Hot is summer in this major tourist city of Xinjiang, situated in Turpan Basin, the lowest point on the mainland of China.
The local people have developed karez, an irrigation system composed of wells connected by underground channels, to counter the heat and drought of the place.
At the foot of the Flaming Mountain east of Turpan lies the Grape Gully (nickname: Green Pearl City"), an oasis where the scorching sun is shut off by luxuriant tree foliages and grapevine trellises that cover 220 hectares and are crisscrossed by irrigation ditches. No place in China is hotter in summer than the Flaming Mountain in Turpan, a mountain made famous by the classical Chinese mythological novel, "Journey to the West".
Xinjiang's largest ancient pagoda, Dorbijin (Emin) Pagoda, (also called Sugong Pagoda) stands 2 km east of downtown Turpan. To the east lies Gaochang, which until the early Ming was a thriving town on the Silk Road; today it has been reduced to a 2 million-square-metres stretch of broken walls and deserted fields. The in exorable pace of history is even more keenly felt at Jiaohe, another ancient city that was deserted during the early Ming, leaving a pile of ruins west of Turpan.
Perfect Sulaiman Minaret
Built during the Qian Long reign (1736 - 1795) of the Qing Dynasty, Sulaiman Minaret is three kilometres southeast of the town of Turpan. A tablet beside the minaret bears an inscription in the Han and Uygur languages. It was erected by Sulaiman, a ruler of Turpan, in memory of his father, Emin, during the mid-eighteenth century, so the structure is also called the Emin Minaret. The slim, round minaret is forty four metres tall and was built of yellow bricks with flower patterns. The exquisitely formed minaret with its helmet-shaped top is one of the most famous examples of Muslim architecture in Xinjiang.
Grape Valley
On the western side of Fiery Mountain in the Turpan Depression, Grape Valley is crisscrossed by irrigation ditches and dense with tress. As the climate there is moist and cool, the valley is a pleasant place to visit in summer, The seedless grapes produces in the valley are excellent.
Ruins of Gaochang City
Scattered over an area of two million square metres at the foot of Fiery Mountain about forty-five kilometres southeast of the town of a Turpan, this site is divided into three parts: an outer city, an inner city, and the imperial palace. Most of the city walls are still well preserved, the highest section being twelve metres high. Within the city walls are the remains of broken houses, earth pagodas, and a network of streets. Most of the houses were built with rammed earth or mud bricks, with arched doorways and windows.
Gaochang City was the political and cultural centre in China's northwest for 1.500 years from the Han Dynasty, when the government began the station garrisons there, until the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), when the city began to deteriorate.
Ruins of Jiaohe City
These ruins, ten kilometres west of Turpan, are considered to have been the frontier post of the Outer Cheshi Kingdom during the Han Dynasty. In the sixth century Jiaohe Prefecture was established with the original Jiaohe City as the seat of the prefectural government. Jiaohe City was built on an island at the confluence of two rivers, occupying an area of 230.000 square metres. Most of the remaining buildings are from the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) and later times, and they fall into three categories: temples, civilian residence, and administration buildings.
What is left of the town indicates three interesting things about it:
(1) that its doors and windows did not face the street - a peculiarity of Tang Dynasty architecture;
(2) that courtyards and rooms were dug from the earth, like cave dwellings - a specialty in China's northwest; and
(3) that no city walls were necessary because the town was surrounded by cliffs - a feature decided by its peculiar terrain. The fact that Jiaohe's houses have been preserved so well is mainly due to the area's dry climate