I realize that my post is more on the negative side, which is not entirely fair to the province of Xinjiang. My negativity is more towards what the Chinese are doing to Xinjiang, both in terms of smashing its culture and in my opinion, slowly destroying its natural beauty as well. You are right that Xinjiang is still a very gorgeous place, but at the border with Pakistan and at Kanas, two extremely beautiful places, the scenery is being wrecked by the construction of shoddy monstrosities that just ruin the scenery. However, there are still many beautiful places in XJ, I just worry about how long they will stay beautiful! We did cross the Desert going from Hotan to Turpan on the new highway. Of course I can’t compare it with the old highway as I’ve never been, but the trip through the desert part seemed really short, only 4 hours or so. I will certainly do a post on Kanas, which was by far the most beautiful place we visited. My boyfriend took a lot of great photos that I will post as well. He doesnt make the mistake of getting crap on his lens! The outdoor restaurant was in Urumqi, at the Wuyi Yeshi, and of course, lamb!

I’ve never seen an outdoor restaurant like that here, but sure looks like it was good. Lamb meet or other?