The Side of Xinjiang You NEVER Knew Existed 🇨🇳 I S3, EP8

The Side of Xinjiang You NEVER Knew Existed 🇨🇳 I S3, EP8

beauty May I ask Can we find a place to stay here？ yes Yes, go ahead yes Do you want to come to my home? It that your home? It’s down there, it’s beautiful Can we visit your house? Sure. Let’s go Ok, let’s go in the last episode we reached Dunghuang once known as Shaozhou a city of sand this was the last Oasis before the silk road caravans left the central plains and entered the heart of the desert that’s all i get some of those and that should be enough good morning everyone welcome back i’m now doing my morning shopping for the long ride today because today we’re going to have an extremely long ride of about 400 kilometers crossing the desert with no gas station no water no supply no village in between so in the morning i came out and i got that i got some naan bread some baozi apples cucumber and apricot and a yogurt that we can make it to hami we are filling those plastic bottles and then get another full tank in a gas station we have our little camel okay this can sit here we just finished loading the bike and it’s actually a little bit overloaded i think because we have i think another 9L of liquid in here like four liters of water and four liters of additional fuel so it’s quite heavy and since the bike is only 150 cc i think we’ll be a little bit slower it’s almost 400 kilometers i think it will take us at least 6 hours to be honest oh six hours only let’s bet now it’s 11:30 without break 6h without break i think we need 8 hours yeah probably if you’re going to Kumul, you’ll take Road 240, 245 Yes, 240, 245 Leave with a full tank Take up when you leave Dunhuang Ok, we’ll do that to give you an idea of how the road looks like i’m going to show you on the map so we’re here and we’re going to take this s two four zero it’s going through gobi desert and we go further and again gobi desert gobi desert gobi desert gobi desert all right four hundred kilometers as of now we refilled one more time in the city before entering the desert our big orange bike was fully loaded at full speed and has been working in the extreme heat of the desert and very soon the midsummer heat became unbearably scorching after two hours a warning light came on we suspected the engine was overheating so we pulled over to check something is wrong ah no it’s not leaking baobao really？ i think 高温了吗 yeah back to normal again？ yeah i think so 啊行 it should be fine we screw it fill with water if there is none Ok Ok, it works now Thank you. Ok so one possible answer is that because of the heat there is pressure that kind of pushes up this cap so some liquid goes out yeah it’s just a gum where is it here yes yes yes and the other two motorbikes saw us and they thought there might be a problem so they stopped to help that was really kind of them that’s how motorbikes are they always help each other and now i think we’re fine we could just continue this desert ride there is nothing but gobi desert we kept going but to avoid overheating we slowed down it would take longer to cross a desert we’re still 100 kilometers away from Hami it’s still extremely hot we just made our second refill and this gobi desert is so hot yeah if you look down this way maybe a 100 kilometers from here it’s where taklamakan desert starts and gobi desert ends it’s like where both deserts come together crazy so when Marco Polo came to China the first time he actually traveled along the southern edge of Taklamakan and then to且末若羌 and then to Lop Nor and then entered Shazhou so actually he chose a way that is much longer than what we covered today today we’re going to cover about 400 kilometers but back then from the last stop in xinjiang to shazhou maybe it’s around 500 kilometers and it’s all desert they must have brought lots of camels lots of food and lots of water the heat and long hours on the road left us completely exhausted as night fell the Tianshan mountains appeared on the horizon we finally reached Hami in Xinjiang alright alright finally 10 pm we are here in Kumul hami oh i’m so exhausted how do you feel? My back hurts I feel I am a piece of meat the whole day i feel like as if i am a piece of sizzling meat on the fried pan it’s extremely hot and at a gas station the guy told us that today tomorrow’s temperature in Kumul in Hami will be 43 degrees yeah yeah and how about you? i’m just exhausted and my back hurts i have this like for a while whenever i ride motorbike for too long somewhere