The next morning (the 21^st) my first stop was the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Museum where I wanted to see the mummified bodies of early Sogdian(?) settlers of the Xinjiang region. The Sogdians were a Caucasian group who lived in Xinjiang before either the Uigur or the Chinese. Unfortunately the museum turned out to be closed for renovations, or possibly simply closed for winter, nobody was quite sure. Not seeing the mummies was very disappointing and maybe I will have to go back sometime to see them.

Having had no luck at the museum I headed down to the Uigur Bazaar at Erdaoqiao. The Bazaar was split into about three different sections, two of them somewhat touristy, and one catering mostly for Uigurs. The truly Uigur parts of the market mostly dealt in clothes, cosmetics and rugs. The touristy sections sold factory produced Uigur handicrafts, the usual Chinese tourist market fare of jade and fake antiques, and a range of local specialty foods, including nuts, dried fruits, herbal teas, etc.

During my tour of the market I tried a Uigur restaurant for lunch. Thus after years of eating in Uigur run restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing, I had my first genuinely Uigur meal. Somebody told me that Uigurs prefer to be spoken to in English than Chinese when dealing with foreigners. I tried this and got nowhere. The waitress’s Chinese was fine and ordering in Chinese was not a problem, though the restaurant didn’t seem to have a Chinese menu. I got a plate of square noodles covered in a tomato, pepper, onion and lamb sauce. The food was good and much the same as Uigur food I’d eaten before.

After finishing at the market I dropped by Fubar to check my e-mail using their free wireless Internet. From Fubar I headed back to the Uigur area, this time a street called (I think) Shanzi Gang (山子港) for dinner. The dinner was average. The restaurants along that particular street are recommended as the most authentic Uigur restaurants in Wulumuqi, but most of them serve a limited menu and are kind of dirty. I think I had noodles and lamb kebabs. Taking a walk afterwards I came across a much nicer looking restaurant on a street behind the Erdaoqiao Market. The meat looked excellent and was sitting in a covered cabinet out the front of the restaurant (instead of tossed all over a table on the street). Unfortunately by that stage I was full so I just headed back to Fubar for a quick drink and then went back to my hotel.

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