Sunday 19 October 2025
Shubashi was our first stop today, the site of ancient Buddhist temple ruins. It was once a major centre for Buddhism flourishing from the 1st Century to the 9th Century when it was destroyed by war. The ticket sales officer pored over my passport and said “56 age”. I nodded. I wonder if he was trying to work out if these aged westerners in front of him qualified for an old persons discount. Do I really look over 60?!
We were finding that the things we want to see have more restricted access nowadays than our guide book suggested. For example, at Kizil Thousand Buddha caves yesterday, we could only access 6 caves (the guidebook had said 10+) and the walk up the valley to see some others was taped off.
Here, at Shubashi, you could only stick to the boardwalks. This would have been ok if they’d covered the site but they only went around the largest few buildings. Mind you, quite a few tourists ignored this and wandered to the ruins to capture the all important photo of their friends against it, until they got shouted off by a worker. I suspect if we ever go back they will have put barriers along the walkway so you really can’t stray.
Subashi ancient city is split into east and west, divided by a river, and sadly we were only able to visit the western side. We peered across to the east through the haze, using the zoom on the camera.
Next on the itinerary was the Tian Shan mountains. We had a quick photo stop on the way up at a river bank - the salt on the earth’s surface glistened like frost.
Tian Shan canyon is an amazing geological feature. We were not surprised to find we’d be sharing it with 15+ coaches’ worth of Chinese tourists, so it was busy and full of people taking photos of their friends endlessly posing against a rock or in front of a view. They really don’t seem to mind that there are others in their field of view. But I also think there are apps now that remove 'extraneous' objects from the field of view...
Occasionally we would see people take photos of the gorge itself, but the gorge seemed a backdrop for photos rather than the star attraction. None the less, it was a wondrous site and we enjoyed our couple of hours there.
There were numerous named features which, if you squinted with the sun in the right direction, you kind of 'got' - but it required a good degree of imagination. On left is 'Tian shan jade hall', and on the right are two penguins (honest).
This Buddha seemed to have dropped from the sky - no, I didn't get it either.
JC posed whilst waiting for everyone to get out if his field of view. I posed too.
On our return to Kuqa I managed to capture a shot of the pop up police cars that were dotted around as a speed deterrent.
Back at the hotel we walked around the nearby lake which was a bit dicey at times as the walkway was made of uber polished stone. Our hotel room had a view of this water which was actually quite nice (sometimes the advertised lakes are empty).
For our second (and last) night in Kuqa we treated ourselves to a hot pot - these are more expensive than just noodles/rice - we racked up a bill of 180 yuan, £18 between us. We had a yin yang bowl, one half being tomato based sauce and the other half ‘duck soup’. We think the white and orange lumps of fat were duck related.
Once hot water was poured in, and the hot pot bubbled away, we had two sauces to cook our food in. JC cooked meat and prawns whereas I was delighted by a plate of vegetables. I’ve never boiled lettuce before but it’s wasn’t too bad. I also discovered I love lotus root.
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