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travel. The oases are far apart.
The Turfan oasis is supplied with abundant underground water, pumped from wells tapping channels deep in the ground, rivers of melted snow from the Pokoton Shan range. This pure water has been used for over two thousand years. A pumping system spills it into ditches which flow through this settlement of 170,000 people, largely Uygur and Moslem.
The specialities here are grapes and mellons. We are too early to sample them, but the grapes are well formed and trained to grow over trellises which form canopies under which people live and walk. Millions of trees, mostly poplar, are growing everywhere to protect the wheat and other vegetation from violent dust storms. It is deathly hot - 104 degrees yesterday - the hottest place on earth in later months.
The atmosphere of Turfan is in many respects Middle Eastern. After arriving by bus at 6:00 A.M., and attempting to sleep a little, we were awakened shortly after seven by a curious and insistent music made by twanging a stringed instrument. I recorded this performance, complete with chirping birds, abundant here for the first time in my experience in China. Everyone is friendly we discover as we explore the sights - the water system, the ruins of an ancient city which flourished in the middle ages and a mud-plastered mosque with many wooden columns and an ornamental brick minaret.
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