Turpan’s Grape Oasis
1 min readCapAn ancient Silk Road trading post, the Turpan oasis is surrounded by desert and mountains, ruined cities and Buddhist.
Turpan is famous for its bountiful harvest of grapes.
It’s often said that when hanging clothes out during the summer in Turpan, it’l1 have dried before you’re finished. Enjoying numerous consecutive days over 104F (40C),the dry heat of Turpan’s summer days infuses the city with a languid torpor relegating daytime activities to consist mainly of drinking tea and sleeping.
Such is oasis life. With mountains to the north and west, and arid desert to the south,Turpan lies in the Turpan Depression,505feet(154m) below sea level at its lowest point,and is surrounded by the Gobi Desert. It was an important center of commerce and culture on the Silk Road and served as a key staging post on the north silk route. The momentous wash of religious influences over the past 2, 000 years Shamanist, Buddhist and Islam have the people a sense of tolerance and hospitality that contrasts vibrantly with its harsh desert surroundings. With a population of about 70% Uyghur and the remaining 30% comprised of other ethnicities, Turpan maintains the Silk Road’s romantic identity as a cultural crossroads.