here it starts pulling and hurting i don’t know no matter which bike i ride it’s the same so yeah maybe we can stay in Kumul for two days just to rest and recover from this ride but i’m glad we made it although it’s more than 10 pm me too let’s have some dinner yeah yeah hope we have a good sleep tonight Hami is a place that gave the Hami Melon its name following Guazhou this was the second city named after fruit arriving in Hami meant we had officially entered the historical western regions what is now Xinjiang and central Asia this land was a Frontier between farming and nomadic civilizations ruled in turns by Imperial China nomadic powers and local kingdoms in 1884 the Qing dynasty established xinjiang as a province today’s xinjiang autonomous region still follow roughly the same borders Hami has a strong uyghur character uyghur families live in the oasis towns across the desert and this is where the sweetest hami melons grow and honey melon is named after the city thanks so during Qing dynasty the Hami melon due to its sweetness was made a tribute melon it’s a melon enjoyed by emperors Among all melons in China The sweetest is Hami melon from Hami nanhu da-nan-hu Fresh watermelon juice With ice? 7.6 yuan. ok My melons are not pricy. Yes where is your melon farm? what？ where is your melon farm? Hua-yuan-xiang It’s not far from here 10 km Can I touch it Yes, sure Is it ‘Old Man Melons’？ Isn’t it a pumpkin? No, it is the ‘Old Man Melons’! ‘Old Man Melons’! The melon with soft flesh yes It’s the grandpa! I see, melon grandpa Yes, the grandpa Hahaha How heavy is it? More than 60 kg Wow, 60 kg And this one, 35-40 kilos 35-40 kilos I can’t lift it up hahaha An old-man-melon of 30 kilos It grew in the greenhouse i see, in the green house It was like a baby We took care of it I see This is from this year This year My gosh. And for this We got an award of 10,000 yuan Wow, an award of 10,000 yuan 10,000 Yes, the award yesterday we were thinking of riding towards turpan or shanshan today and then it’s going to be another 400km ride through the desert and there’s hardly villages or towns in between and this morning when we were talking to the melon guy he told us that it’s going to be extremely hot and it made it made us a little bit scared and then the melon guy also told us that we can ride to the north towards Balikun which is to the north of Tianshan mountain range and it’s much cooler there and it’s where the Kazakh herds live so we made a small change to our plan and we decided to head towards balikun today from Hami we decided to cross the tianshan mountains it was a peak of summer we wanted to escape the extreme desert heat bye bye bye bye bye bye in Marco Polo’s travel he wrote that Hami which was still called Kumul by then is a small town at the edge of the desert which is very famous for its melons he also wrote that there were lots of buddhists in the city but since he traveled the southern route of the silk road probably he had never been here he only heard it from other travelers after crossing the tianshan we arrived in the northern pastoral lands the landscape changed grazing fields began to appear we passed through Barkol and Mulei two Kazakh autonomous counties and from Qitai we entered the mountains into the golden wheat fields of Jiangbulake this stretch of green soothed the heat and restlessness that the desert had left in us we continued upward until we reached the alpine meadows beauty May I ask Is the road ahead so bad Yes, like this And it’s muddy down there oh I see May I ask Can we find a place to stay here Yes, go ahead yes Do you want to come to my home? It that your home? It’s down there, it’s beautiful May I ask Will you milk the horse in the morning? Yes, we do We sell horse milk Can we visit your house? Sure. Let’s go Ok, let’s go Take this road and turn right I’ll be waiting for you down there ok Ok she will take a shortcut and she will be waiting for us down there and now the horse needs to drink hahaha hello I met your daughter on the way And then I ask her She brought us here So you are two yes We are two hello hello What’s your name Mustapa Mustapa What is your name Enzhu hello Are you a Uyghur? which ethnicity do you think he is? oh just now we say yes k 就是he say yes k哦 Which ethnicity do you think? So, Oh, yes Hahaha, yes I am a foreigner He is German From Germany Doesn’t he look like Russian Oh, Russian True, he looks like Russian I looked at him, and wonder He can’t be Chinese But he has some Uyghur accent Oh yeah 说话就是感觉 yes. Are you ethnic Kazakh? Kazakh How old are you? I am 10 Only 10 ok wow 可以挺好的 哇哦 The bed is so big This is your room We can make a fire Make a fire in the pot We have to milk the horses now While we are milking the horses You can stay here Are you hungry After milking. Are you going to milk the horses? yes Can I go with you Yes, but don’t get too close You can film it Ok. I see Mustafa mustapa mustapa How old are you 13. 