yeah the thing is it's almost 8pm it's 7:45pm and it's still bright out the sun doesn't set until 8:45pm so we have an hour to get there before the sunset we made it good job second high five but what's this view wow I didn't notice the mountains before did you notice all the signs as we were walking up this mountain of what this mountain used to look like yeah yeah so it said that from 1957 there was a team of people who were trying to plant trees on this mountain because before this was completely bare there's no water source the soil is not ideal for growing anything so they wanted to start planting trees to make this like a green space a mountain and it took them decades and lots and lots of trials and errors and hard work to make this Forest Park the way that it is today yeah so don't take it for granted no don't take it for I saw the photos of those people hundreds if not thousands of people carrying bags bags of soils carrying trees buckets of water and because there's no cars that could get up um in this area they did they formed an assembly line and just transferred them one by one like person by person to go up the mountain pretty incredible so what do you think of the sunset it's actually a pretty shitty sunset we're just unlucky today is a cloudy day there's like a huge piece of cloud that's hiding the beautiful sunset but I'm sure we get more opportunity to see beautiful sunset here in China are you sure this is the right place to take the bus yes I asked this is the right place to take the bus today we are at the Urumqi International Bus Passenger Transport Hub this is where people come to take a longer distance bus to different cities and different like attractions that are outside Urumqi you can even go to Almaty Kazakhstan I saw a sign Astana and Almaty like you can cross borders but why is it so dead there's no one here I was just thinking that most people enjoy this area Xinjiang by private tours and I kind of understand why because it's quite difficult to figure out your way if you're not with a tour like this is not set up for foreign tourism I even feel like not really set up for domestic tourism even you had a hard time yeah I kept having to ask imagine if it was just me there's no way like everything is in Chinese but yeah we are going to head on that bus over there it's going to take us to Tianchi which is a beautiful Alpine Lake outside of Urumqi about an hour to 2 hours away and it is called the Heavenly Lake for a good reason so we'll show you guys is it just the two of us no there's a couple of people sitting in the dark already yeah they haven't turned on the bus yet this is quite exciting already there's about five more people just sitting here in the dark I mean they've been in here probably for at least 20 minutes because we were waiting outside yeah and we didn't see anyone get on but I actually feel relieved to see other people yay Adventure so we have arrived at the entrance of the Tianchi mountain but we cannot purchase our tickets yet because we're both foreigners and carrying foreign passports we need to come to this police station to get a special barcode or a slip to buy the tickets it's a bit different cuz they were saying are you with a tour if you're with a tour they do all this for you but we're not we're doing this ourselves so what does it say it just says that like an officer has inspected everything and then they have now allowed one Canadian and one Thai person to go in on this date this is our third time doing this going through the security I hope we can get through first time we couldn't go in because we had a drone so we had to store it at the police station second time we didn't know that we need a special slip to go in and buy the ticket the lady was like I'm so sorry you were just there at the police station and I forgot to tell you you have to do it hi see you bye she's like have fun hope you have fun she's like I'm so sorry when I saw you left last time success we got the tickets 95 CNY for the ticket and 60 CNY for the car ride to go up I think we have to take another bus or a car to go up it's not the easiest attraction to get through for sure feels like we're jumping through like a bunch of hoops yeah we're almost there it's like so close now I understand why the bus driver said I was like oh is there an earlier bus to return to the city he was just like you probably don't want to take the earlier bus maybe he knows it takes like 2 hours to get inside the park we made it this is the start of the park there's actually a couple ways you can get up you can just walk up here it's like 800m or you can take this like little blue electric vehicle for a couple CNY to take you up this path cuz it's quite steep we going to walk we're going to walk yeah but let's grab something to eat I want to grab something before we go in just in case we can't find anything in there you got hot dog and some eggs and also a little cake do you like it I don't know it tastes super artificial yeah it tastes like rubber it smells good I'm going to use this as a hand warmer that's a weird hotdog that's beautiful in there actually everyone is walking on the street following the tour group but nobody walks on this path no one is here and this is so beautiful wow that's beautiful so much snow on the mountain look at that yeah there was a huge storm in the city yesterday so it was raining really hard and they said it was snowing really hard in the mountains that's why it's so covered by snow got some walnut cake oh and I got our three eggs we also got some extra snacks high protein chicken jerky oh this one I'm excited to try we saw this at a not a local market but like a streetside vendor near our hotel and we've never seen this before so we asked her and she's like it's a Xinjiang specialty it's sunflower seeds in the actual sunflower I've never seen this before this is good but it's very chewy very chewy maybe should leave in your mouth for a few minutes this is a great start to our China Adventure Part Two right Part Two and we're already experiencing things that we didn't experience when we were here last time so it's pretty amazing
2024-10-24 08:10
