On To Urumqi

“Loulan Beauty” which they date from 1800 BC, a child corpse.

A four thirty wakeup call and a 7:45 AM flight from Beijing to Urumqi.The hotel kindly had prepared a breakfast in a box for us to take. A four hour flight to Urumqi was very smooth. Wondering whether Chinese Airlines endeavor to fly differently that US carriers. The take off and flight path seemed very deliberate and comfortable.

Rarely do I take a window seat but the views were quite spectacular. Dessert then snowcapped mountains then more desert, followed by a fairly lush Urumqi.

Urumqi is not very historic or interesting and not even part of the Silk Road, it is a fairly modern city, but it was a good place to stop for a day and recover from the travels.

After settling into the Sheraton, at least JoAnn was assured that one hotel would be five star, we walked across the street to the museum.

Much of the display was about the cultural history of the region, but one special was the display of the mummies of Xinjiang.In the dessert corpses did not disintegrate but just dried up.Unearthing of graves in the region did uncover some great desiccated mummies.The photos of a few are attached.Included is “Loulan Beauty” which they date from 1800 BC and a child corpse.