13 years old wow Qitai horse ranch But our winter camp is in Bei-ta-shan oh It’s there Bei-ta-shan It’s near Outer Mongolia Outer Mongolia? Our summer ranch is here In winter we go near Outer Mongolia Outer Mongolia is on the other side And we stay on China side So it’s just next to Outer Mongolia wow Isn’t it further than Altan? Altan is here Barkol is here And this is Qitai wow So if you want to bring the horses here It’ll be a long way In winter, our horses In winter We leave here 70km from here, our home is In Qita. But our sheep in winter Will Will move to Bei-ta-shan oh The sheep stay there So it means you’ll have to travel far Yes, quite far, the seasonal migration Takes 10, 15 days Wow, 10, 15 days Yes, to move there To get there wow apparently the winter ranch is somewhere near outer Mongolia and every year they have to bring their sheep on a journey of more than 2 weeks 10-15 days to their summer ranch hahaha 是他们的孩子啊 对 你们每年每 Our birthday every year We don’t get gift money for birthdays Nothing But this foal as our birthday gift oh My birthday is on 8th June and my dad gave me 2 foals One is called Ebota Another Ayaru Ayaru, did you name it Yes, I gave them the names wow When you learned riding horses, how old were you When I was only one My dad sat me on a mild horse And I rode it Until I turned 10 Sometimes I don’t Sometimes When I go to school oh now the boy is helping the father to control the horses he is only 13 Enzhu told us they milked the horses 4 times a day and mustapa is their neighbor’s boy he’s uyghur but he grew up with Kazakh herders and learned to train horses on the ranch the two kids love spending summers here after a month on the pasture each of them earn a bit of pocket money as a payment for their work so that’s what they’ve got they’re going to sell it tomorrow Do you milk the horses everyday? Yes, everyday yes 4 times everyday 4 times. 4 times 2 times in the morning 2 times in the afternoon How many liters? Sometimes more than this. 20 liters 19,18,17,16,15,14. It can be anything And today, many Horse didn’t have lot of milk It might be en Wasn’t because of us They’re are bit scared It might be… look at that calf en wow come, come we had dinner very late Enzhu’s mother cooked a large plate of hand pulled lamb with potatoes and carrots that was soft and full of flavors Does he talk like someone from Xinjiang Yes. teach him one more sentence （talk in Kazakh） Flo say that again slower 我 我 拿我拿我拿我 拿我拿我拿我 monoclemerican monoclemerican monoclemerican 就是哈萨克语说手机 咋说来着 telephone telephone telephone telephone那维语呢 telephone那维语呢 telephone一样也是telephone 一样的 你多大嘛 今年多大 killing us要是问我爸的话 你说这么难 你说阿达的 阿达的 阿达 阿达 阿达this Cancha killing us bir (1)，ikki (2) on (10) bir (2)，ikki (2) ikki (2) üch (3) töt (4) töt (4) besh (5) alte (6) yette (7) sekkiz (8) toqquz (9) on (10) on (10) I can change, into a wolf wolf Gorilla i think we just had a perfect day it was so cool really yeah it was a lovely family the meal was also super nice the kids are so lovely and today we’re going to stay in this kazakh yurt and also we’re going to sleep together with that lovely cat i think that’s all for today’s video we hope you enjoy watching it thanks for watching and bye bye

In this episode, we cross the vast Gobi Desert from Dunhuang, Gansu to Hami, Xinjiang, following the footsteps of ancient Silk Road traders. From Hami, we take a lesser-known northern Silk Road route through Barkol and into the stunning Jiangbulake Grasslands at the base of the northern Tianshan Mountains.
Here, we meet a warm and welcoming Kazakh herder family who spend their summers tending sheep, horses, and cattle in this remote paradise. Their two children help manage the herds and earn a little pocket money during their school holidays. The family’s hospitality and genuine kindness made our stay unforgettable — we truly didn’t want to leave.

0:00 Intro
1:10 Crossing the Gobi Desert
9:05 Hami – Xinjiang
13:40 Kazakh Fairyland Jiangbulake
16:38 Staying with Kazakh Herders

#china #xinjiang #silkroad #kazakhs #nomad

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